Август 2002 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• Putin says defense industry restructuring should be stepped up
• Industry and Science Ministry to present industrial development program
• PM comments on education
• Russian and U.S. Scientists in a Joint Project Hold Their First Meeting in U.S. to Advance View Systems' Concealed Weapons Detection Technologies -- Worldwide Security Will Benefit From This Industry Partnership With the Department of Energy's Initiative for Proliferation Prevention Program
• New Study Says Oil Came from Minerals Not Plants
• Boeing Announces New Executive Appointment in Moscow
• Directed Evolution of the Biosphere: Biogeochemical Selection or Gaia?
• Late blight-resistant potato to help Russian farmers
• Putin meets with scientists over Far Eastern marine reserve
• Putin says Far East ecology problems increasingly troubling
• Millennium Pharmaceuticals Researcher Joins NuGEN's Advisory Board
• Conservation Priorities for Russian Mammals
• Russian nuclear scientist disappears
• Siberia Police Try to ID Found Body

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University potato breeders are donating a disease-resistant potato to Russia in an effort to help combat aggressive strains of potato late blight that are threatening to devastate the nation's essential small farms.
The Cornell-developed New York 121 potato, which also is able to fend off golden nematodes, scab and potato virus Y (PVY), will be given to Dokagene Technologies, a company specializing in producing pathogen-free seed in Russia, in a meeting and a field trip in Moscow on Aug. 20.
Dokagene will begin multiplying the potato seed, and the company hopes that it will have enough to begin commercial distribution in Russia within three or four growing seasons.
"Potato seed can become contaminated with viruses and other soil-borne pathogens," says K. V. Raman, professor of plant breeding and executive director of the Cornell Eastern Europe Mexico (CEEM) program. "Over the next few years, Dokagene will propagate the potato seed, while Cornell expertise will act as a scientific backstop to ensure the availability of healthy seed."
During their visit to Moscow, Cornell scientists will develop seed-multiplication procedures with Dokagene researchers. Also, they will review existing late blight projects and establish a plan for integrated late blight disease management involving a consortium of scientists from the European Union, Eastern Europe and the United States.
"After China, Russia is the second largest producer of potatoes in the world. It is considered the second bread for many parts of Russia. A severe late blight problem could put millions of people in harm's way, and such a horrible problem could possibly destabilize the region," says Ronnie Coffmann, Cornell professor of plant breeding.
Dokagene, a subsidiary of Troika Potato International of Elkton, Md., and Prince Edward Island, Canada, will recoup the expense of development, packaging, distribution and research by charging Russian market rates for the seed. An additional advantage for Russian farmers in growing the New York 121 variety is that the potato does not require pesticides or fertilizers.
During their visit to Russia, the Cornell group will visit the Dokagene propagation facilities near Moscow and farmers whose crops are grown on small plots called kitchen gardens.
These small farmers annually grow 3.4 million hectares (8.4 million acres) of potatoes with an average yield of 10 tons per hectare. Annual Russian potato production is between 34 million and 39 million tons.
New strains of the devastating fungus-like disease called Phytopthora infestans, or late blight, are far more aggressive than their ancestors that triggered the Irish potato famine of the 1840s.
Due to commercial transportation, involving both imports and exports of potatoes, the disease has evolved through sexual mating. Unlike the old strains, the new pathogen can survive harsh winters in the soil, further endangering crops.
Because of a drought-caused potato shortage in 1976, the former Soviet Union and the nations of Eastern Europe inadvertently imported the disease in shipments of 25,000 tons of potatoes from Mexico, where the late blight pathogen originated. Beginning in the 1980s, Western Europe successfully battled the pathogen with integrated pest management measures, which included the selective use of fungicides, says William E. Fry, Cornell professor of plant pathology.
Russia's troubled economy makes pesticides unaffordable for the nation's myriad small farms.
The story of the late blight pathogen is complex. The two mating types of the organism, A-1 and A-2, are both short-lived on their own. The Irish potato famine was caused only by A-1, which had escaped from Mexico. After the famine, the A-1 continued to be the only strain found outside Mexico, according to Fry. "Sexual reproduction didn't occur then because partner mating types were found only in Mexico," he says.
When potato tubers from Mexico arrived in Europe and the Soviet Union in 1976, some contained the A-2 strain, permitting A1 and A2 organisms to reproduce sexually and create oospores, the resting state of the pathogen. The pathogens proliferate freely and survive in the soil despite harsh winter conditions. When warm and moist summers arrive, they attack the potatoes and destroy the harvest. These spores reproduce and adapt other characteristics.
In the growing seasons between 1990 and 2000, the St. Petersburg region of Russia saw seven blight years, the Moscow region saw five and Siberia saw three. The federation's Sakhalin Island, north of Hokkaido, Japan, saw blighted potato harvests every year in the 1990s.
CEEM scientists believe that the New York 121 and other varieties form the foundation for fighting late blight. The development of New York 121 dates back more than 30 years when Robert Plaisted, Cornell professor emeritus of plant breeding, acquired seeds of potato varieties grown in the Andes mountains of South America. Repeated selection for adaptation to the New York region and for disease resistance produced the E74-7, the mother of NY 121. This variety was important because of its extreme resistance to potato mosaic viruses. In 1984 Plaisted obtained seeds, from the International Potato Center in Peru that had resistance to multiple races of the golden nematode, a soil-borne pest. One generation of breeding produced N43-288, the male parent of New York 121. This parent is mostly of Peruvian ancestry, but includes a wild species from Argentina.
By breeding the E74-7 with the N43-288 about 11 years ago, Plaisted developed a potato with multiple resistance. Typically it takes 14 years to bring a newly tested and developed potato to market, but New York 121 took less than a decade. This mid-season potato fits well with Russian needs since it is good for both boiling and baking.
Dokagene will import a total of 11 other new potato varieties into Russia, seven of which were bred at Cornell. They include:
Reba - A mid-season variety bred for both the potato-chip market and table use. It is resistant to the golden nematode and moderately resistant to early blight, verticillium wilt and scab.
Salem - A mid-season potato with high-yielding ability, bred for table stock. It is resistant to the golden nematode and scab.
Keuka Gold - A yellow-flesh potato, good for boiling, flavor and high yields. It is resistant to scab and golden nematodes.
Eva - A bright-white-skin potato, good for boiling. It is resistant to the mosaic virus, golden nematode and scab, and can be stored for a long time.
Pike - A round potato with a buff skin, good for making potato chips. It is resistant to golden nematode and scab.
New York 128 - A white, round potato for chipping. This offspring of New York 121 is resistant to the golden nematode and late blight.

