Апрель 2002 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• The moral complexity of Sakharov - He gave the USSR a hydrogen bomb, then a conscience
• PM to negotiate various joint projects with Belgian officials
• Basic Research and Higher Education Program Conference breaks new ground
• Exhibition Featuring Russian High Tech Opens
• Vimpelcom Launches First Local Mobile Net Service
• Charter for Stellar Sea Lion Research in the Western Bering Sea - Modified Solicitation
• Between certainty and uncertainty - observations on psychoanalysis in Russia
• Early contributions of Russian stress and exercise physiologists
• Institutional Developments in the Russian System of Social Security: Organizational and Interorganizational Aspects
• From Russia with gloves
• Russia's lower house gives preliminary approval to five-year moratorium on human cloning
• Siberia's Deadly Stalker Emerges From the Shadows
• German-Russian energy forum to open in Hanover
• Russian and US researchers to prepare report on cooperation in nuclear energy sector
• Russia's population decline spells trouble - One demographer predicts that the ratio of worker to pensioner will be 1 to 1 within two decades
• Russia's Inuit defy scientists' doomsday prophecies, Soviets' fall
• Arctic Natives Watch their Way of Life Melt away
• International conference on Transsib development to take place in June
• India, Russia Flight-Test Supersonic Cruise Missile
• South African businessman poised to become Russia's next space tourist

В статье рассказывается о многогранной личности российского ученого, политического и общественного деятеля Андрея Сахарова

Summary

Apr 04, 2002 (The Christian Science Monitor via COMTEX) -- Andrei Sarkharov was an unusually multifaceted public figure. To put him in an American context, imagine some impossible hybrid of Richard Feynman and Jesse Jackson. He made seminal contributions to the inflation hypothesis in cosmology associated with Alan Guth; he fathered the Soviet H-bomb; and in the early '60s, he was so highly regarded by the Soviet leadership that his disagreement with the science policy of Khrushchev played a part in Brezhnev's engineering of Khrushchev's overthrow

