182 Nature Vol. 291 21 May 1981 development] work". However, according space activity, will include the "Astro" to Senator John Warner, the Defense experiment, which will attempt to capture Science Board has concluded that the super-heavy nuclei. Other innovations potential utility of space-based lasers is include an experiment on the behaviour of significant and that an average of $50 liquids in "microgravitational" conditions million per year should be added to the and the monitoring of dynamic dis­ programme. turbance of the space station itself, in order The money for the binary chemical to determine possible effects on the ex­ weapons facility which the Senate armed periments (the Polish "Syrena" services appropriations subcommittee has crystallization experiments in 1978 seem to left out of the supplemental request for the have run into trouble on this account). fiscal year 1981 would have been the first What prospects the Soviet manned space step towards renewed chemical weapons programme now holds for international production which has been halted since cooperation remains a mystery. Current 1968. The Administration is thought to be plans for Soyuz-Salyut still include flights moving cautiously, aware of the public by a French and an Indian cosmonaut, and connection to a central computer is also concern about the deployment of a new during last month's celebrations of the levied, so the cost to home users who want generation of chemical weapons in Europe. twentieth anniversary of Yurii Gagarin's only information on train timetables, local The main debate will probably take place flight it was suggested that Finland might cinemas and so on can seem expensive. The later this year, when the details of next also be invited to participate. recent decision to increase the computer year's budget request, likely to contain Future international cooperation may connection charge for peak day-time use substantially more funds for chemical well have received a setback with the death does not augur well. weapons, are debated in Congress. last autumn of Academician Boris Petrov, The quality of information at present David Dickson head of the "Interkosmos" programme. stored on Prestel is variable. As yet nobody Academician Petrov was a firm supporter quite knows what type of information the Soviet space of such international flights, unlike, for domestic user is prepared to pay for, so two example, the President of the Soviet television supply companies are Academy of Sciences, Anatolii conducting a market survey in four Romanian resources Aleksandrov, who on one occasion provincial towns. Businesses, however, Last Friday's launch of Soyuz-40, commented sourly that "Solyuz is not a seem more prepared to pay for carrying into orbit Romanian cosmonaut­ trolleybus". Nevertheless, the options information, the greatest users so far being researcher Dumitru Prunariu for a week's remain open. At a press conference in travel agents and financial companies. stay aboard the Salyut-6 space station, Berlin last month, cosmonauts Pavel One obstacle to further adoption by completes the series of manned flights Popovich and Vladimir Aksenov observed business is the increasing number of private envisaged under the Comecon "Inter­ that a manned flight to Mars was a viewdata systems, most of which are never­ kosmos" programme. Since the series was "problem for the coming decades" which theless compatible with Prestel. British inaugurated with the flight of the Czech could "best be settled" by means of Telecom regards these systems as comple­ Vladimir Remek in March 1978, these international cooperation involving many mentary rather than competitive. It also "international" programmes have taken countries. VeraRich hopes that the introduction next year of its on a standard form, regularly including Gateway system, whereby private Earth-resources photography, astro­ Viewdata systems databases can be linked to Prestel, will at physics, biomedical studies and tech­ least prevent British Telecom from being nological experiments. On each occasion Battle joined squeezed out of the market. there has been a smelting and The teething problems of Prestel, the crystallization experiment, using a Soviet Although the British viewdata system, longest running public viewdata system in "Splav" furnace and a capsule provided by Prestel, was not expected to make a profit the world, will no doubt be watched with the non-Soviet partner, with an within the first eighteen months of interest by competitors and potential appropriate patriotic code-name: "Altai" operation, the results so far are buyers outside Britain. Although Prestel for Mongolia, "Berolina" for East disappointing. As yet only 1,288 people has been licensed to more telecommuni­ Germany and in the latest case, "Dacia" have bought the special television sets for cations authorities than any of its rivals, for Romania. domestic use. British Telecom's early hope the French Teletel and the Canadian Each joint programme, however, has that no home could do without its Prestel Telidon may yet emerge on top. Arguments also reflected the contribution made by the set seems to have been ill-founded. Sales to over which system should be recognized as non-Soviet partner to the whole businesses, however, have been slightly a standard by the International "Interkosmos" programme. In the case of brisker, although the 8,216 registered Consultative Committee on Telephones Romania, the emphasis was initially on represent only a modest achievement. and Telegraphs seem to have been resolved instrumentation. According to Dr loan British Telecom has, nevertheless, by all three being accepted. And the Ursu, First Deputy Chairman of the changed its marketing strategy, aiming at problem that no one system is compatible Romanian National Council for Science business rather than the domestic users. with either of the other two seems to have and Technology, from the beginning of the The National Economic Development been resolved, at least for the French and programme in the late 1960s, Romania had Office hopes that business registrations will British systems, by recent developments in specialized in the production of rise to 46,000 in the next eighteen months. software which will soon allow access by magnetometers, specially adapted The target for home registrations within each system to the same computer. spectrometers and radiation detectors. that time is now 4,000. Nevertheless, Telidon, which uses an Romanian instruments, he said, had The main lesson so far is that cost and the alpha-numerical rather than an alpha­ contributed considerably to the quality of information on the system are mosaic standard and is thus better at accumulation of data on the chemical crucial to the home buyer. A custom-built graphics, may have advantages over Pres tel composition of the upper atmosphere, Prestel set costs £400-500 more than an for some uses. What everyone wants to variations of the Earth's magnetic field and ordinary colour television set, although know is which system, if any, AT&T will particle physics. The current programme, special adaptors costing about £200 are choose in the United States. Some indi­ according to Dr Eugen Mendescu, now coming onto the market. As well as cation is expected to be given this week at Secretary of the Romanian commission for ordinary telephone charges, a tariff for Videotex '81 in Toronto. Judy Redfearn 0028-0836/81/210182-01$01.00 ()1981 Macmillan Journals Ltd .