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This issue is a little late because of a new arrival at our house on May 23, Robert McAfee Shelton, at 7 lbs, 14 oz..  R. D. Shelton, Editor:  rds@itri2.org
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In This Issue of ITRInews
Nano Gets Even Bigger in U.S. and Japan
Societal Implications of Nano Report Published
Green Manufacturing Report Published
S&T Advice to Congress: OTA Redux?
Germany Holds Technology Leadership in Europe

Featured Organizations in International S&T:
S&T Coverage by Foreign Embassies in Washington and their U.S. Counterparts Abroad:
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Japan
Switzerland
UK
 
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Nano is Huge; Gets Even Bigger While the President's FY2002 budget mostly reduces investment in physical science research in real terms, nanotechnology continues to get priority.  A new allocation of another $500 million is spread across a dozen agencies with NSF coordinating the effort.  MIT's Technology Review now has a special section on nano with several items in each issue, including this one on Bush's Boost of Nano.   On-line access is free.  http://www.technologyreview.com/nanotech.asp

Japan Also Making Big Investment in Nanotechnology  Japan's government has allocated more than $400-million in this year's national budget for research in nanotechnology and for the creation of special laboratories.  Government officials said they hoped to match American interest in nanotechnology, and they estimate that the Japanese market for products developed by nanotechnology could reach $150-billion by 2010.  Chronicle of Higher Education - 4/3/01 via NSF/Tokyo http://www.twics.com/~nsftokyo/home.html

 

Societal Implications of Nanotechnology, Mihail C. Roco and William  Sims Bainbridge, Editors. This is the report of a September 28-29 workshop convened by the National Science Foundation at the request of the White House's National Science and Technology Council.  The workshop featured over 30 nanotechnology researchers, social scientists, and policy makers who offered recommendations to: accelerate the beneficial use of nanotechnology, improve research and education in the field, and guide the contributions of key organizations. Featured speakers included former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Tom Kalil from the Clinton White House.  WTEC provided logistical, editing, and management assistance and also published this report in March 2001.  Kluwer will publish a hardbound version this summer.  http://itri.loyola.edu/nano/NSET.Societal.Implications/

 
 

Green Manufacturing Tim Gutowsky, Editor.  This report reviews "environmentally benign manufacturing" (EBM) technologies, applications, and policies in Europe and Japan in comparison to the U.S. Topics include manufacturing using metals and polymers, automotive and electronics applications, and energy issues.  Government policies and corporate strategies encouraging green manufacturing were included, as well as R&D in the field.  The panel found that European countries lead in most governmental activities, Japan in industrial activities, and R&D leadership is mixed.  The U.S. leads in liability concerns, water conservation, decreased industrial releases to air and water, research in polymers and electronics industries, but follows in all other areas.  Surprisingly, the U.S. comes in third in this three-way race, when all topics are considered. A few copies of the snazzy green hardcopy report are available on request to your editor.  The full-text report is posted in .pdf at http://itri.loyola.edu/ebm/ebm.pdf, which took me 5 minutes to download through my skinny pipe at home.  HTML is coming.

 
S&T Advice to Congress: OTA Redux?  At a May 2 event, Rep. Sherry Boehlert told your editor that he had been an OTA supporter, but that the time was probably not right to create some replacement.  The main thing that was was needed was unbiased advice comparing one S&T program proposal to another, and he is trying to stregthen his House Science Committee to help provide such advice.  His committee Chief of Staff, David Goldston, added that OTA had been overrated.  The winter issue of Issues in Science and Technology had an article by Daryl E. Chubin, "Filling the Policy Vacuum Created by OTA's Demise," Issues, Winter 2000-01), The spring issue has a forum devoted to the debate on the demise of OTA and possible replacements, including letters by Bob Walker, Jack Gibbons, Roger Herdman, et al.  One interesting comment by Bob Palmer points out that the number of S&T legislative advisory agencies around the world has gone from one (OTA) in 1982 to 15 (sans OTA) in 2001. http://www.nap.edu/issues/17.3/forum.htm

