RESEARCH/RESEARCHERS

Research and Education Are Research Roundtable Los Alamos Researchers Key to Future U.S. Appoints New Members Grow Single Competitiveness Five new members have been ap• Superconducting Crystals A national report of attitudes among pointed to the Council of the Los Alamos National Laboratory re• business, university and state leaders, re• Government-University-Industry Re• searchers engaged in growing single su• leased by the National Science Founda• search Roundtable (GUIRR), a discussion perconductivity crystals have grown a tion, shows that an overwhelming forum of scientists, engineers, adminis• quarter-inch crystal based on the metal yt• majority of survey respondents rate re• trators, and policy makers sponsored by trium. ''This is one of the largest crystals, search and education as the key to future the National Academies of Sciences and perhaps even the largest, grown from this U.S. competitiveness. The report also Engineering and the Institute of Medi• type of material;' says Dean Peterson, a identified university/industry coopera• cine. Newly appointed to three-year high temperature physical chemist in the tive ventures and greater commercializa• terms are Joel S. Birnbaum, vice president Lab's Materials Science and Technology tion of research findings as special areas and general manager, information tech• division. for improvement. nology group, Hewlett-Packard Co.; Ri• Peterson and colleagues are growing Aimed at assessing the health of the chard F. Celeste, governor of Ohio; the single superconducting crystals be• U.S. research system, the survey andre• Kenneth H. Keller, president, University cause "a single crystal lets an electrical gional forums were conducted by the of Minnesota; John E. Sawyer, president current flow freely without being blocked Conference Board and the National Gov• emeritus, Andrew W. Mellon Founda• by other, randomly oriented crystals:' Pe• ernors' Association, with the support and tion, New York City; and Alvin W. Trivel• terson envisions combining supercon• participation of NSF. piece, executive officer, American ducting crystals with other substances to Of particular concern were science and Association for the Advancement of Sci• alter their physical properties without re• mathematics education from kindergar• ence, Washington, DC. The new mem• ducing their superconductivity. Such ten through high school. Recommenda• bers join 19 current GUIRR members. The changes, he said, might let superconduct• tions included improving the quality and Roundtable is chaired by James D. Ebert, ing crystals carry currents quickly and ef• quantity of teachers at this level through director, Chesapeake Bay Institute, The ficiently by being stacked end to end, using scholarships, grants and loans; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, stretched into thin wires or molded into changing certification requirements to al• MD. specific shapes. low engineers, physicists and mathemati• Now in its fifth year, the Research To make the crystals, oxides are slowly cians to become certified to teach; and Roundtable was created to foster discus• heated to about 1,600°F, a temperature providing special school settings to em• sion of crosscutting science and technol• just below the material's melting point phasize mathematics and science. ogy policies and problems by high-level when crystals begin to form. With similar Among the findings, participants in co• representatives of government, universi• repeated heatings done carefully over operative research relationships between ties, and industry. GUIRR conducts most several weeks, the crystals continue to universities and industries reported that of its work through three working groups lengthen. The crystals are then tested to industry is not committing its "best and that focus on science and engineering tal• determine their composition and the ex• brightest" scientists and engineers to ent, university research and its manage• tent of their superconductivity and to these joint ventures and stressed the need ment, and partnership and joint ventures characterize their chemical and mechani• for greater corporate involvement. The between government, academia, and pri• cal properties. survey also showed that despite wide• vate industry. Among the Roundtable's recent publi• spread business support for industry• NSF and NASA to Link university partnerships, more than half a cations are the following: sample of business leaders believes that Nurturing Science and Engineering Talent, Computer Networks such cooperative research would not have an up-to-date review of the science and The National Science Foundation (NSF) a critical impact on U.S. competitiveness. engineering talent pool. The report grew and the National Aeronautics and Space Only one quarter believe it would have a out of a 1986 GUIRR-sponsored sympo• Administration (NASA) have signed an critical impact on the competitiveness of sium and addresses the factors that affect agreement to share high speed communi• their firms. student decisions to pursue science and cations lines. The effort will link univer• In connection with technology transfer, engineering careers. sity researchers now connected to NSF's respondents (business, university, and Multidisciplinary Research and Education national computer communications net• state) believe that business' lack of long• Programs in Universities: Making Them work to data bases and supercomputers at term goals and vision has hindered the Work, a discussion paper that analyzes NASA laboratories, saving hundreds of commercialization of U.S. technology. past multidisciplinary programs as an aid thousands of dollars that might otherwise The business community was faulted by to new program design. be wasted in duplicated efforts by the two its own representatives for lack of pa• State Government Strategies for Self• agencies. tience and for focusing on the next quar• Assessment of Science and Technology Pro• The agreement is in accord with a report ter's profits rather than the potential grams for Economic Development, a report just released by the White House Office of payoff from long-term investments in summarizing an April 1987 Roundtable Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). product development. workshop sponsored in conjunction with The report, A Research and Development Copies of The Role of Science and Technol• the National Governors' Association and Strategy for High Performance Computing, ogy in Economic Competitiveness are availa• the National Research Council. recommends improvements in network• ble from: Forms and Publications Office, ing to enhance U.S. leadership in the field National Science Foundation, 1800 G and to provide the linkages needed for Street Nw, Room 232, Washington, DC collaborative research by scientists work• 20550; telephone (202) 357-7861. ing at different institutions. Three NASA facilities will be linked to

