Spring Awakening Planned for Mars Rover Spirit Esaki Diode Is Still a Radio Star, Half a Century on Foundations Could Allocate M

NATURE|Vol 464|4 March 2010 OPINION

“I don’t think I could sell a book on cockroaches today.” Joanna Cole, concluding the ‘how to write science books’ series on page 36

Spring awakening have a duty to support them. Instead, they shop around for the planned for Mars organizations that seem to suit rover Spirit their goals best and then solicit proposals from them. Your ill-timed ‘obituary’, in For example, of the 74 grant- News, for the Mars rover Spirit giving foundations supporting (Nature 463, 600; 2010) brings diabetes research in the to mind Mark Twain’s saying that United States, only half accept reports of his death had been unsolicited grant proposals, exaggerated. Spirit is alive and according to the Foundation well — albeit with limited mobility Center’s national database. It’s — and is still returning scientific worse in cancer research, with data from Mars more than six only 121 of 276 grant-giving years after landing. foundations accepting unsolicited As the Martian winter advances proposals. in the months ahead, we expect Foundations based in California Spirit to hibernate (not die) by and New York were responsible cutting off its communication with for 30% of all grant giving in 2007. Earth and conserving electrical device. Unlike the mechanism Foundations could Among the 40 richest foundations power. Once the Martian spring that powers most semiconductor in those states, roughly one-third arrives, we expect Spirit to devices, current flows through allocate money more — who gave away more than re-awaken and start doing science the diode as a result of quantum- productively $1.4 billion in 2007 — lock their once again. mechanical electron tunnelling doors to grant-seekers they do We plan to continue using across a potential barrier. Could the huge grant-giving not know. Here in New York City, Spirit’s wheels to try to reposition Semiconductor transport community in the United States Mayor Bloomberg’s $1.5-billion the vehicle. But even if very little devices are extremely stable, be made more effective? This foundation is but one example motion is achieved, we can still so their shelf-life should be question needs addressing now, of an organization that refuses carry out an extended science infinite if they are stored at room while both the economy and grant unsolicited proposals. campaign, including tracking temperature. But the Esaki diode’s giving are down. Huge foundations that give Spirit’s radio signal to find out tunnel current is very sensitive to The Foundation Center, in away tens of millions of dollars whether the core of Mars is its enormous built-in electric field New York, estimates that the annually need to reconsider molten or solid. in the junction region (E. Spenke 75,000 US foundations gave away their presumptions that they can The day will come when Electronic Semiconductors 232; $45.5 billion in 2008 — a drop consistently find their own way an obituary can be written McGraw-Hill, 1958), which could of more than 20% from 2007. to the most worthy projects. that lauds Spirit’s scientific affect its long-term performance. Small family foundations have They can’t. accomplishments. But that day As the most likely indicator of to reduce spending when their So, yes, there are ways in which may not arrive for some time yet. any small structural changes in investment portfolios are down, the US grant-giving community Steve Squyres Mars Exploration Rover the device, we re-measured the but it is also common practice for could be more effective. More Project, Space Sciences Building, peak current in 20 devices and even large foundations to cut back foundations should spend more Cornell University, Ithaca, New York discovered that it had fallen by substantially. than their minimum obligation, 14853, USA an average of just 3.3% over As the grants manager of a particularly when times are tough. e-mail: [email protected] 50 years, corresponding to a small family foundation in New And all the larger foundations junction widening of only 0.25%. York City, I believe that there’s no should review unsolicited This very tiny shift in electronic good excuse for this. When the proposals, to enhance their Esaki diode is still characteristics is probably economy tanks, if big foundations effectiveness. down to inbuilt impurities need to dig into capital rather than Ingrid Eisenstadter 40 Park Avenue, a radio star, and imperfections within limit their spending to their legal New York, New York 10016, USA half a century on the structure. A gratifying 5% obligation — often covered e-mail: [email protected] confirmation of the diode’s by the tax-free income on their An FM transistor radio owned by longevity, nonetheless. investments — then they should. Contributions to Correspondence one of us (L. E.) since the early Leo Esaki The Science and Technology Non-profit money generates jobs may be submitted to 1960s still works beautifully. Promotion Foundation of Ibaraki, and purchases just as for-profit correspondence@nature. Reasoning that this was testament Tsukuba 305-0032, and Yokohama spending does, and government com. Please see the Guide to to the performance of its single College of Pharmacy, Japan money. Authors at http://go.nature.com/ Esaki diode, we tested the effects e-mail: [email protected] Another widespread problem cMCHno. Science publishing of storage on some of these Yasuhiko Arakawa, Masatoshi is that many grant-giving issues that may be of interest to germanium devices made in 1960. Kitamura Institute for Nano foundations won’t accept authors are regularly featured at The Esaki diode (L. Esaki Quantum Information Electronics, unsolicited grant proposals from our blog Nautilus (http://blogs. Phys. Rev. 109, 603–604; 1958) The University of Tokyo, Komaba, universities and other non-profit nature.com/nautilus), where we was the first quantum-electron Meguro 153-8505, Japan organizations, even though they welcome comments and debate.