Nature Vol. 297 17 June 1982 529 member states are not pulling their weight. , and the share 80 per cent of Community research Monsanto hands out $23.5 million and development expenditure while the StLouis arising from patents on the work, but combined efforts of , , The Monsanto Company has awarded patents will be the exclusive property of Ireland and Greece amount to as little as 6 $23.5 million to the medical school at the university, which will be able to per cent. The conclusions are being studied Washington University in St Louis, receive royalties from Monsanto licences. in preparation for the next EEC science Missouri, for five years of research into Royalties will go to the university's council of ministers on 30 June. how proteins and peptides affect cell research and education programmes - Jasper Becker regulation. The grant, announced on 3 not to individual researchers. June, approximately doubles the research Meanwhile, as many as "a couple of in space funds from non-federal sources at the dozen'' Monsanto scientists may work at medical school for that period, and is one the university and some may spend of the largest from a single company to a several years there. Monsanto's move TV plan delay university. clearly shows an interest in medical Luxembourg is falling behind in the race Monsanto's award is an obvious boon products, and Dr Howard A. Schneider­ to provide the first satellite broadcast for to the university's research programme: man, Monsanto's senior vice-president Europe. Unresolved wrangles about the two-thirds of the money will go to for research and development, says that relative sizes of French, Belgian and West applied research and one-third to basic while the company does not now market German shareholdings in the projected research. Work will be selected by an health-care products, it hopes to do so in £200 million Luxembourg system have now eight-member comJVittee - four univer­ future. put back the earliest possible launch date sity faculty members and four people Monsanto launched a $1.8 million until late 1986. from Monsanto - headed by Dr David project with Washington University By then, the national satellites planned M. Kipnis, head of the department of earlier this year for research using jointly by France and West Germany will internal medicine at the university monoclonal antibodies for diagnostic probably have been up for a year. Also by medical school. University researchers work. The company is also working with late 1986, the new all-British Unisat, with will be at liberty to publish the results of Dr Mary-Dell Chilton, of the university two BBC channels, might be aloft. work funded under the grant, but if the biology department, on genetic engi­ Radio Tete-Luxembourg (RTL), the material contains potentially patentable neering in plants. Schneiderman did not, commercial company in charge of all technical developments Monsanto can however, confirm rumours that a major broadcasting in Luxembourg, insists that review it, and request a short delay before new grant from Monsanto was imminent its satellite project is a matter of when, not submission for publication. Monsanto to support Chilton's research. if. It plans to beam three channels of films, will have exclusive rights to any licences Karen Freeman , entertainment and advertising to a wide swathe from Benelux to Bavaria, and possibly to south-east England. It knows, accommodate the necessary infusion of Once the go-ahead is given, RTL will however, that this ambition represents a new capital. Although the company is reg­ invite tenders for the system (two satellites big gamble for a small country. RTL, istered in Luxembourg and has, by law, a plus a spare). It will also decide whether to whose current radio and television pro­ majority of Luxembourg nationals on its devote one of the three television channels grammes reach a weekly audience of 40 board, its largest shareholder is pre­ to broadcasting in English. Any million in Europe, contributes 5 per cent dominantly Belgian. Also, French deregulatory move by the Hunt committee (about £25 million) of the annual income of investors, notably in the form ofHavas-IP, now inquiring into the expansion of cable the Luxembourg governmen\. Commercial Compteurs Schlumberger and Paribas, are television in Britain would undoubtedly broadcasting has been a major source of in a strong if not controlling position. sway the decision. Elsewhere, RTL insists, revenue for the 50 years since RTL's problem now is how to introduce a a vast expansion of cable television in Luxembourg, accustomed to living on its Europe is not necessary to the success of its wits, recognized that its central location, plan. It expects half ofits audience to buy a plus national sovereignty over its rooftop dish to receive its programmes. broadcasting policy, permitted it to send Brenda Maddox radio advertisements and popular music into countries whose governments Jobs and automation prohibited one or both by their own broadcasting organizations. It was in 1932 that began spoiling the US faces facts determination of Lord Reith, the BBC's Washington first director-general, that the British The effect that new electronic tech­ people should have no light radio enter­ nology is having on jobs, which has been an tainment on Sunday. issue of intense debate in Europe, is now a Now, however, with commercial radio cause for concern in the . and television sprouting all over Europe A new study by the government's and eroding its audience, RTL must find a General Accounting Office (GAO) sug­ new service to sell or see its profits and con­ gests that the recent revolution in elec­ tribution to the national purse atrophy. big new outside investor - as a group of tronics will be felt not just in manufac­ But even if its satellite succeeds in pulling in West German publishers (which does not turing- the sector most affected so far by audiences and advertising revenue, the include the giants) has offered about £50 automation - but also in office and heavy costs of depreciation of the start-up million - without disrupting the delicate service jobs. And even within years is going to hurt Luxembourg's Franco-Belgian balance of power. The manufacturing, the spectrum of fixed economy, already in trouble with its first French hope to avoid excessive dilution of automation introduced in the 1950s. and unemployment since the Second World their own influence. But they, and the the initial applications of robots lately War. whole board, know that the matter will have tended to be in tasks that were RTL cannot proceed, however, until it have to be sorted out next month if further considered menial, or monotonous or decides upon a new financial structure to delay is not to occur. unsafe, for human workers. Spray painting

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