Academy to present awards to six chemists Chemist Richard B. Bernstein and biochemists Martin F. Gellert, Tom Maniatis, Ira Herskowitz, Gerald M. Rubin, and Allan C. Spradling will be among 15 scientists honored by the National Academy of Sciences for outstanding contributions to science at the academy's annual meeting on April 22. Bernstein, professor of chemistry at the University of California, Los A n g e l e s , will receive t h e NAS Award in Chemical Science for his theoretical and experimental work on chemical reactivity. Bernstein uses molecular beam scattering and other laser techniques to study elastic, inelastic, and reactive collisions of small molecules and ions. His prize, which consists of $10,000 in cash and a bronze medal, was established by Occidental Petroleum Corp. to honor Armand Hammer. The Richard Lounsbery Award, a $50,000 prize and an additional $20,000 for travel, study, or other efforts, will be shared by Maniatis, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, Harvard Universi-
C&EN senior editor BiU Fallwell dies C&EN senior editor William F. Fallwell died suddenly on March 24 in his New York City apartment. He was 44 years old. He joined the editorial staff of C&EN in 1966. Apart from a threeyear stint in Washington, D.C., as managing editor from 1981 to 1984, he spent his career in various capacities in the magazine's New York City operation. His contributions to the magazine were legion. He was a prolific writer. And he did much to enhance C&EN's coverage of the chemical industry. He also helped to broaden and integrate the magazine's approach to many other topics. A perceptive and analytical observer of the chemical scene, Fallwell had an acute sense of the relationships among the scientific, technical, governmen-
ty, and Gellert, chief of the section on metabolic enzymes of the National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes, Digestive & Kidney Diseases. The researchers are being honored for their contributions to understanding the structure and function of DNA. Herskowitz, professor of biochemistry at the University of California, San Franscico, will receive the $5000 NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing for his focused and enlivening reviews of phage biology. Rubin, professor of biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and Spradling, a staff member at Carnegie Institution of Washington, will share the $5000 U.S. Steel Foundation Award in Molecular Biology for their development of a method to stably integrate cloned genes into the germ cells of living fruit flies. Other awards for chemically related work will go to Steven E. Lindow, associate professor of plant pathology, University of California, Berkeley, for his research in the genetic control of ice nucleation in bacteria, and to Isidor I. Rabi, university professor emeritus, Columbia University, for his work on behalf of the peaceful uses of atomic energy. D tal, and business aspects of chemistry and of their impact on society in general. A native of Boston, he received a B.A. in chemistry from Principia College, Elsah, 111. He served in U.S. Army Intelligence for three years before joining C&EN. •
Group updates estimate of natural gas reserves The most likely magnitude of natural gas potentially recoverable in the U.S. by conventional production methods is now estimated to be about 784 trillion cu ft. If added to the 200 trillion cu ft of proved reserves remaining in discovered fields, the total resource would be more than 57 times the 1984 natural gas production of 17.2 trillion cuft. These are the latest estimates to come from the Potential Gas Committee, which provides a biennial evaluation and has just released a preliminary report of its analysis of the results of exploration through the end of 1984. The committee consists of individual volunteers from the natural gas industry (production, pipeline, and distribution companies), i n d e p e n d e n t geologists, government agencies, and academic institutions concerned with natural gas. Although independent, it functions with guidance and assistance from Colorado School of Mines' Potential Gas Agency, which receives major support from the American Gas Association. Although the year-end estimate for 1984 for the entire U.S. is reduced from that at the end of 1982, t h e estimate for one geological province—the eastern Gulf of Mexico offshore—has been increased significantly. Discoveries in this area in recent years, the committee says, have demonstrated the probability of sizable natural gas resources there. At the same time, estimates for two other provinces—the Wind River basin of Wyoming and the Wyoming-Utah-Idaho Thrust Belt, have been reduced significantly as a result of relatively recent exploratory drilling. For its estimates, the committee includes all of the resources that it believes can be discovered and produced utilizing conventional natural gas exploration, drilling, and production technology. It also classifies the resources as probable, possible, and speculative. " P r o b a b l e " are those, in addition to proved reserves, estimated to remain in undeveloped portions of fields already discovApril 1, 1985 C&EN
7
