THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK veterans, has existed for years in the military's matching of a recruit's ci vilian training to a military job. Changes in draft regulations in the past two years such as elimination of graduate student and job deferments have sharply swollen the ranks of the military manpower pool with thou sands of college-educated men—far more than the armed services can ac commodate in jobs requiring college training. Just how well the armed services are succeeding in matching these re cruits with jobs is revealed in a justreleased study prepared by the De partment of Defense for the Engineer ing Manpower Commission and in a status report of a year-old pilot pro gram conducted by the Scientific Manpower Commission (SMC) and the Pentagon aimed at better matching a draftee's or enlistee's civilian train ing to his particular military assign ment. About 80.5%, or 41,974, of the en listed college graduates went into the Army in 1969, the Pentagon study shows. But few got a job assignment related to their collegiate training. A glaring example is the job assignments of men trained as soil scientists. In fiscal 1969 the Army needed 103 soil scientists. In calendar 1969, 244 en listed men entered the army with such training but only 6, or 2.5%, of those available were assigned to their col lege specialty. In 1969 1180 chemists and 330 chemical engineers were drafted or en listed in the Army. Fewer than 9% of the chemists and 30% of the chem ical engineers drafted or enlisting in the Army, according to the Pentagon study, were assigned to "technical and allied specialties." About 15% of the chemists and 9% of the chem ical engineers were assigned to medi cal and dental jobs; 1 1 % of the chem ists and 9% of the chemical engineers got clerical and administrative jobs; 15% of the chemists and about 4% of the chemical engineers were assigned to be electrical or mechanical equip ment repairmen. But the largest group of chemists (30%) and chem ical engineers (44%) was assigned to combat infantry. The SMC-Pentagon pilot program points to an increasingly effective use of scientific and engineering talent by the military services. Of the men taking part in the program, 4 1 % got military job assignments related to their civilian skills; 28% were as signed to noncombat jobs unrelated to their civilian skills; and 3 1 % were as signed to combat jobs. Seventy-three of the 426 partici pants drafted into the Army between 10 C&EN JUNE 29, 1970
Bradbury Will Receive 1970 Fermi Award Dr. Norris E. Bradbury, director of the Los Alamos Scientific Lab oratory, will receive the Atomic Energy Commission's Enrico Fermi Award Aug. 29. It con sists of $25,000 and a gold medal, with citation "for his in spiring leadership and superb di rection of the Los Alamos Scien tific Laboratory . . . and for his great contributions to the na tional security and to peacetime applications of atomic energy." Dr. Bradbury joined the atomic energy program at Los Alamos in 1944.
May 1969 and March 1970 in the SMC-DOD program at press time were chemistry majors. About 47% had completed two or more years of graduate training. Betty Vetter, executive director of SMC, tells C&EN that about 44% of the chemistry majors got military jobs related to their civilian training, 26% got noncombat jobs unrelated to their civilian skills, and 30% were assigned combat specialties.
AGRICULTURE:
Mutants for the Masses The Federal Republic of Germany has decided to contribute about $750,000 to support a joint Food and Agricul ture Organization/International Atomic Energy Agency (FAO/IAEA) research program aimed at increasing the protein content of important food crops by the use of nuclear techniques. At the same time, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory scientists report a tech nique that rapidly identifies grain mu tants that are unusually rich in protein. These related developments were disclosed at a recent symposium in Vienna, Austria, which was organized by the joint FAO/IAEA division of atomic energy in food and agriculture to discuss progress in such work and to consider possibilities for research. West Germany's support would be for a program directed toward three areas: plant breeding research to im prove protein through use of induced mutations, developmental work to im prove analytical screening techniques, and central analytical facilities to per mit screening of radiation-induced mutants to select those with higher overall protein content and the de sired composition of amino acids. A main thrust of the program will be
toward alleviating protein malnutrition suffered by millions of people in de veloping countries. The absence of a rapid, nondestruc tive method of determining the qual ity of protein in mutant seeds has stymied the efforts of agricultural sci entists to systematically improve pro tein content of grains. Plants of nu tritional protein quality contain proteins composed of the essential amino acids—amino acids not synthe sized by the human body but essen tial for adequate nutrition. Lawrence Radiation Lab physicist Melvin P. Klein and chemistry grad uate student Leo Kramer say that they took time out from basic research ac tivities to show that essential amino acids in seeds can be measured by xray photoelectron spectroscopy (C&EN, June 22, page 5 7 ) . They bombarded tiny seed portions with xrays in a β-ray spectrometer. X-rays stimulate atoms in the sample to emit electrons. A commercial iron-free spectrometer can precisely measure the energies of the ejected electrons, revealing a characteristic energy pat tern for each of a number of amino acids in the protein molecules. If the sample shows promising amino acid content, the remainder of the seed can be planted and will grow. Thus, mu tants are selected scientifically rather than by trial and error.
PIPELINES:
Iron Ore Slurries Transporting solids in a slurry by pipe line is a concept that is gaining ad vocates all over the world. Latest to pick up the standard is Canadian Javelin, Ltd., which will build 282 miles of pipeline to transport iron ore slurry from three deposits in Labrador
