Friday, 13 November 1992 Washington, DC
1. THE COMMISSION ON THE FUTURE OF THE NSF MET FOR THE LAST
TIME
on Saturday. The panel discarded a draft by the staff
and spent the meeting outlining what they wanted the report to
say. Any concern that the Commission might recommend an expanded
role for NSF in technology transfer was put to rest; the panel
agreed that if the term "technology transfer" appeared at all in
the report, it must be in quotes. Problems with American
competitiveness, the group agreed, have nothing to do with a
failure of technology transfer--and the report should say so. As
one commissioner put it, "The best technology transfer vehicle is
the moving van that carries new PhDs to jobs in industry." The
report will call for a two-pronged strategy in awarding research
funds: (1) fund research with a high probability of contributing
to the needs of society, and (2) fund the very best researchers
regardless. The NSB will receive the Commission's report at its
20 Nov meeting.
2. NSF MUST SUBMIT ITS FY 93 OPERATING PLAN TO THE
APPROPRIATIONS
Committees of the House and Senate by 15 Dec
92. The plan must detail how NSF proposes to implement the
recommendations of the Commission--and the extent to which those
recommendations address the issues raised by the Senate
subcommittee (WN 7 Aug 92). The
subcommittee called for the NSF "to take a more activist role in
transferring the results of basic research from the academic
community into the market place." But at its 7 Nov meeting, not
only did the Commission decide to put "technology transfer" in
quotes, it agreed that "market place" should be totally banished
from the report. Moreover, although the NSB will receive the
report of the Commission on 20 Nov, James Duderstadt, the Board
chair, said there are no plans to discuss it before January.
3. 1993 WILL SEE THE RECESSION CONTINUING FOR U.S.INDUSTRIAL
R&D,
according to the Annual R&D Trends Survey conducted by
the Indus-trial Research Institute. Of the 141 companies
responding to the survey, 76% expect their total research &
development spending to remain unchanged or drop from 1992
levels. Only 10% expect to increase hiring of new graduates,
while 40% expect a decrease. The number of companies planning to
reduce the proportion of R&D resources allocated to "directed
basic research" is even greater than the number planning to cut
total R&D budgets. The trend away from basic research in
industry was cited by APS President Ernest Henley in his letter
to the NSF Commission (WN 16 Oct 92).
4. IS COLD FUSION PRACTICAL? IT IS IF YOU OWNED STOCK IN
NTT
prior to the Third International Cold Fusion Conference
in Nagoya on 21 Sept. Two scientists from Nippon Telephone and
Telegraph held a press conference to announce that they had
detected excess heat and helium in a reproducible cold fusion
experiment. NTT stock rose 11% on the news. NTT is one of the
biggest stock capitalization companies in the world. The paper
profits after the cold fusion announcement were nearly $8
billion.
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