NEWS COM8ARYPROBE------JAPANESE UNIVERSITIES----• Giotto steals a ride MurmUrS of complaint Washington Munich this is a bargain", says GEM project scien­ JAPAN's national university professors are THE Earth lost a minute fraction of its tist Gerhard Schwehm. Schwehm said that all employees of the government, which orbital velocity earlier this week as the the second flyby would be a unique oppor­ puts them in an odd position when they European Space Agency (ESA) Giotto tunity to expand knowledge of comets. It want to protest to the government about space probe stole a little of the Earth's will be especially interesting, he said, to university conditions. But last month, the energy to help it on its way to a rendezvous study the interaction of the coma of the Association of National Universities finally with the comet Grigg Skjellerup. It was comet and the solar wind, as well as to succeeded, after years of trying, in winning the first time the manoeuvre, the same compare the distribution and optical funds from the Ministry of Education, "gravity assist" that helped the NASA properties of dust around Comet Grigg Culture and Science to set up a committee Voyager probe on its journey from Jupiter Skjellerup with that around Comet to study their own financial difficulties. out to Saturn and Neptune, had been exe­ Halley, which had at least 100 times more The association represents all the 93 cuted using the gravitation field of Earth. of it. national universities directly supported by According to ESA researcher Trevor Giotto was one of five spacecraft to the government and has responsibility for Morley, Giotto will gain 3.1 km/sec in approach Comet Halley in 1986, but it setting up the general entrance examination. velocity, meaning that the Earth will slow moved far closer than the others and came Akito Arima, president of the associa­ in its orbit by one millimetre in every away with dazzling photographs of the tion and of the University of Tokyo, million centuries. nucleus. After the Halley encounter, recently described the universities' difficul­ A free ride on the Earth's gravity was a Giotto was put into 'hibernation' to con­ ties in a magazine of the Ministry of welcome break for a project that is beset serve power as researchers sought a suit­ Finance. "In Japan about 1 per cent of by funding uncertainties. Despite the able second comet to study with the craft. GNP is allocated to college education and tremendous success of the original Giotto The probe will now be put into hiber­ research, but in the United States it is 1.5 mission to Comet Halley in 1986 (see nation again until May 1992, when it per cent. Within the limited budget, prior­ Nature 320, 202 & 321, 259; 1986) and the will 'awaken' and prepare for the next ity is placed much more on building new potential for further cometary explora­ encounter. laboratories, moving universities, and big tion, ESA voted last month to make the Unfortunately, said Grensemann, the science, and less on the reconstruction or Giotto Extended Mission (GEM) an camera that took the dramatic shots of the the maintenance of existing laboratories. optional, not mandatory, project within nucleus of Comet Halley is no longer "As a result, buildings and equipment its science programme. Member states operating - the sensors still function but are becoming old and dilapidated. Good re­ will meet in September to discuss whether no light reaches the aperture. But seven search cannot be produced by laboratories they are prepared to pay for Giotto. other instruments on board are at least that are too small and lack both good equip­ Project manager Manfred Grensemann partly operational and Grensemann ment and money. We must find other at the ESA ground station in Darmstadt is expects them to deliver good data. financial sources." The new committee has "optimistic" that enough support can be The researchers chose Comet Grigg not decided its plan of action and will first found. He estimates that the next phase Skjellerup as Giottos's target as much for gather basic data. Shigeko Segawa of the mission would cost 10 million practical as for scientific reasons. The ANTARCTICA ------ECU (about $8 million), mostly for the comet was in a position in its orbit communications needed to keep in touch around the Sun that meant only minor Airstrip plans on ice with the probe as it moves farther adjustments in the trajectory of Giotto away. were needed for them to meet. Sydney "Compared to starting a new mission, Steven Dickman AusTRALIA has been forced to abandon RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS ------CONFERENCES------• plans to build an 'environmentally friendly' A$1 million airstrip close to its Casey Base NeW institute for Berlin Changes at Dahlem in Antarctica. The experimental runway was built on ice to minimize the effect on Munich Munich wildlife, most of which lives on the very A RESTORED villa on the Kleiner W annsee, SILKE Bernhard, scientific director of the small part of the Antarctic that is rock. a lake within West Berlin city limits, will Dahlem Conferences, is to step down be­ Construction of a rock runway at the become home for a new institute for re­ cause of ill health. A physician by training, French Antarctic base led to an inter­ search into the causes of rheumatoid Bernhard had been credited by partici­ national outcry as Green peace claimed that arthritis. Immunologist Avrion Mitchison pants with building the high international an important breeding ground for Adelie of University College, London, has been reputation of the conferences. penguins had been destroyed. named as scientific director and will work Last year, Bernhard struggled to main­ But ice has not proved to be safe after all, in Berlin half-time. tain the conferences when their original according to a report by the Royal Austra­ As a result of a political squabble over the backer, the 'Donors Association for lian Air Force. Last summer, the report institute between the left-wing coalition of Promoting Arts and Sciences in West says, a vehicle broke through the ice on the Social Democrats and Greens which took Germany' (Stifterverbandfiirdie Deutsche runway and sank into the water beneath. office last year in West Berlin and the Wissenschaft) withdrew its support. The Because of the risk of the runway melting Conservative Christian Democrats who Free University of Berlin took over spon­ and breaking up, the air force argues that a begin the project, the institute will study sorship in November (see Nature 340, 86 gravel airstrip should be built. not only the molecular biology of the disease & 342, 466; 1989). The Australian Department of the but will also look at "psychosocial factors" Jennifer Altman, a neuroscientist and Environment's Antarctic Division has that contribute to its development. Mitchi­ formerly on the staff of Nature, will act as proposed an alternative site for an ice and son says that this area has been neglected interim scientific director until an inter­ snow runway 30 km away from Casey in rheumatoid arthritis, especially in national search can be arranged for a where the climate is harsher. The United comparison to the attention it has received permanent director. States has a successful ice strip at its in cancer. Steven Dickman Steven Dickman McMurdo base south of Casey. Tania Ewing 4 NATURE · VOL 346 · 5 JULY 1990 © 1990 Nature Publishing Group