Июнь 2002 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• China, Russia Cooperate to Bolster High-tech Development
• Friends & Partners Link Russia, U.S. in Cyberspace
• Xinjiang to Strengthen Economic Cooperation with Russia
• Russia needs changes to catch up in IT and software market
• Group of Russian scientists march to Moscow to demand better pay, housing
• Scientists March to Moscow
• Official: More than 500,000 scientists have left Russia in the past decade
• Western companies send programming jobs to Russia - instead of waiting for Russians to come to them
• American Biogenetic Sciences Seeking Partners to Test, Market and Distribute Oral Smallpox Vaccine
• Advanced Biotherapy, Inc. Reports That Its Use of Antibodies to Gamma Interferon Halts Corneal Transplant Rejection
• Russian nuclear know-how pours into Iran -- A civilian power reactor being built in Bushehr triggers fears that Russian
• Collaboration Advances Potential Therapy for Autoimmune Diseases
• U.S. Department of Energy Approves Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to Develop Humanized
• Scientists Make Bug-Resistant Potato
• Lava Blamed for Ancient Animal Deaths
• S. Africa Sent Ships to Rescue Scientists Trapped in Antarctica
• U.S.-Russian Science Collaboration Growing But Obstacles Remain

Тысяча российских инженеров и техников работает в Иране на атомной станции. Для них это просто возможность заработать деньги, так как на родине ученые и специалисты в области ядерного оружия получали нищенскую зарплату. Однако в Соединенных штатах опасаются, что ученые-ядерщики раскроют секретные технологии