Apr 04, 2002 (The Christian Science Monitor via COMTEX) -- Andrei Sarkharov was an unusually multifaceted public figure. To put him in an American context, imagine some impossible hybrid of Richard Feynman and Jesse Jackson. He made seminal contributions to the inflation hypothesis in cosmology associated with Alan Guth; he fathered the Soviet H-bomb; and in the early '60s, he was so highly regarded by the Soviet leadership that his disagreement with the science policy of Khrushchev played a part in Brezhnev's engineering of Khrushchev's overthrow.
Most famously, he was the leader of the Soviet dissident movement, insofar as it had a leader, in the 1970s and '80s. For his work on human rights and nuclear disarmament, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Because Sakharov was roughly on the West's side in the struggle against "the Evil Empire", it is tempting to put Sakharov in soft focus, casting him as a kind of saint battling the minions of the KGB. This is to underestimate the continuing unclubbability of his moral stances. When, in 1978, a bomb exploded in a Moscow subway station, killing seven, Sakharov stood up for the rights of the supposed terrorists, calling into question the investigation of the crime, and he opposed their death sentences, as he opposed all death sentences. His position on the recent detention of more than 1,300 Middle Eastern men in the United States would certainly have been as unpopular with Americans as his 1978 stand proved to be with the Russians.
Given the protean nature of Sakharov's life, his ideal biographer should be correspondingly capacious. Richard Lourie seems to have all the qualifications needed for writing the first biography of Sakharov in English. Lourie knew the great man, for one thing. He translated his memoirs into English. Moreover, Lourie, as a journalist, has written several books about everyday aspects of Soviet life. Lourie lived and breathed the claustrophobic atmosphere of Brezhnev's leaden-age Russia, in which the great utopian experiment spiraled toward its corrupt and drunken end.
Unfortunately, Lourie's portrait of Sakharov does not measure up in several important areas. He gives astonishingly little attention to Sakharov's scientific genius, barely summarizing a few papers, and never places Sakharov in the context of 20th-century physics, where he holds an honorable place.
His account of Soviet defense thinking in the period in which Sakharov was most influential, the 1950s and early '60s, is makeshift, with several astonishing lacunas; most notably, he doesn't mention the American overflights of Soviet air space ordered by Eisenhower, surely a salient factor in the projects Sakharov was working on.
Although Eisenhower stopped the overflights after the U-2 incident, they played a major role in strengthening the Soviet conviction that American long-range planning involved a potential first strike. To understand the politics of Sakharov's opposition to further nuclear testing in 1961, which was overridden by Khrushchev, this context needs to be fleshed out in much more detail.
Sakharov was born into the Moscow intelligentsia, a cultural niche that had formed in opposition to Czarist oppression and retained vestiges of that contrarianism even under the incomparably crueler Stalin. His father, Dmitri, was a physicist who contented himself with writing popular science books. Andrei was nicknamed "the Martian" as a young man for his apparent unworldliness. Like many physicists, he was occupied by matters that were difficult to express in mixed company, such as discovering a mechanism to create the fusion of the nuclei of hydrogen atoms. But somehow Sakharov did get married. His first wife, Klava, is a shadowy figure in Lourie's biography, gradually disappearing in a haze of housewifely chores, childrearing, and bickering with her mother.
Somehow, Sakharov also picked up political convictions. In 1948, with Stalin still in charge and the fearsome Beria acting as the Soviet Himmler, Sakharov turned down an offer to join the Communist Party by explaining that he disapproved of the arrests of innocent people and the excesses of collectivization. His boldness was not punished.
This little anecdote demonstrates the quasi-immunity accorded to nuclear-weapons scientists in the Soviet system. Up until 1979, when Sakharov was stripped of his state titles and exiled to Gorky, he was still somewhat protected by the awe and need of the state.
Lourie is most comfortable with the second part of Sakharov's life, starting with his break with his masters in the Kremlin in 1965 over the first big trial of dissidents. The sweeter strain in Sakharov's story is his often tested love for his second wife, Yelena Bonner, a remarkable dissident sprung from the Leningrad intelligentsia (a more cosmopolitan group than Moscow's).
Bonner revitalized Sakharov, taking him, it seems, to every trial of every dissident in the country, expanding his network of contacts with artists and writers, and forming a bond with him that others couldn't penetrate. In the macho culture of the dissidents, their unusually close bond was sometimes misunderstood as Sakharov's uxoriousness.
This part of Sakharov's life enrolls him in the list of 20th-century heroes. Lourie, explaining Sakharov's gradual intellectual maturity as a spokesman for civil society, quotes an elegant phrase of Chekhov's about squeezing the slave out of one's blood drop by drop. Disenchantment is a painful process, especially when you have created the bombs that keep the powers that be in place. Sakharov had the courage to go through it in public.
Sakharov's life is proof of the fact that, among conventional thinkers, idealism and realism are confused. In the midst of the Soviet morass, a physicist calling for a civil society that respected the basic rights of its citizens seemed doomed and marginal, while nothing seemed as concrete as Brezhnev's tanks, missiles, and ubiquitous secret police. Yet by 1986, when Gorbachev called Sakharov in his Gorky apartment and lifted the sentence of exile, the balance of power had shifted decisively, although secretly, to Sakharov's side.
Sakharov, as a scientist, recognized that there is a structural contradiction to being a great totalitarian power. Such a power can persevere only by keeping its own society and the societies around it closed, but the power to achieve that repression can come only from a scientific and technological structure that withers in the absence of the open flow of information. It isn't only a moral victory to squeeze the slave out of one's blood. It is a historical necessity.
* Roger Gathman is a freelance writer living in Austin, Texas.

Российский премьер-министр прибыл в Брюссель, где он будет обсуждать проблемы сотрудничсетва между Россией и Бельгией. В настоящее время осуществляются 17 совместных проектов, около 500 российских ученых работают в Бельгии.