6 MRS BULLETIN/MARCH 1988 RESEARCH/RESEARCHERS

existing NSF regional networks, which in ing to constantly refocus a microscope Established by Annual Reviews Inc. and turn are connected through a national because the cells are floating in weight• the Institute for Scientific Information in backbone network. The Goddard Space lessness, is to examine them while they Honor of J. Murray Luck-Eric R. Kandel, Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland will are held in an optical trap;' he continued. Columbia University College of Physi• be linked to the Southeastern Universities 'Then, the weightlessness is not a factor cians and Surgeons and Howard Hughes Research Associates Net (SURANET). and the experiments can be performed in Medical Institute. The Ames Research Center in Mountain an enclosed chamber, which is important NAS -John E. View, California will be linked to the Bay in space:' Sawyer, president emeritus, The Andrew Area Regional Research Net (BARRNET). Another advantage is the ability to W. Mellon Foundation. The Johnson Space Flight Center in Hous• move one cell at a time.lt enables a scien• Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal-Ruth ton will be linked to SESQUINET, a re• tist to attach two specific cells together, Sager, Harvard Medical School, and gional network in Texas. which is valuable in cellular research such chief, division of cancer genetics, Dana• Authorized scientists will be able to re• as cancer and leukemia studies. Farber Cancer Institute. motely access and use NASA data in their Research plans are to automate the J. Lawrence Smith Medal-A.G.W. Ca• research, and can apply for time on laser-beam cell manipulation, producing meron, Harvard University. NASA supercomputers. NASA-funded a computer-operated system which will Troland Research Award-Eric I. Knud• scientists at universities served by NSF re• automatically separate and position par• sen, Stanford University School of Medi• gional networks will be able to communi• ticular cells identified by characteristics cine. cate and collaborate with their colleagues such as shape and size. USX Foundation Award in Molecular at the NASA centers. Biology-H. Robert Horvitz, Massachu• NSF already shares networking facili• NAS Honors 18 for Major setts Institute of Technology. ties with the Office of Naval Research and Contributions to Science -Robert B. the Defense Department's Defense Ad• The National Academy of Sciences has Leighton, William L. Valentine Professor vanced Research Projects Agency. The selected 18 individuals to receive awards of Physics Emeritus, California Institute OSTP report calls for accelerated efforts to honoring their outstanding contributions of Technology. expand interconnections among agen• to science. The awards will be presented National Lab Survey cies. at the Academy's 125th annual meeting, [See related article on NSFNET Expansion April25, in Washington, DC. Included in Assesses Economic Impacts in the February issue of the MRS BULLETIN, the 1988 honors are two awards given for of High Tc Superconductors p. 6.] the first time: the National Academy of A survey on the economic impacts pos• Sciences Award in Mathematics and the sible if the new high temperature super• Laser Beam Picks Up Live National Academy of Sciences Award in conductors can match the performance of Microscopic Cell the Neurosciences. existing superconductors was recently Laser beams can be used as microscopic The 1988 awards and recipients include: completed under the leadership of tongs to pick up individual live cells less NAS Award in Mathematics-Robert P. Argonne National Laboratory. The con• than one-thousandth of an inch thick. Be• Langlands, The Institute for Advanced clusions are familiar: New high tempera• ing perfected by Tudor Buican, a biophys• Study, Princeton, NJ. ture superconductors could cut the costs icist in Los Alamos National Laboratory's NAS Award in the Neurosciences• of electrical generators by as much as Life Sciences Division, the cell manipula• awarded jointly to Seymour S. Kety, Intra• 60%, reduce operating costs of large elec• tion technique will be a boon to biomedi• mural Research Program, National trical motors by as much as 25%, and give cine, and also clears the way for biology Institute of Mental Health; and Louis So• the United