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From: piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: APS "What's New"
Message-ID: <1828@pur-phy.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 3-Aug-85 01:45:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: pur-phy.1828
Posted: Sat Aug  3 01:45:07 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Aug-85 08:49:51 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Purdue Univ. Physics Dept., IN
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Posted: Fri  Aug  2, 1985   4:11 PM EDT              Msg: IGIF-2044-5806
From:   RPARK
To:     WHATSNEW
CC:     RPark
Subj:   What's New

         WHAT'S NEW, Friday, August 2, 1985          Washington, D.C.
         
         1.  WHAT DOES CONGRESS'S BOTTOM-LINE AGREEMENT ON THE 1986 
         BUDGET MEAN FOR SCIENCE?  If appropriations bills and floor 
         debates suggest things to come, science will fare exceedingly 
         well considering the worries in Washington about deficit 
         reduction, despite some aberrations.  There was a flurry of 
         excitement in the House on 25 July over increases to Reagan 
         Administration requests for the National Science Foundation 
         and NASA.  Representative Paul Henry of Michigan argued for 
         freezing the budgets of both agencies at 1985 levels. But 
         impassioned pleas by a bipartisan group of House members, led 
         by Florida's Don Fuqua, Ohio's Mary Rose Oakar and 
         California's Ron Packard and Jerry Lewis, enabled the House 
         to defeat Henry's amendments by a lopsided 300 to 112 vote. 
         The House would add $40 million more to NSF research and $56 
         million for NASA than the Administration wants--though NSF's 
         Very Long Base-line Array radiotelescope would be capped at 
         $8 million, which is $3 million less than requested, and 
         NSF's science education program would get $10 million more 
         than the original $50 million item. All this will have to be 
         agreed upon in conference with the Senate when Congress 
         reassembles in September. Meanwhile, the Energy Department's 
         budget, which the House approved weeks ago with pork-barrel 
         additions (see What's New, 12 July), sailed through the 
         Senate with a few exceptions--most notably, the Senate didn't 
         honor the House's $5 million gift to Brown University for an 
         information technology center.  But Senators liked the House 
         idea to initiate competitive bidding for a 6-GeV synchrotron 
         light source and to pump money into a struggling Argonne. 
         
         2.  THE ACADEMIC SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER HOLDOUTS, the 
         University of Illinois and Cornell University, have finally 
         signed contracts with the National Science Foundation that in 
         their opinion offer no threat to academic freedom.  As we 
         have previously reported, contracts to operate supercomputer 
         centers at the University of California, San Diego and at 
         Princeton University, commit those centers to abide by 
         whatever policy is currently being developed by the Senior 
         Interagency Group on Technology Transfer (see What's New, 
         June 21, 1985).  That policy could, if it takes on the force 
         of law, compel Illinois and Cornell to renegotiate their 
         contracts.  Officials at both institutions have acknowledged 
         the possibility that it might result in closing the centers 
         they have agreed to operate if the principle of academic 
         freedom would be violated.  A particularly disturbing aspect 
         of this controversy is that government efforts to control 
         access to supercomputers did not begin until the decision was 
         made to locate supercomputers at universities.  Private 
         companies have been leasing time on supercomputers without 
         restriction to anyone who will pay the fee.
         
         Robert L. Park
         American Physical Society                THAT'S ALL  8/2/85