Friday, 10 October 97 Washington, DC
1. INTEL-DOE: THE HANDS THAT ROCK THE CRADA.
Senior Democrats
from the House Science and Commerce Committees have
opened fire on a deal that would give foreign chip makers access
to extreme UV lithography technology that was developed at Lawrence
Berkeley and Sandia labs in support of defense programs.
The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) was
signed with Intel, but George Brown and Tim Roemer from the
Science Committee, and John Dingell and Ron Klink from Commerce,
complain that Intel is planning to collaborate with large
foreign chip equipment makers, including Nikon, putting smaller
US suppliers at a disadvantage.
2. SYNCHROTRON LIGHT SOURCES: DOE PANEL SAYS WE NEED ALL FOUR.
The growth in the use of the light sources has been
greatest in areas, such as biology, that were not a factor in
the decision to build them. A DOE review panel found that the
two older sources, the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lab
(SSRL)and the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at
Brookhaven, are the most heavily used. The panel recommended
that these "2nd generation sources" be upgraded, but concluded
that all four sources are needed. The 3rd generation sources
are the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne, and the
Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Berkeley. Although the ALS came
in for some criticism from the panel, Pat Dehmer, who heads the
Office of Basic Energy Sciences, stresses that any problems will
be corrected, and she fully supports the recommendation that all
four sources are essential.
3. OAM: PHYSICISTS JOIN BIOLOGISTS IN CALLING FOR A REVIEW.
At yesterday's hearing on a proposal to elevate the NIH Office of
Alternative Medicine to a center
(WN 26 Sep 97), Bill Frist
(R-TN), chair of the Public Health and Safety Subcommittee, read
a letter from prominent scientists strongly supporting research
into the efficacy of alternative therapies, provided it is held
to rigorous scientific standards: "The American public deserves
to know what works and what doesn't work in the treatment of
disease." The letter warned, however, that "To elevate the OAM
to a National Center without first examining its strengths and
weaknesses would risk amplifying existing problems." Signing
with the bio-scientists were APS president Allan Bromley, vice-
president Jerome Friedman and past-president Robert Schrieffer.
4. NEW JOURNAL: "THE SCIENTIFIC REVIEW OF ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE."
The official debut of a journal devoted exclusively to
objective evaluation of alternative therapies will be held on
Tuesday, 14 Oct 97 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC
at 9:30 AM.
5. 1997 IG NOBEL PRIZE: CHEMIST WINS PHYSICS PRIZE--THANK GOD.
John Bockris of Texas A&M was honored at a Harvard
ceremony by the magazine "Annals of Improbable Research," for
transmuting base metals into gold by means of a cold-fusion cell.
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