Подписано соглашение о научно-производственном сотрудничестве между Лоуренсовской Национальной лабораторией в Беркли, корпорацией Isonics и электрохимическим заводом по разделению изотопов в Зеленогорске.

GOLDEN, Colo. (BUSINESS WIRE, Jan. 26, 2000) -- Isonics Corporation (OTCBB: ISON-news) announced that it has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement withLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to study isotopically pure silicon for improved microelectronics. The 2 year effort is part of the Department of Energy's Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention Program (IPP Program) that is targeted to employ Soviet weapons related scientists in commercial activities.
The study is a collaborative project among Isonics, LBNL, and the Electrochemical Plant Isotope Separation Facility in Zelenegorsk, Russia. The study is being jointly sponsored by the Department of Energy who will provide $1,009,487 and Isonics, who will provide $1,114,475 "in-kind" contribution consisting of the manufacture of isotopically pure silane gas, polysilicon, and epitaxial wafers that will be used to perform fundamental experiments in solid-state physics as well as manufacture semiconductor devices. The DOE funding will be used to acquire silicon isotopes from Russia, and the remainder will fund basic research on silicon at LBNL. Isonics will also have rights to any intellectual property developed under the program.
Dr. Stephen Burden, Isonics' Vice President for Semiconductor Materials, commented, "This program is an integral part of Isonics' overall technology plan to provide the technical information which will speed the adoption of silicon-28 by the semiconductor industry. This program will allow an extensive study of the properties of isotopically pure silicon as well as pave the way to commercial production of silicon-28."
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will study the properties of highly enriched silicon-28, silicon-29, and silicon-30 isotopes including transport studies in isotope superlattices and magnetic resonance studies in silicon-29. Additionally, enriched silicon-30 will be studied for improvements in neutron transmutation doping (NTD) of silicon for power semiconductor applications. Professor Eugene Haller, Head of LBNL's Electronic Materials Program and Leader of the LBNL effort commented, "This collaborative IPP Project makes use of the special capabilities of a Russian isotope separation plant, a U.S. semiconductor firm, and a U.S. National Laboratory in an exceptionally unique way. The beneficiary of this project will ultimately be the U.S. semiconductor industry."
Isonics is a world leader in isotopically engineered materials and produces isotopically pure silicon-28 chemicals and wafers for the semiconductor industry. Isonics also markets and sells stable isotopes for the health care industry such as carbon-13 for diagnostic breath tests and drug design, and oxygen-18 for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. Stable isotopes can be thought of as ultra pure materials. This high degree of purification provides enhanced properties as compared to natural materials. Additional information may be obtained at www.isonics.com
Except for historical information contained herein, this document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the Company's actual results or outcomes to be materially different from those anticipated and discussed herein.
Further, the Company operates in industries where securities values may be volatile and may be influenced by regulatory and other factors beyond the Company's control. Other important factors that the Company believes might cause such differences are discussed in the risk factors detailed in the Company's 10-KSB for the year ended April 30, 1999 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In assessing forward-looking statements contained herein, readers are urged to carefully read all cautionary statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

В настоящий момент смертность в России превышает рождаемость на 700 000 человек в год. Некоторые эксперты говорят, что население России через 50 лет может снизиться до 80 миллионов человек.