MOSCOW, Jun 21, 2002 (The Christian Science Monitor via COMTEX) -- As Aeroflot Flight 515 from Moscow begins its predawn descent into Tehran, the group of middle-aged Russian experts on board begins to fill out landing cards for Iran.
Pulling out dog-eared, still-valid Soviet passports, the men write down their profession - engineer - and their destination: Bushehr, the city on the Persian Gulf that is home to Iran's nuclear-power project - and to 1,000 Russian engineers and technicians.
Russia sees the Bushehr reactor as a mammoth civilian venture, an $800 million nuclear power project that adheres to international norms, brings home cash, and ensures close relations with the Islamic regime in Tehran.
But from the United States' perspective, oil- and gas-rich Iran doesn't need nuclear power. And so the reactor is an indication that Iran - using the civilian project as a cover, the US alleges - is gaining sensitive Russian technology that will help Tehran's hard-line mullahs acquire nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Curbing such proliferation is a key strategy of the US-declared "war on terror."
Despite top-level denials of wrongdoing from Moscow and Tehran, and piecemeal indications that Russia has refused several questionable Iranian requests in recent years, US officials say that illicit technology and know-how transfers from Russian entities to Iran are continuing, and could spoil rapidly warming US-Russia relations.
"The quality of the relationship with Russia really depends fundamentally on how they address this question in the future," John Bolton, the US undersecretary of state in charge of arms control, warned last week. Russia says it is playing by the rules, and that it has an even greater interest than the US in preventing nearby Tehran from acquiring nuclear capability.
Officially, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that both Russia and Iran - for their declared nuclear projects - are adhering to all guidelines. Russia notes that, under a nonproliferation agreement, the US is building a similar reactor in North Korea - another country labeled by Washington as part of an "axis of evil."
Loose scientists
But the secretive world of nuclear and missile exports; the murky role of Russia's security services, often vulnerable to bribery; and the desperation of Russia's nuclear scientists, impoverished since the USSR's fall, have created new risks. US concerns focus not on mishandling of nuclear materials at Bushehr - which are to remain under internationally monitored Russian control - but on the possibility that Russian know-how will create a nucleus of Iranian experts who could apply new knowledge to a weapons program.
"The new generation [of nuclear experts] may work in Iran, and may work on nuclear weapons, because their lives are too hard and they want money, money, money," says Valentin Tikhonov, a Russian Academy of Sciences expert who authored a report last year on the "human factor" of Russian proliferation, for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Most can't see the difference between working on civilian or war production - for them it doesn't matter," Mr. Tikhonov says. "In these conditions it is difficult to speak about human values, about the dangers of their work. They only want to survive. It is a catastrophic situation." Most Russian nuclear scientists make less than $50 per month, according to the report.
Under US pressure, three key missile technology deals to Iran were stopped by Russian authorities in the late 1990s. And the sale of critical laser information that could help Iran make fuel for nuclear weapons was suspended in 2000. Still, US sources say such cooperation continues.
"[Russia] is giving meaningful help [to Iran] in mastering the nuclear-fuel cycle, and some critical technologies like sophisticated metal alloys [and for] laser isotope separation techniques ... that are involved in building the bomb," says a senior US official, who asked not to be further identified. "There's enough to see a pattern of a determined Iranian effort that has unfortunately struck positive responses from some Russian entities."
While Russia calls for evidence of US claims, however, passing on such intelligence is "tricky" because of Clinton-era cases that went awry, the US official says: "When some sensitive information was passed to the Russians, they didn't stop the activity, but they stopped the leak. That leads to great reticence to blow any more sources."
Russian analysts argue that Moscow's concerns about Iran precisely mirror Washington's, and that it also wants to stop "freelance" technology transfers.
"There is practically zero risk that Iran will use the Bushehr power plant for nuclear proliferation," says Vladimir Orlov, head of the PIR Center, a Moscow think tank, echoing some American analysts. He notes that Russia will cut Iran out of the nuclear-fuel cycle by supplying all such fuel itself and immediately taking spent fuel back to Russia.
"Russia doesn't want - and will not support - any ambitions of Iran which may be interpreted as nuclear weapons ambitions," Mr. Orlov says, adding that the US "exaggerates the situation."
Moscow has sometimes defied Iran's wishes, Orlov says. In the 1990s it refused Tehran's request to build a more robust heavy-water reactor. And Russia turned down a request for gas centrifuges, which could have led to production of homegrown- weapons-grade material.
Moscow's caution was illustrated earlier this year, Orlov says, when Iran asked to buy the Russian version of the shoulder- held US Stinger missile - the Igla, or "needle" - designed to shoot down aircraft. Angering Tehran, Russia said no - because Iran's contacts with anti-Israel Hizbullah guerrillas in Lebanon meant Moscow was "not certain that Igla would stay in Iran."
Still, Moscow is a key factor in any Iranian nuclear aspirations. "Russian technology is unique to the Iranian program, because it is the only game in town," says Rose Gottemoeller, a former Deputy Undersecretary of Energy responsible for nonproliferation programs, who is now at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington. "Everyone else has cut off cooperation with Iran on nuclear technology, including the Chinese."
While US officials worry that Bushehr will create a nuclear knowledge base in Iran that could be applied to a weapons program, Ms. Gottemoeller says the real risk comes from a "handful"of "bottom feeders - small Russian industrial or research institutions that are desperate, or they wouldn't be trying to take extreme measures, such as false invoices ... to mask their sales."
Keeping control
The majority of nuclear-related entities here have decided to "stay on the straight and narrow," Gottemoeller says. Recent leadership changes at the top of the Ministry of Atomic Energy are likely to tighten controls further.
Still, says Gottemoeller, "the Russian system being what it is, I'm sure there are others [desperate institutions] who could pop out of the mud at any time."
Keeping that from happening has been the aim of US pressure on Russia for a decade, since some analysts say that any new nuclear power in the Mideast would almost certainly spark other nuclear weapons programs, and cause global nonproliferation accords - signed by both Russia and Iran - to collapse. Already, the Bushehr project is subject to regular IAEA inspection.
Noting that until now Russian controls on sensitive technology have been "half-hearted and incomplete," Gary Samore, a special adviser to Clinton on nonproliferation who is now at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, says: "There may be a real opportunity now, post-Sept. 11, for the US and Russia to work out an agreement that would give the Russians a strong incentive to go all the way in enforcing what they say is their policy."
Mr. Samore says the US should recognize that the Bushehr project is too advanced to stop, and offer to "grandfather" the deal. Russia would receive a variety of incentives, Samore suggests, for explicitly limiting the Bushehr deal to power needs, handling all fuel supplies, and for insisting on public commitments from Iran to swear off fuel-cycle ambitions and comply with tougher IAEA "go anywhere" inspections. Samore says such a deal would test Iran's declarations of peaceful intentions, while relieving it of waste-disposal problems. Tehran's rejection of such a plan would lead to the "obvious conclusion" about Iran's nuclear plans, he adds.
"The sooner you can step in to slow down or stop [Iran's] program, the better,"says Samore. "If we just let the situation drift and don't do anything, they will get closer and closer, and will eventually reach the technical point of no return." As the Bushehr project continues, Russian law enforcement will be critical in guarding against dangerous transfers of technology, experts say. "If their security is as effective as they claim it to be, and we think it is, they should be able to track these things down," says the US official who requested anonymity. "They know who is flying on Aeroflot to Tehran."