MOSCOW, Russia, Apr 22, 2002 (RosBusinessConsulting via COMTEX) -- The increase of Russia's gas supplies to Belgium will be discussed during an upcoming visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to Brussels. In particular, Kasyanov is planning to discuss ways of expanding and improving the trade turnover between the two countries with Belgian officials. According to information, in 2001 the volume of trade turnover between Russia and Belgium went up 17%, compared to the previous year, and amounted to $2.7bn. Russia's exports to Belgium increased by 14% to $12.6bn and imports from Belgium - by 26% to $1.1bn. Oil and oil products make 26.6% of Russia's exports to Belgium, raw diamonds and jewelry - 20%. Talking about the imports of our country from Belgium, chemicals make 17% of the total volume and foodstuffs - 16%. Belgium is the fourth major meat supplier to Russia, after the USA, France and Brazil. Russia's share in the total trade turnover of Belgium is equal to 0.8%. Among the most promising Russian - Belgian projects is the increase of annual natural gas supplies from Russia from 1.5 to 8bn cubic meters. At the same time, Belgium showed interest in the construction of chemical plants, the development of high-speed railroads, modernization of several glass factories and joint production of antibiotics and medicines in Russia. Experts consider scientific collaboration between the two countries very promising. 17 joint projects are being implemented now. In addition, about 500 Russian scientist are working in Belgium now.

В Кубанском государственном университете в рамках программы Фундаментальные Исследования и Высшее Образование (BRHE) 9-10 апреля прошла конференция, организованная американским фондом Гражданских исследований и развития (CRDF) и Министерством просвещения Российской Федерации. В конференции приняли участие представители 16 российских университетов

ARLINGTON, VA - April 22, 2002 - University rectors shared the spotlight with graduate and undergraduate students in Krasnodar, Russia April 9-10 during a program-wide conference under the Basic Research and Higher Education (BRHE) program. The conference, organized by the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) and the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, and hosted by Kuban State University, brought together managers and participants from Research and Education Centers (RECs) in 16 Russian universities to showcase their scientific studies, share problems and ideas, and discuss ways to enhance and improve the integration of science education and research. Particular attention was given to activities that will strengthen communication among RECs and improve ties with international colleagues and industry.
Commenting on the conference, keynote speaker Dr. Yuri Shlenov, Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation, noted that it is extremely rare to have rectors, senior professors, and students all participating in a meeting together.
Participants in the conference agreed to launch an English language immersion summer camp for REC students to improve their ability to take part in international scientific conferences. To foster a sense of community among the RECs, an e-journal will be launched, focusing on REC activities and events. The participants also announced the intention to increase opportunities for the support of young scientists and to move rapidly toward establishing technology transfer offices at the universities where centers are located.
BRHE seeks to transform natural science education in Russia by integrating high-quality research with education in the university setting.
Through three-year $1.05 million grants, BRHE establishes Research and Education Centers in Russian universities which give faculty and students the opportunity to take part in world-class research as a part of undergraduate and graduate education. To date 12 RECs have been established, and a competition is underway for another four due to be announced this summer.
Funding for the Basic Research and Higher Education program and its activities is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Russian Ministry of Education, and Russian regional governments, industries, and universities. For the conference agenda, please go to www.crdf.org/News/pan_rec_agenda.pdf. Additional information about the BRHE program is available at www.crdf.org/Centers/brhe.html.
The U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, founded in 1995, is a private, non-profit organization created by the United States Government as an American response to the declining state of science and engineering in the former Soviet Union (FSU). The CRDF seeks to address this issue by fostering opportunities for collaborative projects between FSU and U.S. researchers.

Крупная выставка высоких технологий России в области машиностроения, космоса, электроники, информатики, энергосберегающих отраслей промышленности, легкой промышленности и защиты окружающей среды открылась в понедельник в городе Шеньян на северо-востоке Китая

