Chemical & Engineering
NEWS JANUARY 29, 1968
The Chemical World This Week been carried out at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in Buffalo, N.Y., but earlier this month the Cornell board of trustees voted to sever all connections between the university and the laboratory. The Michigan committee finds it preferable to acknowledge classified research within the restrictions it recommends. The committee feels that there "is not adequate justification for categorically banning classified research." No one is currently involved in classified research in the chemistry department at Michigan, according to Dr. Elderfield. Such research there has been mostly in electrical and electronic areas, and chemistry and physics personnel haven't been involved since the Korean conflict.
Michigan committee sets classified research limits Classified research should continue at the University of Michigan—but subject to some specific limitations and to prior faculty review. That is the unanimous recommendation by the University of Michigan faculty's Committee on Research Policies. The committee has reviewed the subject of classified research since last October. Under the chairmanship of chemistry professor Robert Elderfield, the committee has made its report to the faculty assembly. The 65-member assembly will debate the report on Feb. 19 and make recommendations to the university regents. The committee has proposed four restrictions on classified research: • T h e university should refuse any contract for research which has as its purpose "to destroy human life or to incapacitate human beings." • The university should decline any research contract which "would restrain its freedom to disclose the existence of the contract or the identity of the sponsor." • The university should not accept contracts which would limit its freedom to disclose "the purpose and scope of the proposed research" to the degree needed to permit informed faculty discussion of the appropriateness of the research to the university and its potential contributions to human knowledge. • The university should refuse support for any classified research unless there is reasonable expectation that the research will make a significant contribution to either the advancement of knowledge or to enhancing the research capability of the investigator or his research unit. To implement these policies, the committee has proposed that a continuing review committee of nine faculty members be established. This committee would be broadly representative of the entire faculty and would examine all proposals for contracts involving national security classification, including extensions, supplements, or changes in existing contracts. The review committee would advise the university's vice president for re-
Dr. Robert Elderfield Middle-of-the-road
search whether classified contracts should be accepted or declined. The vice president would have the authority to overrule the committee, but if he did, the decision would be reported to the faculty assembly along with the reasons both for the committee's recommendations and for his action. In making its report, the research policies committee called on the University of Michigan to take the lead in forming a nationwide university group to work toward reducing federal restrictions on publication and dissemination of the results of university research. Major universities, the committee said, should band together to press for declassification "to the absolute minimum consistent with national security." The committee's recommendations thus put Michigan on a somewhat middle-of-the-road course. A number of universities have banned classified research entirely. Harvard, for example, does not allow any classified research on Harvard time or in Harvard buildings, although university personnel may be involved in a consulting capacity away from Cambridge, Mass. Likewise, Cornell allows no classified research on its Ithaca campus. Some classified research has
Bubble chamber blend bows at Brookhaven By blending cryogenic liquid neon with liquid hydrogen over a continuous range of composition, scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory's bubble chamber facility can determine the fate of gamma ray photons which used to escape from even their largest hydrogen-filled bubble chamber. The new technique is based on BNL director Maurice Goldhaber's recently patented invention (U.S. patent 3,358,144 ) and is applicable to other bubble chambers. The new method enables scientists to select the most suitable hydrogenneon mixture for a particular experiment. They can then reduce the radiation length of gamma rays over a continuous range from 430 inches (1100 cm.) in pure liquid hydrogen to 11.8 inches (30 cm.) in pure liquid neon. BNL's largest bubble chamber is 80 inches (200 cm.). Radiation length is the average distance a photon travels from its emission source before interacting with the electric field of any target atom. By shortening the radiation length to any value within this range scientists can better contain the photons within the volume of the chamber and photograph their subsequent conversion into ionized, traceable electronJAN. 29, 1968 C&EN 13
