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FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
Number 8: January 24, 2003

"Occasional Papers" Make the Case for DOE Science

As noted in FYI #5, while funding for science agencies such as NIH and 
NSF has grown over the past decade, the budget of DOE's Office of 
Science has remained essentially flat.  Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL) has 
already reintroduced a bill (H.R. 34) in the 108th Congress that would 
strengthen the role of science within DOE and increase the Office of 
Science budget more than 60 percent by FY 2007.  This effort died at 
the end of the last Congress, and will need strong support in this 
Congress for there to be a chance for its incorporation into a larger 
energy policy bill this year.  House Science Committee Chairman 
Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and Ranking Minority Member Ralph Hall (D-TX) 
have also introduced a bill, H.R. 238, to authorize funding increases 
in DOE's Office of Science Programs in FY 2003-2007.  Specific amounts 
in this bill, "The Energy Research, Development, Demonstration and 
Commercial Application Act of 2003," are authorized for the fusion 
energy program, spallation neutron source, nanoscale science, and 
advanced scientific computing.

For those who wish to make the case to a Member of Congress for the
research supported by the Office of Science, a new tool is available.  
Under Director Ray Orbach, the Office has developed a series of short,
easily-understandable 1-2 page "Occasional Papers" that each describe 
an important area of research or emphasis for the Office, the 
challenges and opportunities in that area, and proposed future 
directions.  Nine Occasional Papers are currently available in pdf 
format on the Office of Science web site at
http://www.science.doe.gov/feature/occasional_papers/Occ-Papers-frontpage.ht
m .  They can be printed and used for talking points or hand-outs in 
making the case for strengthening scientific research at DOE.  The 
Office's web site also includes recent highlights from each of its 
programs.

According to the web site, the Occasional Papers illustrate "just a
sampling of the exciting and diverse research activities sponsored by
the...Office of Science and performed in national laboratories,
universities, and the private sector....  The Office of Science blends
cutting-edge research and innovative problem solving to stay at the
forefront of scientific discovery.  The papers in this book illustrate 
how these inseparable elements of scientific research work together to 
achieve new insights that translate into a greater understanding of 
nature and matter, improved medical devices, energy efficient cars and 
appliances, and a host of other innovations that improve our economy, 
national security, and quality of life."

The nine Occasional Papers are listed below, with a brief explanation 
of each:

The Challenge and Promise of Scientific Computing: "In the last 
decade, the power of computation - our ability to model and simulate 
experiments that we have not conducted in a laboratory - has become so 
great that it must now be considered a third pillar, along with theory 
and experiment, in the triad of tools used for scientific discovery," 
the paper says.  It addresses steps the U.S. can take to regain world 
leadership in scientific computing capability.

Building a 21st Century Workforce: Noting that "Our Nation is failing 
to produce both a scientifically literate citizenry and the kind of 
workforce we will need in the 21st Century," this paper discusses 
opportunities to utilize DOE's national laboratories as a resource for 
teachers and students.


The Beauty of Nanoscale Science: This paper describes the potential of
nanotechnology and the role of the Office of Science in developing
instruments, tools and computers to enhance manipulation of materials 
at the atomic and molecular level.

Using Nature's Own Toolkit to Clean up the Environment: The 
"remarkable ability of microbes to survive in extreme environments can 
be used to solve some of our most intractable problems, including 
cleanup of sites contaminated with radionuclides."  According to this 
paper, "Our challenge is to figure out how to get microbes to work for 
us."

Dark Energy - the Mystery that Dominates the Universe: "Recently,
scientists sponsored by the Office of Science found that, contrary to 
all previous understanding, the expansion of the universe was 
accelerating; some force was pushing galaxies apart at ever increasing 
speed."  This paper describes the search for this dark energy.

Bringing a Star to Earth: The challenges of harnessing fusion - the 
engine that powers stars - for use on Earth are discussed in this 
paper.

Biotechnology for Energy Security: The Office of Science "is now 
seeking to exploit" the biotechnology revolution "to use plants, 
microbes, and microbial communities to produce energy, remove carbon 
dioxide from the atmosphere, and clean up hazardous waste."

Facilities for Scientific Discovery: The Office of Science "is steward 
to 10 of our Nation's most valuable research facilities."  These 
national laboratories "perform cutting-edge, state-of-the-art research 
in physics, materials sciences, chemistry, plasma science, plant 
sciences, biology, computation, environmental cleanup, and climate 
change," but significant modernization is needed.  The paper proposes 
a 10-year infrastructure modernization plan.

Scientific Foundations for Countering Terrorism: This paper describes 
how the Office can contribute to counterterrorism efforts:  "The 
Office of Science has exceptionally strong national laboratory and 
university programs in research that can provide technologies to 
detect, prevent, protect against, and respond to terrorism."

AIP has also produced a series of 16 hand-outs supporting federal 
research funding, entitled "Physics Success Stories," for use when 
meeting with Members of Congress.  Each describes a billion-dollar 
industry built on federally-funded physics research, including the 
initial federal investment and the economic impact of the resulting 
technology. Topics available include: medical imaging, lasers, global 
positioning system, environment, new materials, telecommunications, 
computers, consumer goods, national defense, transportation, energy 
efficiency, medical physics, liquid crystals, acoustics, the Internet, 
and astrophysics.  The Physics Success Stories can be viewed at 
http://www.aip.org/success/ or, for use as hand-outs, glossy hard 
copies are available at no charge upon request.  Please send us your 
US mailing address and specify the topics desired.

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Audrey T. Leath
Media and Government Relations Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi{at}aip.org
(301) 209-3094
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