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National Science Foundation Twenty-Eighth Annual Report for Fiscal Year 1978 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $3.25 Stock Number 038-000-00407-7 Letter of Transmittal Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I have the honor to transmit herewith the Annual Report for Fiscal Year 1978 of the National Science Foundation for submission to the Congress as required by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950. Respectfully, Richard C. Atkinson Director, National Science foundation The Honorable The President of ihe United Slates Contents Page Director's Statement vii Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and Engineering 1 Physics 2 Chemistry 6 Mathematical and Computer Sciences 10 Engineering 16 Materials Research 21 Astronomical, Atmospheric, Earth, and Ocean Sciences 29 Astronomy 31 Atmospheric Sciences 39 Earth Sciences 45 Ocean Sciences 51 Polar Programs 56 Biological, Behavioral, and Social Sciences 61 Physiology, Cellular, and Molecular Biology 62 Behavioral and Neural Sciences 67 Environmental Biology 69 Social Sciences 73 Science Education '77 Science Education Resources Improvement 77 Science Education Development and Research 81 Scientific Personnel Improvement 86 Science and Society 91 Applied Science and Research Applications 97 Problem Analysis 98 Integrated Basic Research 98 Applied Research 99 Problem-Focused Research Applications 101 Intergovernmental Science and Public Technology 105 Scientific, Technological, and International Affairs 109 Policy Research and Analysis 110 Science Resources Studies 112 NSF Planning and Evaluation 115 Information Science and Technology 116 International Programs , 118 Appendices A. National Science Board, NSF Staff, Advisory Committees and Panels 121 B. Patents and Inventions Resulting from Activities Supported by the National Science Foundation 138 C. Financial Report for Fiscal Year 1978 140 D. National Research Center Contractors 143 DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT vii Science: New Pathways and New Promise t is with continued confidence in the state 1978 an instrument combining a wide bore of science in the Nation that I present this magnet with a Fourier transform spectrometer I Annual Report of the National Science was ready for detailed studies of large, Foundation. complex biomolecules. The year saw half of The report documents progress in the many the 27 scheduled radio antennas at the Very areas of science and engineering supported by Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico already in the National Science Foundation through its operation; their resolving power matches that system of grants and contracts. In 1978 the of the largest optical telescope in existence. progress was noteworthy. New programs Even familiar instruments were put to new linked efforts at universities, major research uses. That versatile scientific tool, the laser, centers, and private industry. Basic research, glues together chemical compounds, parts research in applied science and science applica­ isotopes, and is being used in attempts to tions, and science education continued to move induce nuclear fusion. Last year, in a light- forward. scattering experiment using a laser, chemists The importance of basic research to the were able to measure the growth of cholester­ Nation is clear. Our understanding of funda­ ol microcrystals, a phenomenon of obvious mental scientific principles—and the skill with relevance to such medical problems as gall­ which we apply them—affect both our produc­ stones. Another laser confirmed an important tivity and our economic status in the family of theory of Albert Einstein. A third annealed nations. Not only technical innovations, but semiconductors in a new process of great also many social benefits, derive directly or potential for electronics manufacturing. indirectly from our grasp of what the uni- verse> our planet, and life are all about. The various branches of science liberally The record has been good. Through freely borrowed instruments and techniques from exercised creativity, fiscal strength, and superb each other. The findings they produced management systems, the United States has advanced theories in seemingly unrelated long led the world in agricultural, industrial, scientific fields. Studies last year at the cellular and military innovation. To remain strong in a level, for example, opened up new vistas in changing world environment, we know we both plant pathology and the neurosciences. must continue to make full use of our The view of all sciences as increasingly one scientific research and development potential. science does not suggest an actual regrouping We have the resources to do so. In many of the different disciplines. But it has greatly scientific pursuits, instruments of great power enlarged our capacity for important discovery. and precision now perform hitherto impossible With new instrumentation, improved compu­ research tasks. During the past year advanced ters, and better communication systems, X-ray detectors speeded up the mapping of the scientific research in 1978 broadened our crystal structure of enzymes, and by the end of understanding of natural phenomena. The viii DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT scientific quest for the origins of Ufe, matter, watery places where some sort of food chain has and the universe itself went unabated. Search­ not yet been confirmed is under the Ross Ice ing the galaxies for stars in different stages of Shelf, krill, a shrimplike crustacean, continues to their life cycles, astronomers determined the receive attention as a food resource in Antarctica. youngest found so far to be a mere 2,000- We know that new knowledge will affect year-old child. And they pinpointed the most how we live in the future. And although we likely location of a supermassive black hole, in cannot predict the future with real certainty, the constellation Cygnus. we nevertheless are becoming better able to While astronomers probed the skies, geolo­ chart possible directions as an aid in our gists and oceanographers drilled under the planning. Moreover, by examining the process ocean, through the Ross Shelf in Antarctica, of innovation and the impacts of scientific and and into the Earth's volcanic surface to find technological development, we are gaining in out how our planet evolved. Atmospheric understanding the consequences on our physi­ scientists, concerned with the envelope of cal and social environments. NSF-supported gases that surrounds the Earth in the tropos­ studies in this far-reaching area will serve as a phere, took important steps toward under­ basis for U.S. policy positions at the United standing its chemistry. They also came closer Nations Conference on Science and Technology to being able to predict the gigantic electrical in August 1979. At the same time, in smaller but discharges of the aurora borealis in the polar no less important studies related to domestic atmosphere. policy, the Foundation is supporting inquiries into how to improve services of the U.S. This was clearly pure science—yielding us Government at the Federal, State, and local knowledge we would store for unknown levels. future use. In other instances—such as re­ The Nation requires highly qualified scien­ search on the properties of materials like tists to perform this valuable and needed superconductors, polymers, and glass—basic research. The Foundation, which is also research attracted attention because its poten­ responsible for ensuring a continuing cadre of tial for industrial use was evident. scientists and engineers for the future, is There was also food. People involved in the concerned that the possibility of a tightening , production or nutritional content of food academic job market may be dissuading some watched with interest research in biology and good students from preparing for science the various marine sciences. Cell biologists are careers. In 1978, NSF expanded its science attempting to learn how membranes regulate education programs at a level critical to the ions that flow across them, since this youngsters making decisions about their process appears to establish patterns of growth future study courses—junior high school—and and might even be used to control disease. Last continued efforts to encourage more women, year, a research team discovered that the flow of minorities, and the handicapped to enter a current of calcium across cell membranes helps science careers and to perform scientific control biological development. On a different research. It also continued its effort to increase level, studies of coastal upwelling—the rise of public understanding of what modern scien­ nutrient-rich cold waters from the ocean's tists do, why they are doing it, and what they bottom to the surface—could help predict the are learning. distribution of plants and animals along the The pages that follow in this report recount continental shelf. And while one of the few in detail more new and continuing undertak- DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT ix ings in research and education. The individual Above all, they demonstrate the need for strong programs reflect both the spirit of our times Government support so that science may and the legislation that shapes the National function efficiently in the interest of the Nation Science Foundation as a Government agency. both now and for the times to come. Richard C. Atkinson Director 2 MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES, AND ENGINEERING as well as in several aspects of engi­ ect. The proposals are submitted on capabilities of the investigators to neering.
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