Notebook

Hands Across The Sky Bush Whacking A Hard Task Site Visits Running On Sun Hands Across The Sky Here's a sure sign that the Cold War is over: Astronomers in the United States—a community that in the 1960s was determined to make more scientific discoveries than the Russians—have collected about $45,000 to help preserve astronomy research in the former Soviet Union. "Even when there was a Cold War, we respected the work of our [Russian] colleagues, and the respect has gone both ways," says Stan Woosley, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and chairman of the American Astronomical Society's Committee to Support Astronomy in the Former Soviet Republics. "We need them to collaborate on costly missions like going to Mars and establishing colonies on the moon—and we need a healthy, viable scientific community there to collaborate with." Bush Whacking Among the voices offering an opinion, sort of, about the attempt to open the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) meetings to the public (The Scientist, July 6, 1992, page 1), was that of Paul R. Ehrlich, Ring Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. Ehrlich-a population biologist and prolific ecology writer, whose latest book, The Population Explosion (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1990), written with Anne H. Ehrlich, also a Stanford biologist, contends that overpopulation is the world's premier environmental problem—expresses a sentiment that may be shared by others in an election year. The question of opening or closing the meetings has left him cold, because; as he says, "On all the truly critical issues, the Bush administration is so far behind the eight ball that I don't have much interest in what they're doing. Frankly, I don't care." A Hard Task Ordinarily, producing diamonds takes millions of years. But three researchers at the Houston Advanced Research Center have developed a process that transforms ozone-destroying chemicals into diamonds. Using a special reactor, the chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons and halons, stick to each other and eventually grow into diamond crystals. While this does not produce gem-quality stones, it does form a diamond film that could increase the hardness and lower the friction of metals, plastics, and glass. Site Visits This summer, the state of Ohio gave its 50 best high school science students a four-day, all-expenses-paid trip to Kennedy Space Center, Sea World, the Astronaut Memorial Hall and Planetarium, and EPCOT center in Florida. The goal of the program, called "Ohio's Space Scientist of Tomorrow," is to stimulate these future scientists by showing them the United States' progress in science and technology. Running On Sun This year, the Dartmouth College Solar Racing Team is fielding a competitive group of sun-driven cars, including the retooled SunVox IV. The team's short-term goal is to win races against cars developed by other student engineers; the long-term goal is to educate themselves and the public about solar technologies and alternative energy. High hopes ride on SunVox IV, despite a fifth-place finish last year in the best-known U.S. event on the solar racing circuit, the American Tour de Sol—an Albany-to-Boston race held in May. Solar cars race in several solar/electric categories: racing, cross-country, commuter, and open. The categories of competition vary by their degree of reliance on solar power, battery power, recharging during the race, and by the number of passengers required on board. In the 1992 American Tour de Sol, SunVox I took fourth place and SunVox IV again took fifth place. An entry from Conval High School in Peterborough, N.H., won the event. "Our car was better, but we broke down," says Dartmouth team technical director Matthias Johnsen, a graduate engineering student. "It's really hard to catch up after you break down." Last heard from early this month, the team was in Zurich after placing either fifth or sixth (official results had not yet been posted) in the Swiss Tour de Sol.

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July 1992

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