n e w s of t h e w e e k House and Senate committees that have jurisdiction over FACA, no members believe NAS was ever meant to fall under the act's provisions. So committee members are eager to arrange the proper repairs to the law. The House may have a chance to vote on those repairs this week. Wil Lepkowski
DeKalb, Monsanto sued over corn seed Rhone-Poulenc Agro (RPA) has sued Monsanto and Illinois-based seed producer DeKalb Genetics over rights to technology for producing herbicide-resistant corn. RPA is the agricultural products subsidiary of the French life sciences firm Rhone-Poulenc. RPA says that patented technology it licensed to DeKalb has been used inappropriately to produce "Roundup Ready corn" that is genetically engineered to tolerate Monsanto's flagship glyphosate herbicide product, Roundup. DeKalb disagrees, saying that its 1994 licensing agreement with RPA clearly allows it to commercialize Roundup Ready corn and sublicense the technology. That 1994 licensing agreement was itself the end result of a lawsuit—settled out of court—filed by Rhone-Poulenc, DeKalb, and Calgene against Monsanto, explains a Monsanto spokesman. And, he says, DeKalb and Monsanto are "well within their rights" under that settlement agreement. Monsanto has since purchased Calgene and holds about a 40% interest in DeKalb. RPA agrees that royalty-free rights were granted to DeKalb under the settlement. It provided DeKalb with glyphosate-tolerant gene sequences for which it holds a patent. But RPA says those rights were not intended for sale or transfer to a competitor, such as Monsanto. It is seeking to legally establish ownership of the corn seed technology and prohibit Monsanto's use of its biotechnology innovations without a license. "Our lawsuit asks for damages, but that is so far an insignificant matter because neither DeKalb nor Monsanto has sold any product," the company says. "We hope to be able to achieve some profit-sharing arrangement with anyone who chooses to utilize our genetic technology." Thus, RPA sued to protect its investment in the technology. At stake is a share in the $1.9 billion 6
NOVEMBER 10, 1997 C&EN
try Day. "It has provided a mechanism by which ACS members celebrate what they do every day," says Kenney. As in years past, all ACS local sections—188 this year—have participated in NCW activities. It was likewise an activity-filled week for staff at ACS headquarters in Washington, D.C. This year's event was unique in that it was "the first in which each ACS local section participated in one unified activity," Kenney points out. And "it was the largest ever celebration of National Chemistry Week, at least in terms of national participation." That participation began with experiment No. 3 in the "Planet Chemistry" booklet, which contains test strips for measuring water hardness. Participants, mostly schoolchildren, were asked to use the test strips to anaThe 10th anniversary7 celebration of Na- lyze water from a variety of natural tional Chemistry Week (NCW), held sources—lakes, streams, and so forth. Nov. 2-8, was marked by thousands of Data gathered by the participants include volunteers from the American Chemical the source of the water sample and the Society's local sections hosting a variety concentration of hardness ions in the of events that sought to bring the joy and sample. On Oct. 1, the NCW office began receivpotential of chemistry to the general ing and recording data. Participants either public. The centerpiece of this year's activi- mailed in their results or submitted data electronically to the NCW web site (http://www.acs. org/ncw). Data collection will continue through the end of November. As of Nov. 5, more than 2,125 data points from 400 of the U.S.'s 4,300 zip codes had been received, Kenney says. A map of water hardness, by zip code, is being created from the Fourth-grade students from Bunker Hill Elementary School in tallied results of Washington, D.C., took part in National Chemistry Week the experiment. activities at ACS headquarters. The map can be ties was a "grand experiment" to map downloaded from the NCW web site. water hardness—a function of the con- Anyone who sends in a self-addressed centration of calcium and magnesium stamped envelope with a completed data in water—across the U.S., explains NCW form will also be sent a copy of the map. Kenney says he plans to use the results coordinator Michael J. Kenney. Details of the experiment are outlined in the of the experiment in presentations to sci"Planet Chemistry" activity booklet, ap- ence teachers and others interested in inproximately 650,000 copies of which novative methods to teach chemistry and were mailed to local section NCW the methods of science. For now, the experiment united ACS for the 10th annivercoordinators. NCW is a grassroots ACS program that sary of its unique celebration of science. William Schulz began a decade ago as National Chemis-
U.S. market for seed corn. Pending final government approvals, DeKalb anticipates launching Roundup Ready corn for the 1998 growing season. It is expected to reach annual sales of about $600 million, reports BioScience Securities, Orinda, Calif., by gaining about a 25% share of 80 million acres of corn planted annually in the U.S. Roundup Ready corn will compete with LibertyLink corn, engineered to be resistant to Liberty herbicide (glufosinate), produced by the Hoechst/Schering joint venture, AgrEvo. Ann Thayer
National Chemistry Week turns 10
