LUS. to continue boycott of UNESCO Many in Washington believe that White House science adviser D. Allan Bromley is still a long way from steering the Administration toward a coordinated science policy. They are apparently right. While Bromley was busy presiding over the White H o u s e c o n f e r e n c e on climate change, his President was approving the restoration of U.S. funding for an international research center in Austria with one hand. But with the other his State Department was reaffirming condemnation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization. Bromley and his Office of Science & Technology Policy were involved in the decision to support the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. But in the case of UNESCO, Bromley was not involved at all. The Administration's decision to continue to keep the U.S. out of UNESCO was based on a State Department report issued last week. The report cited UNESCO's stillbloated management structure, its failure to reform its communication and information programs, continuing bias against Israel in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and inadequate participation of donor countries in budgetary decisions, and contained a surprising
personal criticism of UNESCO's director-general, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, a Spanish biochemist. But Walter A. Rosenblith, a physicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, says the decision was based on Reagan Administration ideology. "What I find especially offensive is the way they personally treated Federico Mayor. There was no serious attempt to evaluate the evidence and determine the things that are not true and only half true. It is important to have in the UN the kind of indispensable international science that UNESCO does." OSTP will be trying to work behind the scenes to help fund UNESCO's science programs that are consistent with U.S. foreign policy. Meanwhile it is pleased with the restoration of support for IIASA. The center, which applies systems analysis to problems ranging from water quality to economics and technology, is the one place where scientists from the East and West could work together even in the darkest days of the cold war. Reagan cut off help on fears that western computer technology was being leaked to the once-dubbed Eastern bloc through IIASA. Now, with the dissolution of the Iron Curtain, technological leakage is no longer a concern and Bush's National Security Council gave the nod. Wil Lepkowski
Action on Great Lakes health hazards urged "Persistent toxic substances in the Great Lakes environment threaten human health" and "it would be unwise and imprudent not to take immediate action," concludes the International Joint Commission (IJC) in its fifth biennial report released this month. The IJC monitors implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, first signed by the U.S. and Canada in 1972. This report is far stronger and takes a more activist approach toward pollution control in the Great Lakes region than previous IJC publications. It bases- its recommendations on studies showing that toxic substances in the Great Lakes Basin pose serious documented health problems—including reproductive problems, gross deformities, and behavioral and hormonal changes—in wildlife and lab animals. It also cites studies of infants born to women who eat Lake Michigan fish on a regular basis. In these infants, the gestational period, birth weight, skull circumference, and cognitive, motor, and behavioral development seem to be adversely affected by the mothers' fish consumption. To remedy this situation, the report urges that Great Lakes fish consumption advisories should be strengthened. To ward off future problems, it also recommends that
Organic chemists Doering, Roberts win Welch Award
Doering
Roberts
Two of the pioneers in modern physical organic chemistry— William von Eggers Doering and John D. Roberts—have won this year's Welch Award in Chemistry. They will share a gold medallion, a certificate, and $225,000. Doering, 73, is Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry emeritus at Harvard University. His contributions revolved around novel aromatic systems, carbones, molecular rearrangements, and related topics. In addition, he almost single-handedly developed the largest exchange program for chemistry between the U.S. and China. Roberts, 72, is Institute Professor of Chemistry emeritus at California Institute of Technology. He is particularly noted for initiating and developing many of the important techniques of modern physical organic chemistry in areas such as isotope-position rearrangements, benzyne, nonclassical cations, as well as conformational analysis and study of enzymes using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, in which he was a pioneer.
April 23, 1990 C&EN 5