SHENYANG, Apr 22, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A major exhibition featuring Russian high tech opened on Monday in the northeast city of Shenyang, the first ever organized by the Russian government in China.
The exhibition aims to show Russia's state-of-the-art technology in a range of sectors including machinery, space and aeronautics, electronics, information, energy-saving industries, light industries and environmental protection.
More than 500 delegates from 250 Russian businesses have come to the exhibition, bringing high-tech products, equipment, craftsmanship, materials and some investment projects.
Organizers expect over 10,000 Chinese business representatives and scientist from some 60 regions to attend and discuss cooperation with their Russian partners in high-tech sectors.
In parallel with the exhibition will be a Sino - Russian cooperation forum, an exhibition of traditional and modern Russian paintings and a Russian food festival.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov sent a congratulatory message to the exhibition, saying that the Russian Russian government thinks highly of its cooperation with China in science and technology sectors.
The exhibition, which aims to demonstrate Russia's high technology and industrial strength, has also been held in Washington, Rome, Manama in Bahrain, and Moscow.
This year's exhibition is sponsored by the Sino- Russian Friendship Committee for Peace and Development, a Russian federation of industrialists and entrepreneurs and the Municipal Government of Shenyang.

Компания Vimpelcom начала новый вид обслуживания, который позволяет пользователям сотовой радиосвязи постоянно находиться в режиме online. Эта услуга пока доступна только в Москве и Московской области

Vimpelcom on Monday launched its General Packet Radio Service, the first Russian cellular operator to introduce the mobile Internet technology for commercial use.
The new service, which allows cellular users to stay online at all times, is available only in Moscow and the Moscow region. "Introduction of GPRS technology as a commercial service is an important stage for Russia's entire cellular market", Nikolai Pryanishnikov, Vimpelcom's first vice president, said at a news conference. GPRS can be used to access the web through the handset itself or by using the phone as a modem to connect to a computer.
Vimpelcom began testing GPRS last June and signed up 10,000 regular subscribers who had used the service for free. The company plans to triple that number by the end of the year.
"For this technology, it's an aggressive scenario", said Vimpelcom spokesman Mikhail Umarov, adding that the company does not expect high revenues from the service.
Vimpelcom's tariff plan offers GPRS for $3 a month and 25 cents for every megabyte of downloaded information. The No. 2 operator's major competitors, Mobile TeleSystems and Megafon, are also planning to launch the service. MTS spokesman Kirill Lubnin said the company plans to start commercial use of GPRS before the end of the year but declined to give further details. Sonic Duo, which operates under the Megafon brand in Moscow, is ready to offer GPRS but sees little demand. "On one hand, we welcome brave initiatives by our colleagues from Vimpelcom; on the other hand, we consider this step premature", Sonic Duo spokesman Roman Prokolov said. Vyacheslav Nikolayev, an analyst at Renaissance Capital, said the service should be targeted at high-end clients.
"You can't expect significant revenues from this service", he said. "But as a marketing move, it's very good. Vimpelcom continues developing its image as the most advanced cellular company."

Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Western Administrative Support Center; This modification is to change the issue date of the Request for Proposals to April 12, 2002. The new due date for responses to this Request for Proposals is May 13, 2002. Previously, this synopsis was listed under classification code V-Transportation, Travel, and Relocation Services and had been changed to classification code F - Natural Resources and Conservation Services. The National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) requires the charter of a vessel to conduct surveys of Stellar Sea Lion pups and non pups and to conduct other research activities on Sea Lions in the Russian Far East. Surveys of Steller Sea Lions will be conducted in the western Bering Sea and the northern part of the Okhotsk Sea during Sea Lion pupping period of June-July 2002.
Specifically, the surveys in the western Bering Sea will include the eastern coast of Kamchatka (from the Southern tip to the Navarian area) and the Commander Islands. In the Okhotsk Sea, the surveys will include all Stellar Sea Lion sites in the Northern part of the Okhotsk Sea, including Yamski Inlands, Ioni Island, Lisynskogo Penninsula, and Zavyalov Island. Counts at these sites will include the total number of live and dead pups, territorial males, juveniles, and other nonpups. Counts must be obtained from land when possible. The count records must contain a description of the counting methods, date, time, and weather condition at the time of the count. When seen Sea Lions marked with numbered brands or flipper tags will be recorded and reported. The associated North American Industrial Classification System code is 334112. Observational studies are requested to monitor Steller Sea Lion rookeries and haulout sites for banded and tagged sea lions, record reproductive behavior, and age and sea of sea lions. Sites to be monitored include Medney Island, Tuleny Island, Brat Chirpoev Island, Antisferov Island, Luvushki Island, and Raikoke Island. The (NMML) will provide the contractor with the data format and collection protocol to ensure compatibility of data to similar data collected by the Government on US Steller Sea Lion rookeries. These observational studies will last for 4 to 6 weeks during the end of May to early July at all sites except the Medney Island and Tuleny Island sites where the observations will last for 2 months , approximately from the end of May to early August. Contractor is responsible for providing travel for Russian scientists to the sites required to accomplish the tasks described above. Additionally, the contractor will provide travel for at least 10 Russian Scientists to attend the Russian Marine Mammal Council meeting at Lake Baikal in September 2001. A Request for Proposals (RFP) providing detailed technical and performance specifications and proposal instructions will be issued on or about April 4, 2002. To request a copy of the RFP please contact Crystina Elkins at (206) 526-4499 at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Western Administrative Support Center (WASC), Acquisition Management Division WC 32, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115. Or, for further further information please contract contract specialist Stephanie Kyles at (206) 526-4425

