Friday, 5 January 1990 Washington, DC
1. THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET REQUEST WILL BE DELAYED ANOTHER WEEK.
The White House says its FY 91 spending plan will be submitted to
Congress on 29 Jan. Under the Gramm-Rudman Deficit Reduction Act,
the budget was due next Monday, but acting on a request from the
Office of Management and Budget, Congress approved a delay until
22 Jan. Now the budget director, Richard Darman, says they can't
meet that deadline either, and Congress has only itself to blame:
the budget reconciliation was not passed until the end of Nov.
2. NIH SCRAPPED ITS CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST GUIDELINES FOR GRANTEES
following a flood of complaints that the new rules would disrupt
the transfer of information between researchers and the biotech
industry. The guidelines sought to sever financial ties between
researchers and companies seeking to commercialize their results.
Specifically the guidelines called for NIH grantees to: disclose
family financial interests, take no equity in companies affected
by their research, share no information with start-up companies
until it is available to the public, and cease consulting on NIH-
related work. Along with conflict-of-interest, the rules would
eliminate the incentives that created the biotech industry. One
venture capitalist called the rules the "Help Japan Act of 1989."
3. THE OFFICE OF ENERGY RESEARCH HAS REMAINED WITHOUT A DIRECTOR
since the abrupt resignation of Robert Hunter on 27 Oct 89, amid
rumors of conflict-of-interest charges. James F. Decker, who had
been Hunter's deputy, has been acting director since. But with
the FY 91 budget debate coming up and serious problems with the
supercollider and fusion programs, DOE is under pressure to get a
permanent director in place. The leading candidate is said to be
Fred Bernthal, a PhD chemist. He came to Washington in 1978 as a
APS Congressional Fellow and later became Senator Howard Baker's
chief legislative aide. President Reagan named him to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission in 1983 and then as Assistant Secretary of
State for Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs in 1988.
4. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE GRAVITY OF WORKING ON THE HOLIDAYS.
No doubt desperate for copy during a slow period, the New York
Times noticed an article in the 18 Dec 89 issue of Physical
Review Letters by two Japanese scientists, claiming to have
measured a weight loss for spinning mechanical gyroscopes. Well,
actually, the weight change only showed up when the spin vector
pointed down. The weight loss, measured on a chemical balance,
increased linearly with frequency and amounted to about 0.5 % at
10,000 rpm. Needless to say, this is big stuff. Unable to find
anyone else the day after Christmas, the Times reporter called
this office. As a result of being quoted in the Times article,
we have been flooded with calls from around the world. Most are
from people claiming to have had the idea first; some say they
have a patent on it; several have pointed out that flying saucers
work that way; one said his research had been done with frisbees.
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