Friday, 16 October 1992 Washington, DC
1. APS PRESIDENT EMPHASIZES UNIQUE ROLE OF NSF IN BASIC
RESEARCH.
Responding to a request for comments, Ernest
Henley wrote to the Commission on the Future of the NSF urging
that NSF continue to focus on the generation of new knowledge and
the training of new scientists. The letter notes that basic
research at the nation's industrial laboratories has declined
sharply, along with support for basic research from federal
mission agencies. NSF is uniquely qualified to expand its role in
basic research, the letter said.
2. WALTER MASSEY TOLD THE COMMISSION THAT "CHANGE IS
INEVITABLE."
It can be directed by others in the political
arena," he said at the opening of today's Commission meeting, "or
we can impose it on ourselves." In a cursory summary of the more
than 500 letters the Commission received by yesterday's deadline,
Executive Secre-tary Charles Brownstein dismissed the authors as
"self-selected." Massey agreed; "YOU were chosen because of YOUR
judgement," he told the Commission, "its your report, not anyone
else's."
3. NASA ADMINISTRATOR DANIEL GOLDIN ANNOUNCES A
REORGANIZATION.
In an inspirational speech to NASA employees
yesterday, the NASA Administrator described a new management
structure for the space agency. Len Fisk, the former Associate
Administrator for Space Science Applications, is now Chief
Scientist reporting directly to Daniel Goldin. His former office
is bifurcated into Mission to Planet Earth and Mission from
Planet Earth. That could be awkward for space physics, parts of
which lie in both. What is driving the changes? NASA, like
every agency in Washington, is trying to sell itself as some sort
of technology transfer agency.
4. THE HIGH RESOLUTION MICROWAVE SURVEY: WAITING FOR E.T. TO
CALL
It is a strange and wonderful universe out there, and
nowhere is it stranger than in an appropriations conference
committee in the final hours before Congress adjourns. SETI, the
Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence, was a natural target
for anti-science budget cutters, who delighted in floor speeches
about the need to search for intelligent life on Capitol Hill.
SETI got zapped from the FY 93 NASA appropriation by the House,
but the Senate agreed to the full $13.5M request. The Senate
conferees proposed a neat compromise: allow SETI to die--but
reincarnate it as HRMS (High Resolution Microwave Survey).
Projects don't bother people, names bother people! The new name
was chosen by the Senate staff. On Columbus Day, less than a
week after SETI "died," NASA threw the switch on the most
thorough search ever conducted for a signal from E.T.. We can
report that no messages have yet been received.
5. GEORGES CHARPAK WAS AWARDED THE 1992 NOBEL PRIZE IN
PHYSICS
for the invention of the multiwire proportional
chamber. The polish born French citizen was hired at CERN by
Leon Lederman in 1959 to work on detectors. According to
Lederman, virtually every experiment in high energy physics makes
use of Charpak's ideas.
|
