Aug 12 1992
From The Space Library
The National Science Board, the policy-making arm of the National Science Foundation, warned that the United States was losing its competitive edge in technologies of the future. Blaming government incompetence, leveraged buyouts, and executives' and investors' short-term focus, the panel urged increased public funding and changes in tax laws to counter technological competition from Europe and Japan. It said ways to improve performance included studying process technologies to make better products, training more engineers, and creating a better understanding of the role of research. (LA Times, Aug 13/92; NY Times, Aug 13/92; W Post, Aug 13/92)
Scientists studying the effects of ozone depletion in Earth's atmosphere reported that the frequencies of light passing through a depleted ozone layer may not cause the widespread catastrophic damage to plants scientists previously predicted. They found that the kind of ultraviolet radiation that causes the most damage to alfalfa plants passes straight through the ozone layer, meaning a depleted ozone layer would not increase exposure to the most dam-aging light. Significant depletions in the ozone layer would certainly send up the cancer rate in humans quite substantially, biophysicist John Sutherland of the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, said, but plants are not likely to be the most severely affected by the increased ultraviolet light hitting Earth because of a thinning protective layer. (UPI, Aug 13/92)
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin charged a new team of agency officials with finding a cheaper way to build Space Station Freedom, even if that meant assembling much of it without the Space Shuttle. The team, comprised mainly of officials within NASA but outside the Station program, was asked to redesign the Station so that it can be completed on time despite congressionally imposed spending limits. Goldin's directive came in the wake of reduced Space Station funding in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Findings were due to Goldin by November. (Space News, Aug 17/92; Av Wk, Aug 24/92)
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