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Aug 27, 2002 (RosBusinessConsulting via COMTEX) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin inspected a part of the Far East marine reserve on a launch.
The Russian leader was accompanied by Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolay Laverev, Director of the marine reserve Andrey Malyutin and chairman of the Far East Department of the Academy of Sciences Valentin Sergiyenko. According to Malyutin, the Far East marine reserve, the only marine in Russia, is a biosphere reserve of international importance. The Russian President and scientists discussed problems that the Academy of Sciences had and problems in the fishing industry. Participants of this meeting stressed the importance of attracting investments in these sectors for the maximum possible effective use of marine resources without causing damage. Finally, Putin and scientists considered the protection of the reserve, struggle against poachers and interaction with border guards. Putin promised to discuss these issues with head of the Russian federal border agency Konstantin Totsky.

Российский президент В. Путин прибыл на Дальний Восток с целью обсудить с учеными экологические проблемы

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin took to the sea on Tuesday, inspecting the work of scientists at the country's only Pacific Coast nature preserve and discussing ecological problems in the Far East region.
The sprawling Far East region holds some of Russia's richest troves of natural resources, including vast stands of timber and plentiful fishing grounds, but these are increasingly threatened by an array of problems.
Some of the troubles, such as pollution, are holdovers from the Soviet era when industries built plants with little regard for the ecology. Others have burgeoned since the collapse of the Soviet Union, particularly extensive illegal logging.
Putin, who shed his usual business suit in favor of a black T-shirt while riding in a small boat with scientists at the Far East Wildlife Preserve, said ecological problems were felt to a much greater degree in the Far East than in other parts of the country.
He said the situation was partly due to the presence of rapid development in neighboring countries.
"Ecological problems in the Far East are piling up, and that is why there is a need for pooling efforts with your counterparts in Japan, China, both Koreas, and Mongolia,"Putin said.
He also called for improving cooperation between scientists and the border guards service in protecting natural resources. Much of the timber harvested illegally in Russia is believed to end up in China and poachers hunt the region's bears and rare tigers, whose organs are believed in China to have medicinal properties. Putin also expressed concern that ecological problems could result from increased exploitation of the oil and gas fields off Sakhalin Island and said oil industry executives should coordinate plans of pipeline construction with nature conservation experts.
The fields off Sakhalin have attracted wide interest among foreign oil companies. One proposal foresees building a pipeline from northern fields to an ice-free port at the southern tip, traversing the spine of the island, which is home to some of the country's most spectacular unspoiled scenery. Putin's meeting with the scientists was part of a six-day visit to the Vladivostok area, his first since becoming president. The trip aims at underlining Kremlin intentions of working more closely with the region, which is remote from the Russian centers of power. Many residents feel neglected by the federal government. Putin also is using the trip to reaffirm support for the navy's Pacific Fleet, based in Vladivostok. The navy is one of the most troubled branches of the underfunded military.
On Wednesday he is to show his care for the fleet by presenting it with an icon of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov, a noted 19th-century commander.
"We really need the moral support of our Russian Orthodox Church", fleet commander Konstantin Sidenko said on state television.

