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The article reports on issues and topics discussed during the 1954 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at the University of California in Berkeley. Of the 3,000 papers read and discussed in 300 sessions, most were concerned with the specialized maze of minutiae. Early in the AAAS meeting, Farrington Daniels of the University of Wisconsin chemistry department chairman, reviewed the factors depleting the world's reserves of fossil fuels, which had been produced through photosynthesis. He cited the growing population, industrialization, and growing demands for power and higher living standards as factors contributing to pressures for finding fossil fuel substitutes.

Reports on United States president Bill Clinton's proposed research and development budget for fiscal 2001. Increases in federal science and technology and university research funding; Outlays by agencies and by functions; National Science Foundation as centerpiece of the budget; Department of Energy; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Criticisms from Republican congressmen.

Discusses the budget appropriations approved by the United States (US) government for several agencies' physics-related research and development (R&D) programs for fiscal year 2000. Significance of investments in science and technology; Amount to be received by the US National Science Foundation; Appropriation of the US Department of Energy for R&D; Increase in the R&D funding for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Focuses on the United States research and development (R&D) budget for fiscal 2000. Total outlays proposed by President Bill Clinton for fiscal 2000; Features of the 1997 budget-balancing act; Budget allocated for R&D; Information on the R&D budget request of individual agencies.

Provides information on the proposed fiscal plan of President Bill Clinton for 1999 in the United States (US). Reactions of politicians regarding the budget plans of Clinton; Listing of government funding for physics-related programs and projects; Figures on the government funding allocated for research and development program of Clinton; Allocated funding for other science-related activities of the US government.

Reports the environmental problems caused by the Brookhaven laboratory. Reviews of the Department of Environment (DOE) on the said laboratory; Leak from the High Flux Beam Reactor (HFBR); Environmental activist protest. INSET: Tritium leak delays neutron..., by Barbara Gross Levi..

Reports on the increase of 1998 budget for scientific research and development in the United States. Reservations of some Congressional leaders; Targeted programs for new or increased funding of the Clinton Administration; List of research foundations favored by the Clinton Administration's 1998 budget.

Looks at President Bill Clinton's 1997 budget proposes for 1997. Information on the R&D proposals; Information on funding allocated to Science; Outline for specific departments. INSETS: Department of Energy physics-related programs.;National Science Foundation physics-related programs.;Department of Defense physics-related funding..

Presents an interview with United States Senator J. Bennett Johnston Jr, the chairman of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Reports on uncertainty for the future of nuclear weapons laboratories in the United States following an announcement by United States President Bill Clinton that the country will end nuclear weapons tests. Exploration of future uses for the labora tories; Laboratories affected by the announcement; Comments from legislators.

Discusses National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) administrator Daniel S. Goldin's mission to economize and reorganize. Cuts made by Congress to the agency's budgets; Studies made for the implementation of the mission; Proposed managerial changes in NASA's field centers; Likelihood for NASA to strengthen the case for the new science institutes.

Reports on the federal budget for research and development for fiscal 1995. Cuts on long-term research; Distinction between basic research and technology development; Appropriations for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Defense.

Reports on the first meeting of the President's Committee of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) on October 25, 1994 in the absence of President Bill Clinton. Session with Vice President Al Gore; Briefing by John Gibbons, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Limitations on PCAST; Comments from committee members.

Reports on Representative Robert S. Walker, chairman of the House Science Committee. Direction of the committee under Walker's leadership; Walker's economic and social conservatism; Opposition to pork-barrel politics and earmarking; Passion for politics.

Features an interview with Office of Science and Technology Policy director Jack Gibbons regarding the federal government's science and technology policy. Gibbons' appointment as President Bill Clinton's science adviser; Creation of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC); Establishment of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST). INSET: Clinton and his new science council, by IG..

Focuses on physicist Pavel Sudoplatov's memoirs as detailed in the book `Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness--A Soviet Spymaster' written by American journalist Jerrold L. Schecter. Focus on Soviets' development of nuclear bombs; Allegations that American nuclear scientists were passing secret information to Russian agents; Research physicist Philip Morrison's opinion of Sudoplatov's claims.

Focuses on President Bill Clinton's fiscal 1995 budget for science and technology. Comparison with the 1994 budget; Programs of the Department of Energy; Department of Defense basic research funding; National Institute of Standards and Technology's physics-related budget; National Aeronautics & Space Administration's budget; Budget for the physics-related programs of the National Science Foundation; More.

Reports on the impact of Congress' cancellation of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project on the particle physics community. Politicians' awareness of the importance of biotechnology to human health and global community; SSC's significance to science; Criticisms against the SSC project; SSC as a procurement; Termination process; Future vision for high energy physics.

Reports on Congress' cancellation of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project and its appropriated funding for research and development agencies for the fiscal year 1994. Allocated amount for the SSC's termination; Reason for the SSC's termination; Department of Energy's projects for 1994; Highlights of the 1994 research budgets in nondefense agencies.