С целью разработки более эффективных методов лечения аутоиммунных болезней, например, ревматоидного артрита, множественного склероза, которыми страдают почти 50 миллионов американцев Тихоокеанская Северо-западная Национальная Лаборатория Министерства энергетики начала сотрудничество с двумя американскими компаниями и Российскими ученым.

RICHLAND, Wash., Jun 03, 2002 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has launched a collaboration with two U.S. companies and Russian scientists to develop a more effective treatment for autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, which afflict nearly 50 million Americans. The collaboration represents the latest commercial venture between a former Russian weapons facility, a DOE national laboratory and U.S. industry under DOE's Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention program (IPP). Through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, Advanced Biotherapy Inc. of Woodland Hills, Calif., and New Horizon Diagnostics Inc. of Columbia, Md., will hold nonexclusive licenses to inventions created by scientists at the Institute of Immunological Engineering of Moscow or by PNNL researchers through this program. The Russian scientists have created unique humanized antibodies to gamma interferon, a protein that when overproduced triggers and exacerbates various autoimmune conditions. This work is a major step toward creating a much-improved treatment for certain autoimmune diseases. Until recently, most treatments employed antibodies derived from mice, which were effective but could be used only one or two times before the human body rejected them. Antibodies are proteins that bind to and disable foreign proteins, called antigens. With fully humanized antibodies, the human body potentially could accept them over longer periods of time, thus providing for long-term treatment. The Russian research, coupled with a treatment method developed by Advanced Biotherapy, appears promising. During the past year, PNNL scientists have worked closely with the Russians to verify research results, monitor progress and identify and secure a viable commercial partner. PNNL is the technical lead for most biological and chemical-related projects conducted throughout several national laboratories for IPP.
"This agreement will allow us to leverage the incredible expertise found in the Russian institutions and in these companies," said Richard Weller, PNNL principal investigator. "Our main objective is to make it possible for these organizations to develop a therapy that will remove the symptoms of these painful diseases so people can live better lives." Of the 50 million Americans suffering from autoimmune diseases, nearly 75 percent of those are women, according to the American Autoimmune-Related Diseases Association. Arthritis, an autoimmune disease, is the leading cause of disability in the United States and will impact nearly 60 million Americans by 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Other autoimmune diseases include lupus, insulin-dependent diabetes and arthritis of the spine. These diseases erupt when the immune system mistakenly attacks itself rather than protects itself. While the root causes of these attacks largely are unknown to scientists, results can be organ-specific disorders, such as insulin-dependent diabetes that affects the pancreas, or disorders that impact the entire body, such as rheumatoid arthritis, in which joints swell. Advanced Biotherapy has designed and received a method of use patent for the exclusive use of any form of antibody - including monoclonal, humanized and fully human - to gamma interferon to treat multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing Spondylitis (inflammation and stiffening of the spinal cord). The company already has conducted limited clinical trials of antibodies to gamma interferon for rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
Through this collaboration, and under its patent protection, Advanced Biotherapy will evaluate the efficacy of the humanized antibodies when combined with the company's own treatment method. It also will continue clinical trials in Russia.
"If we can control the production of this protein, we then may be able to control the disease," said Edmond Buccellato, CEO of Advanced Biotherapy. "We believe that blocking the action of this cytokine could be the basis for a universal treatment for a host of autoimmune diseases."
New Horizon Diagnostics will develop assay systems to measure and monitor the levels of antibodies to determine effectiveness and conditions of treatment.
DOE's IPP ( www.nn.doe.gov/ipp.shtml) program funded this research with the goal of creating non-defense jobs for former Soviet weapons scientists by linking them with U.S. companies interested in commercializing their non-weapons technologies. IPP projects have engaged more than 500 former weapons scientists in pursuing commercial applications.
If this antibody proves effective, the companies could patent the inventions in the United States, while the Russian scientists would control rights to produce and market the technology in the former Soviet Union. Advanced Biotherapy and New Horizon Diagnostics will match DOE's funding of $650,000 through combined in-kind donations.
Business inquiries on this or other PNNL technologies should be directed to 1-888-375-PNNL or e-mail: inquiry@pnl.gov. Advanced Biotherapy (OTCBB:ADVB) holds a patent on its treatment method for five diseases, which include four types of arthritis and multiple sclerosis. The Institute of Immunological Engineering was part of Bipreparat, the organization that once directed the Soviet Union's germ warfare program and now is a state-owned drug company. New Horizon Diagnostics develops technologies that enable the rapid identification and treatment of infectious diseases and pathogens. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a DOE research facility and delivers breakthrough science and technology in the areas of environment, energy, health, fundamental sciences and national security. Battelle, based in Columbus, Ohio, has operated the laboratory for DOE since 1965.

