Friday, 13 March 1987 Washington, DC
1.
REGULATIONS DEALING WITH MISCONDUCT IN RESEARCH
have been
proposed by NSF (Federal Register, Vol. 52, No. 27, p. 4158).
Although few allegations of misconduct or fraud have involved NSF
supported research, several highly publicized cases in the health
sciences have aroused concern. Primary responsibility for
preventing and detecting misconduct is assumed by NSF to lie with
the grantee institution. Possible actions by NSF in a finding of
misconduct range from a letter of reprimand to termination of an
active award and suspension of eligibility for new NSF awards.
The deadline for comments is 13 Apr 87.
2
. NSF WILL MOVE FROM ITS PRESENT OFFICES
on G St., just a
block from the White House, by 1991. They are being bumped by
the Secret Service, which occupies several floors of their
present building. The Secret Service has coveted the whole thing
for years. Present plans are to relegate NSF to a new government
complex being planned for the Washington suburb of Silver Spring,
MD. NSF is the last of the major science funding agencies to
abandon the city for the suburbs. Unfortunately, influence with
the White House seems to obey an inverse-square law.
3. THE REPORT OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AT 240K HAS BEEN CORRECTED
by the San Francisco Chronicle (WN 6 Mar 87). According to Alex
Zettl of the Berkeley group, there is no way to tell if a
resistance anomaly at 240K in Y-Ba-Cu-O is related to an onset of
superconductivity. It is a safe bet that a lot of groups are
staying up late trying to find out. This is the material that
exhibits superconductivity
at 94K (WN 13 Feb 87).
4. JOSEPH NEWMAN AND HIS ENERGY MACHINE
have once again teamed
up with the CBS Evening News to fleece gullible investors.
Newman first hit the big time after CBS correspondent Bruce Hall
described him as "a brilliant self-educated inventor who says he
has developed a machine that could solve the energy crisis." "If
a person puts it in their home," Newman said, "they'll never have
to pay for energy again." That was on 9 Jan 84. The energy
crisis has since gone into remission, but CBS is still pandering
to the public's fantasy of a home-spun hero who outsmarts a bunch
of pompous experts. Wednesday's CBS Evening News returned to our
Lucedale, Miss., hero, who has grown noticeably slicker and more
prosperous since his debut on CBS. He was a big hit on the
Johnny Carson Show and thousands paid to see him and his machine
at the Superdome (WN 1 Aug 86). The crude machine he displayed
three years ago is now wrapped in a sleek Sterling automobile.
5. RICHARD PERLE YESTERDAY ANNOUNCED HIS RESIGNATION
as Assistant Secretary of Defense to write a novel. Perle, a chief
architect of strategic arms policies and an advocate of tough
export controls, is expected to be replaced by Frank Gaffney,
another hard-line alumnus of the staff of the late Sen. Jackson.
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