Highlights President Bill Clinton's budget for science and technology. Abandonment of the emergency stimulus package; Research and development agenda; Budget for the physics-related programs of the Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Defense; Perception by Congress as a problem in funding.

Examines President Bill Clinton's proposed budgetary allocation for science, technology and education. Budget increase for national computer and communications programs, advanced materials and manufacturing processes; Shift from military to civilian spending; Cuts for the Superconducting Super Collider and the space station; Fears for basic research; `Highlights of `A Vision of Change for America' budget plan.

Presents an interview with Allan Bromley, President George Bush's Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Challenge of introducing technology policy to his position; Fragmented committee structure in Congress; Articulating a new vision for science and technology; Pork and lobbying; John Sununu and the environment; More.

Examines the issues of science and technology facing President-elect Bill Clinton. Pledges by Clinton to shift funds from defense R&D to civilian R&D; Changes in working relationships between academic and industrial research enterprises; Economic realities and scientific spending; Vice President-elect Al Gore as point man for coordinating science and technology policies; More. INSET: Some key jobs in science and technology policy..

Reports on the decisions by Congress in funding various scientific programs in the final hours of the 102nd Congress. Criticism by Senator Bob Dole; Need to redirect more of the country's defense operations to civilian goals; Cuts in programs that support `small science'; Generosity for megaprojects, like the Space Station Freedom and the Superconducting Super Collider, that will be built by major U.S. corporations; More. INSET: Special commission on the future of the NSF..

Presents President George Bush and Governor Bill Clinton's responses to ten questions presented by `Physics Today' on issues of science, technology, arms control, energy and the environment, and government participation in R&D. How to provide adequate government funding for scientific research and to stimulate corporate sposoring of research; Nuclear energy and the ramifications of the end of the Cold War; More.

Reports that William Happer, since becoming director of the United States Department of Energy's Office of Energy Research, has received fierce criticism from many who had considered themselves his colleagues and champions. Cutbacks in funding for various areas of physics; Regulation of the nuclear weapons production complex; Discussion of the recommendations for proceeding in the areas of high-energy physics, nuclear physics, fusion energy, and materials science; Problems with Happer's 10 percent solution for budget woes; Reaction of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. INSET: After Townes, physicists voice an appeal to reason..

This article presents an interview with D. Allan Bromley, U.S. President George Bush's assistant for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, about the implications of government funding shortages for research. According to Bromley, his experience at Washington has been a happy experience professionally. He said that the U.S. Congress in particular has been very prepared, with a few isolated exceptions, to be extremely helpful and supportive, to listen and to want to listen. Bromley said, that since Bush has modified the Strategic Defense Initiative program, so that it isn't focused on protecting the people against a massive ballistic missile strike from the Soviet Union but rather on the possibility of reacting to limited attacks from anywhere on the planet, he supports it. With regards to the subject of scientific priorities, Bromley said that scientists will either make the priority recommendations themselves and hope the government will find it possible to act on them, or the priority decisions are going to be made by people in Washington who have much less information and much less immediate ability to make those decisions. In response to the idea that to make room for young scientists to get grants, there is a need to retire more older scientists faster, Bromley said that he doesn't think that age has much to do with creative ability. He is not in favor of an arbitrary age-based retirement, but thinks that it would be desirable to have creative early retirement programs both in the industry and in academia so that people who find that they really have lost interest in research could, without substantial financial loss and without embarrassment, move into some other field or into another career that might be more exciting and valuable to them.

Looks at the positive aspects of research and development (R&D) in President George Bush's 1992 budget. Military considerations; National Science Foundation (NSF) request; Three presidential initiatives; Funding for new programs; Request for funds to build observatory and telescopes; Challenges budget faces in Congress; Highlights by department.

Looks at the politics and the strategic problems of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project. Comparisons to Hubble Space Telescope (HST) project; Increasing cost estimates; Response from Capital Hill; Foreign participation in SSC; Expected increase in scientists and managers on project; Competition in design of general purpose detectors; Construction of superconducting dipole magnets. INSET: A proposed detector for the SSC is approved, by B....

Reports on the National Science Foundation's (NSF) selection of Florida State University (FSU) as the site of a new national lab for high-magnetic-field technology, which will be known as the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. NSF rejection of the proposal from MIT to upgrade its Bitter Lab where the fractional quantum Hall effect was discovered; Amount of the grant Florida State will receive; Design of the NSF contest under Erich Bloch, the agency's director; Seitz-Richardson report recommendations for MIT; FSU's commitment to magnet lab; Plans to stay in budget; Presentations to NSF; MIT reaction to the selection of FSU.

Interviews Erich Bloch, who is leaving as director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) after six years. He discusses: The changes he has made at NSF, his greatest disappointment in his job, and accusations that he deliberately provoked physicists by proposing cutbacks for some physics research. Science and technology centers; Controversies over personnel decisions.