Российские ученые создали уникальные антитела к гамма - интерферону, основному средству в лечении некоторых аутоиммунных болезней. До недавнего времени, при лечении применялись антитела, полученные от мышей, и они были достаточно эффективны. Но эти антитела можно было использоваться один или два раза , и человеческий организм начинал оттргать их. Антитела - это белки, которые связывают и блокируют чужеродные белки, называемые антигенами. Антитела, сходные с человеческими, можно использовать при лечении более продолжительно, тем самым обеспечивая эффективное лечение

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., Jun 3, 2002 (BW HealthWire) -- Advanced Biotherapy Inc. (OTCBB:ADVB) announced today that it has entered into a Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Department of Energy's (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for a project entitled "Anti-Cytokine Antibodies for Treating Immune Mediated Diseases" for the development of high affinity humanized antibodies to gamma interferon. The research is funded through the "Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention Program" (IPP), a DOE program. Under the terms of the CRADA, Battelle, which operates PNNL for the DOE, will grant Advanced Biotherapy a non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free, field-of-use license to any inventions Battelle derives under this CRADA. Advanced Biotherapy also has a first option to negotiate for greater rights, such as exclusive, transferable, domestic and foreign marketing and development rights. If Advanced Biotherapy obtains the right to sublicense, the sublicenses must be royalty-bearing, and, subject to negotiation, Advanced Biotherapy will pay a reasonable royalty to Battelle, which will share prospective royalties with the Russian research facilities, upon commercialization of the antibodies. The initial humanized antibody development is being funded and conducted at the Institute of Immunological Engineering, a Biopreparat institution, located in Moscow, Russia, and with scientists at PNNL, located in Richland, Washington. The availability of future additional funding by the DOE is based on the progress of the research. The IPP program's purpose is to foster collaboration between American and Russian scientists in the pursuit of commercially viable projects to further deter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The Russian scientists have created unique humanized antibodies to gamma interferon, a major step toward treatment of certain autoimmune diseases. Until recently, many treatments employing antibodies were derived from mice, which were effective but could only be used one or two times before the human body rejected them. Antibodies are proteins that bind to and disable foreign proteins, called antigens. With humanized antibodies, the body could potentially accept them over longer periods of time, thus providing for long-term treatment.
Advanced Biotherapy collaborated with New Horizons Diagnostics, Inc. of Columbia, Maryland, in the design and implementation of this project. The hybridoma to produce the humanized antibodies to gamma interferon has already been completed for Advanced Biotherapy's first pro-inflammatory targets under its "Method of Use Patent" issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on December 25, 2001. It is expected that these antibodies will likely be used first in human clinical trials for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) followed by studies for other autoimmune diseases for which patents are pending. Commenting on the project award, Edmond Buccellato, Advanced Biotherapy's CEO, stated, "We are pleased to have been chosen for this program by PNNL and to be working with such talented and esteemed immunologists in the Russian scientific community. We are excited about the prospects of advancing the commercialization of our therapeutic strategy to treat autoimmune diseases through our recently issued patent for the exclusive use of antibodies to gamma interferon for the treatment of MS and RA, juvenile RA, psoriatic RA (a form of psoriasis) and ankylosing spondylitis (an autoimmune disease that causes the spine to become inflamed and stiffened). The treatments of other autoimmune diseases, for which patents are pending, are also being considered for clinical trial study. This collaboration allows us to begin moving toward the conduct of clinical trials in the United States using humanized antibodies for these debilitating and often life-threatening diseases."
PNNL is a DOE research facility that delivers breakthrough science and technology in the areas of environment, energy, health, fundamental sciences and national security. IPP is an Energy Department program established in 1994 to create non-defense jobs for former Soviet Union weapon scientists by linking them with U.S. companies interested in commercializing their novel technologies.
Statements made in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are subject to a number of uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in our forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties which may affect the development, operations and results of our business include, but are not limited to the following: risks associated with government sponsored and funded programs, the uncertainties of research and product development programs, the uncertainties of the regulatory approval process, the risks of clinical trials, the risks of competitive products, the risks of our current capital resources, the uncertainties as to the availability of future capital and our future capital requirements, and the risks associated with the extent and breadth of the Company's patent portfolio. The foregoing discussion of the effect of the patent issued involves risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the risks that third parties may be successful in challenging the patent; or that granted claims may be held invalid or interpreted differently by a court of law; or that new technologies will be developed that are superior in treating the diseases targeted by Advanced Biotherapy, Inc. Readers are cautioned not to place reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made. See the Company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for further information about risks and uncertainties that may affect the Company and the results or expectations expressed in our forward-looking statements, including the section captioned "Factors That May Affect The Company" contained in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-KSB for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2001.