'Diversity', the theme of our conference, carries a subversive sub-text in totalitarian societies. This is one of the themes presented as the current revival of psychoanalysis in the more democratic post-Communist Russia is explored. The history of psychoanalysis in Russia is summarized with a focus on its politicization, which led to initial interest in its theory (by way of a misapprehension of its tenets), and then to ultimate suppression of psychoanalytic thinking as an ideology deemed antagonistic to the totalitarian regime. In contrast, features of psychoanalysis and democracy are explored for their mutual affinities. The background of the resourceful new generation of analytic therapists is discussed, especially in regard to their experience of the parallel meanings of the word 'repression' (political, psychological). There is a persistence of some traits in patients and practitioners alike that are referable to past repression, such as the newness of verbal treatments, the inhibition of psychological curiosity, the ambivalent lure of certainty, and the pressure of authoritarian introjects. It is noted that psychoanalysis has its own history of a posture opposed to pluralism and diversity, which deepens the dialogue on the mutual engagement between psychoanalysis and the vicissitudes of its history in Russian culture.

In Russia, the free development of scientific ideas was suppressed in 1950 as a result of the actions of the Joint Session of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. Hans Selye's theory on the general adaptation syndrome was considered unscientific. From 1956 to 1958, Pjotr Anokhin and Pjotr Gorizontov presented definitive arguments for having the theory accepted by scientists while the significance of hormones in adaptation became a topic of endocrine studies (Boris Aleshin, Igor Eskin, Vassily Komissarenko, Samuel Leites, and Michael Kolpakov). Later, Felius Meerson made essential contributions to the adaptive significance of protein synthesis and stress-limiting systems. The area of exercise physiology dealing with acute and chronic adaptation to strong physiological stressors was founded by Leon Orbeli and developed by Aleksei Krestovnikov. Significant contributors to this area were Vladimir Farfel, Nikolai Yakovlev, and Nikolai Zimkin. Although the majority of their publications have remained unknown outside of Russia, it is interesting that many of their results have been "rediscovered" by others. Yakovlev also deserves recognition because he was among the founders of contemporary exercise biochemistry and because his research has provided the foundation for current investigations. Several generations of young scientists have been inspired by the above-mentioned Russian scientists. Today, however, the research activities of scientists are no longer limited by political pressures but by financial resources instead.

In the course of the present transition in Russian society, a new system of social security has been developed. The previous Soviet system has been replaced by a system of four more or less independent social funds, covering the main branches of social security. These funds are supposed to be run according to insurance principles and to be financed by contributions, mainly from employers. Given the difficult economic and social situation of the country, there have been increasing demands for effectiveness in the management of the different funds and also in the management of the whole social security system. The results of this study show that the social funds have developed different organizational structures with different degrees of centralization and decentralization. Only one of the funds seems to be relatively well-functioning and effective, while the others have experienced more or less serious problems in fulfilling their main tasks and functions.
The most serious problems, however, seem to stem from the structure of the social security system as a whole, which is perceived as fragmented and badly coordinated. In order to improve the coordination of the system, there have been proposals to merge two or more funds into a unified social security organization. This strategy is open to question, however, since it would increase the bureaucracy of the system. There are other ways in which the structure of the social security system might be advanced. Such developments should be based on an analysis of the system from the perspective of the individual client or patient.