States the equivalent of as experiments in the weightlessness of koloff, Laboratory of Cerebral Metabo• much as 15% additional generating capac• space. lism, National Institute of Mental Health. ity by allowing utilities to use existing An extension of earlier work by physi• Cyrus B. Comstock Prize-awarded generating facilities more efficiently. But cists who used laser optical trapping to jointly to Paul C. W. Chu, University of several years of research are still neces• observe light rays as they were scattered Houston, Texas; and Maw-Kuen Wu, sary, and many applications which rely by microscopic particles, Buican's method University of Alabama, Huntsville. on current-carrying wires and tapes will uses one or two laser beams to pick up a Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal-awarded be impractical until the new material's cell. With the single-cell method, the laser jointly to Charles G. Sibley, San Francisco current-carrying ability is increased 10-100 light traps the cell within the beam, and State University; and Jon Edward times and its strength and flexibility are the cell will go wherever the beam is Ahlquist, Ohio University. improved. Besides electricity production pointed. When the laser's intensity is re• Gibbs Brothers Medal-Leslie A. and delivery, the study also covered mag• duced, the cell drops off and can be recov• Harlander, L.A. Harlander & Associates. netically levitated trains and magnetic ered later. With the two-beam method, Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal• separation methods. , the cell is trapped at the intersection of the Maclyn McCarty, The Rockefeller Univer• Other organizations participating in the beams. The cell can be moved in any di• sity. study were Brookhaven National Labora• rection before it is set down. NAS Award in Chemical Sciences• tory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Early research shows that laser cell ma• Established by the Occidental Petroleum Massachusetts Institute of Technology, nipulation has several major advantages Corp. in Honor of Armand Hammer• Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Pa• over other methods. Cell-manipulation Harden M. McConnell, Stanford Univer• cific Northwest Laboratory. experiments can be done in a completely sity. [See the April1988 issue of the MRS BUL• enclosed container as small as a finger• NAS Award for Initiatives in Research• LETIN for a report on the Fifth DOE lnfonna• nail. "This eliminates the threat of con• Established by Bell Laboratories in Honor tion Meeting on High Temperature tamination and is ideal for experiments in of William 0. Baker-Marc L. Mansfield, Superconductivity held January 25-26, 1988 space;' said Buican. 'The only way to ex• Michigan Molecular Institute. at Sandia National Labomtories.] amine them (cells] in space, without hav- NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing-

8 MRS BULLETIN/MARCH 1988 RESEARCH/RESEARCHERS

U.S. and Soviet Academies under 30 years old; and cooperative re• strength of the weld. Laser cutting and search on the Soviet economic restruc• drilling would also be improved. Sign Cooperative Exchange turing program and on science education. 'Through laser experimentation and Agreement Copies of the full agreement are availa• computer modeling of the laser-material On January U, 1988, Frank Press, presi• ble from the Advisory Committee on the interaction, we are attempting to better dent of the U.S. National Academy of Sci• USSR and Eastern Europe, National understand and improve on the efficiency ences, and Guriy Marchuk, president of Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution of the laser welding process," said team the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20418; tel• metallurgist Gary Lewis. "Some of the ar• signed a new five-year agreement lor sci• ephone (202) 334--2000. eas being investigated include the effects entific exchanges and cooperation. The Scientists Probe Laser of the welding atmosphere and the laser's new agreement was signed during the power density on the size and shape of two-day annual meeting of the officers Welding the weld." and other representatives of the two Los Alamos National Laboratory scien• The team also is investigating the laser Academies. It replaces an earlier tw

10 MRS BULLEnN/MARCH 1988