Более полувека назад в Россию был завезен картофель, пораженный колорадским жуком. С тех пор ученые обеих стран работают над созданием сортов картофеля, устойчивого к сельскохозяйственным вредителям. Российские ученые из Центра биоинженерии применили технологию, используемую повсеместно в США, хотя в Европе к ней относятся с опаской из-за страха неизученных последствий для здоровья и окружающей среды. Модификации подвергались три сорта картофеля, выращиваемых в России - Луговская, Невская и Елизавета. По словам директора Центра Константина Скрябина новые сорта картофеля, устойчивые к вредителям, должны пройти испытания - по крайней мере три года

MOSCOW, (AP) -- More than half a century after U.S. food shipments introduced the dreaded Colorado beetle into Russia's potato fields, scientists from both countries have developed a genetically engineered potato resistant to pests, officials announced Tuesday.
Russian scientists at the Center of Bioengineering have adapted technology developed by St. Louis-based Monsanto, one of the world's biggest biotechnology companies, to three varieties of potatoes commonly grown in Russia, said Konstantin Skryabin, the center's director.
Genetically engineered crops are modified to make them toxic to a specific insect or to be resistant to a popular weed-killer. The technology is widely used in the United States, but European countries have been reluctant to embrace it because of fears of unknown health and environmental consequences. Russia has seen almost no public debate on the issue.
Approval of the modified potatoes requires extensive testing and is at least three years away, Skryabin said at a joint news conference with Monsanto representatives and U.S. and Russian officials.
Holding up three plastic bags containing perfectly round, acorn-sized seed potatoes, Skryabin said the genetically modified versions of Russia's Lugovsky, Nevsky and Yelizaveta varieties would be a boon to Russian farmers.
"Our problem is the enormous number of pests in our potatoes," he said.
Among the top enemies of Russian potatoes is the Colorado potato beetle. The bug was unknown in Russia until it invaded U.S. food aid following World War II, Skryabin said.
The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, praised the project and the potential of biotechnology to help meet the food needs of the world's growing population.
Saying environmental and health fears about genetically modified crops were "not supported by the wider scientific community," he urged Russia to remain open to biotechnology and not to introduce regulations that would hinder the sector's development. No one at the conference mentioned how the potatoes taste.