Появление бактерий, устойчивых к лекарствам, активизировали поиски замены антибиотикам. Бактериофаги - вирусы, безопасные для людей, но убивающие бактерии. Их глубоко исследовали до 1940-ых годов, но с появлением мощных антибиотиков запад отказался от дальнейших исследований. Однако в Восточной Европе и бывшем Советском Союзе "фаготерапию" применяли, назначая фагомази, пилюли и пластыри. Теперь американский ученый Моррис и его коллеги проводят испытания над вирусами из России, убивающими микробы, которые импортируются как потенциальная замена антибиотиков

Russian remedies could take out hardy US bacteria. Long-abandoned by Western medicine, viruses that naturally kill microbes are being imported as a potential substitute for antibiotics.
The emergence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria is intensifying the search for antibiotic replacements. Bemoaning the problem, clinician Glenn Morris of the University of Maryland in College Park got an idea from a colleague from the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Morris explains: "He said, 'why don't you use 'phage therapy?'; I said, 'what's 'phage therapy?'." 'Phages - more properly, bacteriophages - are viruses that are harmless to humans but kill bacteria. They were widely researched as a means to tackle disease until the 1940s. When potent antibiotics appeared on the scene, the West discarded them.
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union pursued 'phage therapy, so 'phage creams, pills and plasters are commonly available there. Now Morris and his colleagues are carrying out basic tests to update the treatments for US product licenses.
Worktops contaminated with the foodborne bacteria Listeria are clean within 24 hours of 'phage treatment, he told the Experimental Biology 2002 meeting in New Orleans on Sunday. Salmonella and Escherichia coli are similarly wiped out. 'Phages could be used in food production or packaging, Morris suggests.
Unlike antibiotics, 'phages kill only a specific bacterial type, leaving other, beneficial bugs intact. For example, antibiotic resistant strains of the gut bacteria Enterococcus, which can cause dangerous infections after surgery or in chemotherapy patients, are also being tackled. We are naturally surrounded by 'phages. The type that Morris is using attack and multiply inside bacteria then split them apart to escape. The 'phages keep killing until their victims run out, and then quietly die.
Cold science
Part of the reason that the West dropped 'phages was that bacteria might evade them, says Richard Young, who studies pathogenic microbes at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A single change in the bacterial receptor to which they bind could render it resistant to the virus: "It was viewed as its Achilles heel", he says.
A mixture of 30-40 different 'phages all aimed at the same bug should get around this problem. "A cocktail is important", agrees Heidi Kaplan, who studies antibiotic-resistant bacteria at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.
"US science tends to have a prejudice against Soviet science", adds Morris, who now collaborates with the Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology and Virology in Tbilisi, Georgia. But Morris is not alone in trying to bring down the scientific cold wall - two small biotech companies besides his are also on the case.

MOSCOW -- The lower house of Russian parliament on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a bill that imposes a five-year ban on human cloning and says cloned human embryos cannot be brought into Russia.
The State Duma voted 260-4 with one abstention to pass the government-proposed bill in the second of three required readings. The document doesn't ban animal or therapeutic cloning, and says the ban on human cloning could be either extended or revoked after five years.
The lawmakers turned down a proposed amendment to make the ban permanent. The bill's supporters say that human cloning must be outlawed because of its questionable ethics and because it could lead to the appearance of defective humans. President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) has said human cloning is ethically wrong.
Critics of the ban, including ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, warn that the prohibition would only prompt Russian scientists to move abroad to continue cloning experiments.
"Scientists worldwide will forge ahead with cloning, and when we decide to catch up with them it will be too late", Zhirinovsky said, calling the ban a "terrible strategic mistake."

Продолжение дайджеста за АПРЕЛЬ 2002 года (часть 2)

предыдущий месяц

1998-2002

следующий месяц