Many know about Africa's severe health problems, but few are aware of a parallel tragedy building in Russia. Devastated by disease and alcoholism, mortality rates have risen dramatically since the fall of communism. Furthermore, very little is being done either by the Russian government or the world community. At the moment, deaths exceed births by about 700,000 a year. Some experts say Russia's population could drop to 80 million in 50 years from 150 million today. "The loss of life from this quiet crisis in Russia has been a catastrophe of historic proportions," says Nicholas Eberstadt, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "Mortality and disease will pose major obstacles to economic development ... for decades to come."
"If demography is said to be destiny, the destiny of Russia for the next 50 years or more is appalling," says Murray Feshbach, a research professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Washington.
These grim views are based on economic, health and demographic trends in Russia since the fall of communism, and no rapid way out of the disaster is easily visible. One hopes these views will serve as warnings. Will Russian politicians and citizens, seeing the flashing red lights of danger, change direction and break through the damaging fog of alcoholism, sexually transmitted diseases, sharing of drug needles, and corruption?
Already the breakup of the Soviet Union has greatly diminished Russia's might. "In barely a decade, Moscow has plummeted from the status of an imperial superpower to a condition of astonishing geopolitical weakness," notes Mr. Eberstadt in Policy Review, a Heritage Foundation publication.
Furthermore, Russia's gross domestic product halved in the 1990s. So far Russia hasn't adequately tackled its catastrophic health scene - nor does it appear to be a matter of public concern. While there are more than a dozen political parties fighting for votes this election season, none has chosen to make public health a major campaign issue. It wasn't mentioned much in the recent parliamentary elections. Nor are many Russian citizens, perhaps unused to participatory democracy, organizing a push for improved spending programs for health or demanding temperance measures.
The Soviet Union was infamous for its staggering vodka consumption. Contemporary Russia's thirst for vodka has gotten worse. Russian men on average are drinking about five bottles of vodka per week.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stipulates that eight liters of alcohol per capita is the upper limit for consumption before major health problems ensue. Russians - adults and children alike - consume 14 to 15 liters per capita per year. And Vodka output rose 65 percent in the first half of 1999. In effect, many Russians are drinking themselves to death.
More than 35,000 people died from accidental alcohol poisoning in 1996. In fact, daily headlines in Moscow during the winter includes body counts of the inebriated people who died of exposure. In the United States, which has almost twice the population, about 300 a year die from the same cause. Drinking is behind many of the violent and accidental deaths in Russia. According to Eberstadt, with the present pattern, a baby boy stands almost a 1 in 4 probability of dying from some sort of external trauma. That compares with about 1 in 30 in Britain. Russian women are twice as likely to die from alcohol poisoning or injury as American men. Alcohol abuse, Eberstadt figures, also plays a role in high rates of coronary disease and other fatal diseases.
Russians are also heavy tobacco users. Two-thirds of men and one-third of women smoke. Medical authorities say smoking accounts for 20 to 30 percent of deaths from heart disease and cancer. And Russian death rates from these diseases are twice those in the US.
Feshbach further sees a rapid spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis, AIDS, and other sexually- transmitted disease in Russia. One study predicts some 13 million Russians will be infected by HIV by 2005.
"This is getting close to Africa," Feshbach says. Eberstadt doesn't regard the AIDS problem as being so severe, but he does find the breakout of AIDS surprising in an industrial country with an educated population.
So what is to be done?
Teresa Ho, manager of the World Bank's health programs in Russia, says Feshbach's terrible predictions of diseases will come fully true only if nothing is done. And that's not entirely the case. Russia's health ministry itself is experimenting with more modern hospital practices to make more-efficient use of public-health funds and thus provide services to more people.
The World Bank is considering a $150 million loan for a program to deal with AIDS and tuberculosis. WHO, other UN organizations, the Soros Foundation, and the US and other nations are trying to help in modest ways.
Eberstadt emphasizes the need for a determination within the Russian public and political scene to pay more attention to the catastrophe. Public attitudes toward healthy behavior must change. A transition to a civil society under the rule of law "would have a positive and tangible effect on Russian health," he says. It could encourage business and reduce the poverty behind some of the health problems.
Mikhail Gorbachev took measures to restrain alcohol consumption during his 1980s presidency. Death rates declined. But the measure was a disaster from a political standpoint. No political leader has since dared to challenge Russia's drinking binge. "The leadership remains relatively silent," notes Ms. Ho. There is no organized campaign to spread "healthy life styles" among Russians. Without rapid policy measures, Russia's population will drop 45 percent in 50 years - the same period in which US population is expected to rise 45 percent, from 272 million to 393 million. Russia ranks 125th in average life expectancy among 188 nations studied by the UN. The ultimate effect of inaction is captured in a chilling question posed by Eberstadt: Will Russia be "too sick to matter" in world affairs? A Harvard University expert on Russia, Graham Allison, argues that the health crisis in Russia with its 30,000 nuclear weapons makes it even more important for the West to provide help to the troubled nation. "It is Russia's weakness that is the greater danger to America."

A LONG-RANGE missile fast enough to catch any combat fighter in the world is being developed jointly by Russia and China, according to British Aerospace.
BAe, one of the two rival companies bidding for a $700 million contract to equip the Eurofighter with its own advanced air-to-air missiles, said the missile could be in production as early as 2005. It has a "ram jet" propulsion system, giving a range of 50 miles and a speed of Mach 3.
Such performance would mean RAF pilots would be highly vulnerable if flying against an enemy equipped with the system. Russia has no qualms about exporting weapons to nations such as Serbia or Iraq. Based on the Russian AA-12 Adder missile, the new missile is in a relatively advanced stage of production, having been unveiled at an experimental stage at an air show last year.
According to BAe, it has already undergone preliminary flight tests and could be in production within five years. This is at least three years ahead of any possible "ram jet" missile being built for the RAF. Unlike traditional air-to-air missiles, which have thrust for only six seconds, the "ram jet" blasts the missile along for up to a minute.
"Ram jet" technology is the next great leap forward in missile design and although Russian experts have long been suspected of having the know-how, they have lacked funds since the end of the Cold War. China has stepped in to cover the development costs, according to sources at Matra BAe Systems, one of the two main rivals for a contract to equip Eurofighter with the next generation of air-to-air missiles.
The Eurofighter, which comes into service with the RAF in three years' time, will be equipped initially with an existing air-to-air missile known as AMRAAM. Although AMRAAM is very advanced by today's standards there is evidence that some modern Russian fighters have the speed to outfly it. Matra BAe Systems has designed a "ram jet" missile called Meteor as their bid for the contract, which is expected to be awarded late next month.
Raytheon, an American firm, is offering a modernised version of the AMRAAM with a double pulse rocket capable of greater range.

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