Germany Holds Technology Leadership in Europe  According to Federal Minister of Education and Research Edelgard Bulmahn, Germany is Europe's technology leader. It ranks first in Europe not only in patents but also in its research and development efforts and in the global market shares it holds for high-tech goods. But with its neighbors now catching up, Germany's lead is shrinking. The German government increased its spending on education and R&D last year by DM 1 billion. Now it is industry's turn to step up its efforts if it is to defend its lead. During a presentation in Berlin of a report on the Federal Republic of Germany's technological performance, Minister Bulmahn announced that the German government will also increase its funding for education and R&D again. Germany's patent intensity is twice as great as France's or Great Britain's. Industrial companies in Germany spend an average of five percent of their sales on R&D, placing second only to Swedish firms within the EU. The same applies to revenue generated from new products.  In export of high-tech products, Germany ranks behind the USA, sharing second place with Japan. (This was a 4/19/00 speech I just found.) http://www.germany-info.org/newcontent/be/update_020800.html

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FEATURED ORGANIZATIONS THIS MONTH

This issue lists foreign embassies' S&T offices in the U.S., plus a comparison to similar efforts by the U.S. in that country. There is quite an imbalance.  France alone has more S&T staff stationed in the U.S. than the U. S. Department of State has posted in all countries.  My main sources were  http://www.embassy.org/embassies/index.html and http://www.state.gov.
 
Canada The S&T section of the Embassy represents Canadian Science Policy in the U.S. and facilitates linkages between the scientific communities in both countries. It assists the research areas of Canadian industry and Canadian research labs to cultivate technology partnerships, extend S&T linkages and build information networks in the USA. It also assists U.S. researchers link with Canadian S&T expertise.   http://www.canadianembassy.org/homepage/science.html The S&T section of the Embassy provides a monthly newsletter for the Canadian S&T community. These letters can be accessed by sending an e-mail to SandT.Washington@dfait-maeci.gc.ca.
 

US in Canada  The Economic Section seeks to obtain Canadian support for U.S. global environmental goals (on such issues as climate change, biosafety, chemicals etc.) and bilateral cooperation on shared global environmental objectives. It also promotes scientific cooperation between U.S. and Canadian government agencies, including NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).  http://www.usembassycanada.gov/content/content.asp?section=embconsul&subsection1=embassyoffices&document=economicsection

US in China The Environment, Science and Technology Section of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing works to improve understanding and cooperation between the Chinese and U.S. governments on environment, science, technology and health issues, while managing cooperation between the two countries under the Sino-U.S. Science and Technology Agreement and the Environment and Development Forum. Over 80 U.S. Embassy Beijing reports on environment, science, technology and health issues are available in the archive of the its weekly newsletter at  http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/english/sandt/index.html

US in France The American Embassy in Paris has a Counselor for Scientific, Technological and Environment Affairs (Raymond Clore) and an NSF office (Dr. David E. Schindel) that covers all of Europe. http://www.nsf.gov/home/int/europe/index.htm

US in Germany I found zero on S&T at the Berlin embassy website. There is no science counselor or organization that claims jurisdiction.   http://www.usembassy.de/e0.htm
 

US in India Within the Economic Section, a Science and Technology Office follows S&T developments in India and coordinates over 300 cooperative Indo-U.S. research projects. The Science Attache is an officer of the U.S. Public Health Service and is responsible for programs in biotechnology, infectious diseases, population research, environmental health, disease surveillance and biomedical research. http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/in1/wwwh4.html
 

US in Japan  In comparison, the U.S. has six consulates in Japan. In Tokyo, the Environmental, Scientific, and Technological (EST) Affairs Office promotes cooperation between the U.S. and Japan on international environmental issues, S&T. and space as well as oceans and fisheries.  NASA’s representative in Tokyo is a member of the EST Section.  The EST section coordinates with the DOE, NSF, and USAID offices in the embassy.  One key mission is to facilitate U.S. industrial competitiveness by overseeing initiatives that enhance U.S. access to Japanese technology and by reporting on important Japanese S&T developments.  http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/ja1/wwwh7400.html The joint armed services also have a technology monitoring office in Tokyo that covers all of Asia.  http://www.ehis.navy.mil/tp/ONRIFOASIA.asp

