piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner) (11/01/86)
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 1986 3:59 PM EST Msg: AGIG-2405-4714 From: RPARK To: WHATSNEW WHAT'S NEW, Friday, 31 October 1986 Washington, DC 1. THE HOUSE SCIENCE POLICY TASK FORCE report will not be out before the end of the year. That's not soon enough for Rep. Don Fuqua (D-FL), who is leaving Congress for a lucrative position in the space industry, so he has issued his own (yawn!) report. His list of 62 recommendations, most of which presumably will be in the Task Force report, adds up to much less than a revolution. Among the recommendations: o ". . . establish a professional foreign science and technology service corps to staff US embassies." o ". . . look for international co-operation for the SSC or wait until proper funding is available." o "The NSF would be uniquely suited to work with the DoD in ensuring that proper investments are made in fundamental research areas critical to our national defense." o ". . . the fantasy of immediate commercialization be removed from consideration of what research [in fusion energy] is being funded and undertaken." o ". . . determine whether the pre-college educational responsibilities of the NSF should not be transferred to the Department of Education, bearing in mind the abysmal record of the NSF in this area." 2. MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HAVE A LOW OPINION OF STAR WARS, according to a survey by the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research. The poll was conducted among the Academy's physical scientists and mathematicians. 78% of the 451 respondents said the prospects were "extremely poor" or "poor" that a survivable and cost effective system could be built in the next 25 years. Casper Weinberger on ABC news declared that the American people know better. 3. THE IMPACT OF DEFENSE SPENDING ON NONDEFENSE ENGINEERING LABOR MARKETS is examined in a study commissioned by the National Academy of Engineering. It concluded that high technology companies have not had difficulty filling engineering positions in the 80's, except in a few highly specialized fields such as optics. Shortages of engineering faculty, however, are severe. The percentage of engineers working on defense department projects is reported to be lower than a decade ago. 4. ANY JOINT PROJECT IN FUSION WITH THE USSR SHOULD INCLUDE ANDREI SAKHAROV, in the view of 86 congressmen who signed a letter to President Reagan dated 9 Oct 86. The communique from last November's Geneva Summit urged increased cooperation in this area. Robert L. Park (202) 232-0189 The American Physical Society