Notebook

The Powers Behind The Throne Maybe Yes, Maybe No Comings And Goings At AAU Educational Food For Thought Rep. George Brown (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, has decided to take another look at the health of federally funded research. And this time he's created a task force of the folks who do most of the work on Capitol Hill--congressional aides. Five years ago, members from the same committee issued a 22-volume report on the topic that sunk quickly and quietly out of sight. This time around, Brown is determined to make some waves. "We're going to keep it at the staff level...," Brown said at a press briefing last month on a new report from the Office of Technology Assessment that lays out how poorly Congress and the federal government now handle the job of setting priorities in science. "We hope to take a somewhat more vigorous approach and generate a more useful end product." Instead of asking for a report, Brown has told the committee's six subcommittee chairmen to draw on the task force's expertise as needed. Are nuclear power plants better for the environment than coal-burning plants? Yes, say a plurality of 1,250 adult Americans polled in a recent survey sponsored by the pronuclear U.S. Council for Energy Awareness. Are nuclear power plants less harmful to the environment than coal-burning plants? No, says an identical plurality. Is the public a tad confused about the issue? Yes and no, says Ann Bisconti, the council's vice president for research. "The environmental benefits of nuclear power are not well known," she says. "They were widely discussed during the early days of the debate over global warming from greenhouse gases, but those memories have faded. I'd say the findings reflect the fact that the public hasn't really thought about it much since then." For the record, the first finding was in response to the question: "Which source of electricity is better for the environment, coal or nuclear energy?" while the second finding followed from the question: "Which source of electricity do you consider less harmful to the environment, nuclear energy or coal?" John Crowley has left his job as vice president of the Association of American Universities (AAU) to open a Washington office for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT president Charles Vest says the new office "will enhance [MIT's] relations" with the federal government. Some observers feel that the new office is really designed to prevent further damage to MIT's reputation. That damage has come from such recent blows as the loss of its NSF-funded magnet lab and congressional hearings on whether the school shows a preference to foreign companies over domestic firms in seeking commercial applications of federally funded research. Crowley, who oversaw research programs at NSF, NASA, DOE, and DoD that were of interest to the association's 58 members, will be replaced at the AAU by Howard Gobstein. Gobstein has handled government research issues for the University of Michigan since 1987, after spending 11 years as a senior science policy analyst at the U.S. General Accounting Office. The public's sudden appetite for information on how well U.S. students are doing in science and mathematics was whetted last month by a new report from the National Science Foundation and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The report, entitled "State Indicators of Science and Math Education 1990," offers state-by-state statistics on such things as the percentages of high school graduates who have taken various math and science courses and the percentage of teachers trained in science and teaching within their specialty. Gordon Ambach, CCSSO's executive director, urged states to strengthen their course requirements. And he told reporters begging for him to rank individual states that this report "is just a start." Still, he says the data are quite a bit more thorough than what other education reform groups possess. "In September the governors will be releasing their first progress report," he says about one such effort. "And compared to this report, what they have is peanuts." Copies of the report can be ordered, for $12 each, from: CCSSO, State Education Assessment Center, 400 N. Capitol St., Suite 379, Washington, D.C. 20001, or call (202) 624-7700.

Notebook

The Scientist Staff

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