SAN CARLOS, Calif., Aug 19, 2002 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- NuGEN Technologies, Inc. announced today the appointment of Elena V. Grigorenko, Ph.D., to its Advisory Board. Dr. Grigorenko is an experienced researcher in the field of microarrays and RNA labeling to identify important genes in drug discovery. "We are honored to have Elena join our Advisory Board", stated Nurith Kurn, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer of NuGEN Technologies. "Her microarray expertise while at Millennium and Wake Forest will be beneficial as we seek to integrate our Single Primer Isothermal Amplification (SPIA(TM)) technology into a wide range of platforms including microarrays, biochips, beads, microfluidics and other miniaturized devices for research and clinical applications. Elena's scientific background will complement the business strengths of our other advisory board members in guiding SPIA(TM) to market."
Dr. Grigorenko has been a researcher at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since 2000 where she leads and manages several projects including cross-site microarray platform evaluation and RNA labeling improvements. Prior to her position at Millennium, Dr. Grigorenko was an Instructor and Assistant Professor at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She directed the Molecular Biology/Microarray Core facility and collaborated with Dr. J. Eberwine to examine different approaches for gene expression analysis. She also initiated and conducted collaborative research projects with Glaxo Wellcome. Dr. Grigorenko has co-authored over 30 scientific articles and holds 1 issued patent. She completed her fellowship at the UT Southwestern Medical Center and was awarded her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Institute of Biological Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Grigorenko joins the current NuGEN Advisory Board which includes: Joe W. Gray, Ph.D., Jim Larrick, M.D., Ph.D., David G. Lowe, Ph.D., Ken Rubenstein, Ph.D., Mickey Urdea, Ph.D., and Gregory Went, Ph.D.
NuGEN Technologies, Inc., is a privately held company focused on the development and commercialization of the next generation of genetic and proteomic analysis products and technologies that will enable better understanding, diagnosis and treatment of disease. Its novel and elegantly simple continuous linear amplification technology, known as Single Primer Isothermal Amplification (SPIA(TM)), is ideal for a wide range of molecular biology and drug discovery applications. NuGEN's first product offering incorporating SPIA(TM) will be for gene expression analysis, where it surpasses current technologies by dramatically reducing sample size (<20ng total RNA) and by providing the accuracy, efficiency and speed researchers demand. NuGEN believes that its proprietary SPIA(TM) amplification technology will revolutionize gene expression analysis, enabling researchers to get more information in a fraction of the time while accurately maintaining the fidelity of gene representation. NuGEN was founded in February 2000 and is headquartered in San Carlos, California.
This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected. These forward-looking statements represent the Company's judgment as of the date of this release. The Company disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

It will be increasingly important, especially in Russia, to identify way to prioritize use of limited resources for conservation efforts. Considering threatened species in the context of the whole fauna suggests the concept of "chance of listing" in the internationally established "Red List", and poses the question of how it is related to species' life history traits. L. Polishchuk in this Policy Forum shows that for Russian mammals chance of listing is most closely associated with annual fecundity. A focus on the subset of mammalian species whose fecundity is lower than 2.9 daughters per year should be the particular concern of the conservationist and would cause a shift in current policies.

Пропал российский ученый, который разработал способ переработки ядерного топлива атомных подводных лодок

MOSCOW -- A Russian scientist who worked on issues related to the reprocessing of nuclear fuel has gone missing, police said Thursday.
Sergei Bakhvalov disappeared in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, said Sergei Kozlov of the Krasnoyarsk police department.
Citing relatives, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported that Bakhvalov received a call on Sunday from a man who asked to meet with him. Bakhvalov left the house and never returned, the agency said. Bakhvalov heads the department of physical chemistry at Krasnoyarsk State University and the Kristall research center. He has developed a method of reprocessing nuclear fuel from submarines, and last year won a tender for work involving the Kursk ( news - web sites) nuclear submarine, which sank in 2000, ITAR-Tass said. Bakhvalov's colleagues say they do not believe his disappearance was related to his work, ITAR-Tass said.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Siberian police are investigating whether a body found Wednesday in the suburbs of a Siberian city is that of a missing Russian scientist who worked on reprocessing nuclear fuel from submarines.
Nina Kazakevich of the Krasnoyarsk prosecutor's office said it was too early to identify the body, but she confirmed that it was found near Sergei Bakhvalov's home.
Bakhvalov disappeared Aug. 18 from his neighborhood in Krasnoyarsk, about 2,100 miles east of Moscow, after a man rang his doorbell and asked the scientist to take a walk with him, Russian news agencies reported.
Citing relatives, the Interfax news agency said Bakhvalov told his family that he had business to take care of and left willingly with the man. He never returned.
Bakhvalov, who developed a method of reprocessing nuclear fuel from submarines, heads the department of physical chemistry at Krasnoyarsk State University and the Kristall research center. Last year, the center won a tender for work involving the Kursk nuclear submarine, which sank in 2000. At the time of his disappearance, Bakhvalov's colleagues said they did not believe it was related to his work.

Начало дайджеста за АВГУСТ 2002 года (часть 1)

предыдущий месяц

1998-2002

следующий месяц