Interviews D. Allan Bromley, President Bush's science adviser and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He discusses problems for `small' scientists, effects of federal budget cuts, money for grant applications, Congressional support for science megaprojects, commitments to current projects, and the Global Climate Change program.

Recounts the controversy surrounding the announcement of a successful cold-fusion-in-a-flask experiment by chemists B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, including unsuccessful replication efforts. Report by a panel appointed by Energy Secretary James D. Watkins stating that experimental results of the cold fusion process are not persuasive.

Discusses in detail how the fiscal 1990 federal budget proposed by President Bush will affect various areas of scientific research and development, in both military and non-military areas. National Science Foundation (NSF) commitment; Budget priorities; Flexible freeze; Highlights by agencies.

Reports that Waxahachie, Tex., has been named the official site of the Superconducting Super Collider and that Roy F. Schwitters, a Harvard physicist, will head the project. Funding; Choosing Texas over Illinois for the SSC site.

Reports on Andrei Sakharov, the Russian scientist who has spoken out on arms control and human rights, who visited the US for the first time in November, 1988. Sakharov as an unflinching dissenter; Exile to Gorki for opposing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; Defense of perestroika; Meeting with President Ronald Reagan at the White House; Meeting with Edward Teller. INSET: Celebrating Sakharov (Excerpts of introduction by Sidney D....

This section presents an update on U.S. space programs as of December 1988. When the cheering stopped for the near-perfect four-day flight of the space shuttle Discovery in early October 1988, the science program of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was still sitting on the launch pad. The flight of the reusable Discovery revived the nation's dreams of heroic astronauts exploring the solar system, but it did not restore the hopes of scientists that their space experiments will soon be in space. Scientists, by contrast, consider themselves among the casualties of Challenger. Only in recent months did NASA give in to the arguments of scientists that alternatives to the shuttle need to be found for their experiments. The Cosmic Background Explorer, originally planned for the shuttle, and future planetary missions will be flown from Delta rockets. Since the Challenger debacle, public support for the nation's space program has been increasing. To the surprise of many within NASA, who had braced for cuts in the fiscal 1989 budget, Congress in August 1988 reduced some social and environmental programs to give $10.7 billion for the space program. The appropriation kept hope alive for space research. INSET: Missions on the NASA manifest..

Interviews Erich Bloch, who begins his fifth year as director of the National Science Foundation. Background on the NSF and previous directors; Bloch's professional career at IBM; His approach to solving problems; His appointment to the NSF; The mission and funding of NSF; The outlook for education funding in NSF; The role of the Science Board.

Reports on the controversy surrounding the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) in the U.S. Department of Energy's introduction of the idea of a competition among states to win the SSC; President Ronald Reagan's approval of the project; Holding hearings on the SSC.

Reports on the research and development budget in the U.S. for the fiscal year 1989. Insufficiency of the appropriations for ongoing and upcoming research projects by different agencies; Comparison of the budget requested and granted for the Department of Energy's physics-related research in 1988.

Focuses on the Federal Conference on Commercial Application of Superconductivity in the U.S. Campaign of U.S. president Roland Reagan on the uses of superconductivity; Development of superconducting materials for commercial products; Challenges to the U.S. science and industry.

Reports on developments concerning compact x-ray litography machines and semiconductors in the U.S. Provisions of the omnibus appropriations bill; Developments at Japan's vertically integrated electronics conglomerates; Synchroton radiation facilities in the country.

Reports the achievement of the supercomputer centers of the National Science Foundation in the U.S. Contribution in the academic science and engineering; Advances of supercomputers; Importance of supercomputers in research activities. INSET: Cornell's supercomputer building at the brink.

Reports the projection on the state of science policy with the enrichment of research and development programs by 1988 in the United States. Budget for the development of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Collaboration between industries and universities; Financial request for physics-related research.

Examines the significant limitations on strategic defense initiative in exchanged for phased elimination of the worlds nuclear arsenal. Alternative of the orthodox deterrence based on mutual assured destruction; Emphasis of the strategic nuclear competition.

Discusses the effects that the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle is having on NASA's space exploration. Details of the Voyager 2 mission, as it recently passed Uranus; Endorsement by United States President Ronald Reagan to replace the shuttles with a new generation of spacecraft; Grounding of all other launch vehicles for the time being.

Focuses on the developments in the field of physics in the United States. Importance of physics to society; Enthusiasm of scientists on physics; Relevance of large research facilities.

Focuses on the effectivity of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law on the budget-cutting imperatives by the Congressional Budget Office and White House Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C. Management of the national deficits; Reduce of the education allowances; Participation of women on the science and engineering.

Focuses on the conceptual design of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) in Virginia. Competition conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy on accelerator design; Allocation of funds to improve existing machine; Cost effectiveness of CEBAF.

Focuses on the priorities of the National Research Council's Committee on Solar and Space Physics for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the U.S. Initiation of the International Solar Terrestrial Physics mission; Launching of the Solar Optical Telescope; Aspects of solar-system space physics.