NEWS OF THE WEEK that the FDA action does not ban sales of The tobacco firms fear the regulacigarettes to adults. tions might bring "more severe restricThe regulations, published in the Aug. tions or a ban on the sale of cigarettes 11 Federal Register, are open for comment to adults." They argue that voluntary for 90 days. FDA then has another 90 measures and legislative steps would days to issue final regulations. be more effective in stemming teenage Five U.S. tobacco firms and a North smoking. Sen. Wendell H. Ford (D-Ky.) Carolina advertising company have re- will introduce such a bill next month, sponded by filing suit against FDA and but its provisions are still unclear. Kessler. They contend FDA's proposed The Administration has strong supcourse is illegal, far beyond its statutory port from the medical and scientific comauthority, and seek to bar FDA from any munities. National Institutes of Health measure to regulate cigarettes. They also Director Harold E. Varmus and Nationargue that FDA's actions circumvent de- al Cancer Institute Director Richard D. cades of congressional directions and Klausner wrote Clinton, urging him to numerous court decisions. A separate act: "Today there is absolute, unassailsuit by the Freedom to Advertise Coali- able scientific evidence that nicotine is tion seeks an injunction against advertis- addictive. Children, especially teenagers, ing curbs, calling them violations of First are highly vulnerable," they wrote. Amendment rights. Lois Ember
First nanotubes made of boron nitride For the first time, scientists have synthesized nanotubes made of pure boron nitride. The boron nitride nanotubes have electrical properties quite distinct from their carbon nanotube cousins, report Alex Zettl, Marvin L. Cohen, and colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory [Science, 269, 966 (1995)]. They have created a substance predicted to have highly uniform electrical properties that may be of great use in fabrication of new materials. As an offshoot of fullerene studies, scientists have been fabricating carbon nanotubes for several years. They use a plasma arc discharge, blasting carbon off a graphite anode into neat concentric nanotubes. "The astonishing thing is that out of this violence one finds on a cathode just a millimeter away ... billions of nanotubes whose structure is incredibly ordered and perfect/' says Daniel T. Colbert, a postdoctoral fellow with buckyball codiscoverer Richard E. Smalley at Rice University in Houston. Scientists have speculated about the properties of boron nitride, a close cousin of graphite. The two materials are isoelectronic and both have hexagonal structures much like chicken wire. Carbon's electronic structure is such that tube diameter affects tube behavior: Tubes can act as metals or semiconductors, making their properties difficult to predict and control. On the other hand, boron nitride nanotubes—which are made by a plas6
AUGUST 21, 1995 C&EN
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