US in the Netherlands Nothing at the embassy website that I could find.  http://www.usemb.nl/embassy.htm

US in Switzerland Nothing at the Bern embassy website that I could find. The whole site was down in June when I checked my links.  http://www.us-embassy.ch/
 

US in the UK Nothing on S&T in general at the website, but they post links to articles on IT in the U.S. http://www.usembassy.org.uk/index.html The joint armed services office in London does R&D monitoring for all Europe, but just for DOD.  http://www.ehis.navy.mil/

Copyright © 2001 ITRI, Inc. Comments to rds@itri2.org please.
 

DATE	FEATURE ARTICLE	URL
Aug 98	Left Hand/Right Hand: NSF and NAS Both Assess US Math Research	http://itri.loyola.edu/NEWS/ITRInews1.htm
Sep 98	The Y1.998K Problem: Y2K Arrives 0.002K Early. Markets Crash, PMs Fired, Orioles 31 Games Behind	http://itri.loyola.edu/NEWS/ITRInews2.htm
Oct 98	Is S&T to Blame for the Asian Financial Crisis?	http://itri.loyola.edu/NEWS/ITRInews3.htm
Nov 98	NRC to State:  Ignoring S&T is Ignorant	http://itri.loyola.edu/NEWS/ITRInews4.htm
Dec 98/Jan 99	The Bottom Line: US Trade Deficit Skyrockets	http://itri.loyola.edu/NEWS/ITRInews5.htm
Feb 99	Who's the Bear, and Who's the Bull? Japan Doubles R&D; The US Cuts It	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews6.html
Mar 99	Who's On First? (US, But Not for Long)	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews7.html
Apr 99	GPRA Metastasizes Abroad	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews8.html
May/Jun 99	Teraflops Computers Meet Gates' Law	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews9.html
July 99	More Good News / Bad News from the Academy	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews10.html
Aug 99	Rep. George Brown Adjourns	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews11.html
Sep 99	200GB Disk: 40 Films on One CD	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews12.html
Oct 99	Is International S&T Assessment Needed?	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews13.html
Nov 99	Output in Papers: We're Number One?	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews14.html
Dec 99 / Jan 00	New Technology Czar(ina)	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews15.html
Feb 00	S&T: Ready for Prime Time?	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews16.html
Mar 00	Bottom Line II: Trade Deficit Skyrocket Explodes	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews17.html
Apr 00	Who's Getting U.S. Patents?	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews18.html
May 00	Think That Government is Investing More in Research? Think Again.	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews19.html
Jun 00	American Leadership of S&T: Reality or Myth?	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews20.html
Jul 00	Science and Engineering Indicators 2000 Released by NSF	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews21.html
Aug 00	Pale Green Manufacturing: US is 3rd out of 3	http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews22.html
Aug 00 (Extra)	Americans Like Being No. 1 and Want to Keep It That Way	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/ITRInews23.html
Sept 00	Industry Leads U.S. R&D	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/ITRInews24.html
Oct 00	Gingrich Praises Clinton	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/ITRInews25.html
Nov 00	Research Feasts: FY2001 Budgets	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/ITRInews26.html
Dec 00	S&T Policy of the Bush Administration	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/ITRInews27.html
Jan 01	Andreessen's Law for the Internet	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/ITRInews28.html
Feb 01	Sherwood Boehlert: New Science Committee Chair	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/ITRInews29.html
Mar 01	Research Famines: FY2002 S&T Budget for Bush Administration	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/ITRInews30.html
Apr 01	As DotComs Wilt, Internet Sprouts	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/N31.html
May 01	R&D Budget Crash	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/N32.html
Jun 01	Nano is Huge	http://itri2.org/ITRInews/N33.html