Исследователи - группа ученых из Великобритании и России, в сообщении, которое появилось журнале Science, говорят о том, что около 250 миллионов лет назад потоки раскаленной лавы растеклись по поверхности Земли на территории размером с Австралию и в глубину более мили. Это вызвало вымирание около 90 % морских животных и более 70% обитателей суши

WASHINGTON,(AP) -- A massive flow of molten rock, bubbling to the surface and spreading more than a mile deep over an area half the size of Australia, may have killed up to 90 percent of all animal species on Earth some 250 million years ago, a study suggests. The study shows that the flood of molten rock that created what is known as the Siberian Traps in Russia was almost twice as big as previously believed and could have continued for thousands of years, changing the climate of the entire planet. The researchers, a group of United Kingdom and Russian scientists, say in a report to appear Friday in the journal Science that such an eruption of flood basalt would have filled the atmosphere with a choking concentration of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and other gasses, making it difficult for any species to survive. Samples from the lava flow have been age-dated at about 250 million years. Other studies have shown during this same period the Earth experienced its most extensive extinction crisis - a die-off that killed at least 90 percent of ocean species and more than 70 percent of land creatures. Called the Permian-Triassic extinction, it is a key event in the history of the planet. It was followed by the rise of the dinosaurs, the animal species that dominated the Earth, until they too went extinct about 65 million years ago. In the study, the researchers analyzed samples drilled from deep below the floor of a basin beside the known Siberian Traps. They found that the basin was underlain with the same type and age of lava that created the Traps. This means that the flood of lava that formed the Traps was at least twice as massive and lasted perhaps twice as long as previously believed, they said. Such a large volume of lava spewing to the surface over hundreds of thousands of years would inject millions of tons of chemicals into the atmosphere, causing long-lasting changes in the climate and an ecological collapse, they said. "The larger area of volcanism strengthens the link between the volcanism and the end-Permian mass extinction," the authors say in Science.
Some earlier studies have suggested that the Permian-Triassic extinction was caused by an asteroid striking the Earth and wiping out much of life with a sudden, single stroke. But the evidence from the new study points toward a prolonged extinction event, stretching over hundreds of thousands of years. Peter D. Ward, professor of geological sciences and a paleontologist at the University of Washington, said the United Kingdom and Russian study reinforces what is becoming a widely accepted view of many other researchers. "It looks like the Earth was getting multiple levels of extinction,'' said Ward. He said chemical studies of ancient geology suggest that plant productivity was impacted "over and over again" during the period around the Permian-Triassic boundary. He said phased cycles of extinction, as evidenced in the geological record, are compatible with a massive, prolonged flood of molten basalt. "We don't see all of the basalt coming out at once, as a steady stream," said Ward. "It was not a single event" such as an asteroid impact. This is in contrast to the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs. Ward said many different studies show that an asteroid did deliver "a one-time hit" on the Earth that caused rapid changes that snuffed out the dinosaurs. Marc K. Reichow of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom was lead author of the study. Other researchers were from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center in Scotland, and from the Institute of Geochemistry and the Institute of Geology Oil and Gas, both in Russia.

Южно - африканская республика поылает корабль с двумя вертолетами на борту для спасения 79 российских ученых и 29 членов команды судна Магдалена Ольдендорф, попавших в ледяной плен

WASHINGTONJOHANNESBURG, Jun 14, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The South African Defense Forces said on Friday that it would send a ship to rescue the Russian scientists in a vessel trapped in the Antarctica. Col. Piet Paxton, spokesman of South African Defense Forces, said the South African ship, the Agulhas, will carry two helicopters, helping to take the Russians to safe place, if the trapped vessel, the Magdalena Oldendorff, cannot find a way out from the iceberg. According to South African Press Association, the Magdalena Oldendorff was carrying 79 Russian scientists and 28 crew members back to Cape Town earlier this week from the Novolazarevskaya station in northeast Antarctica when it came across an ice drift blocking its path. An Argentinean icebreaker, the Almirante Irizar, will meet the South African ship at the edge of the ice and they will try to free the trapped vessel. South Africa's Agulhas will depart Cape Town on June 16

A new study that inventories U.S.-Russian joint work in science and technology has given a thumbs-up regarding the benefits of such collaboration, although obstacles to and opportunities for strengthening research alliances in the future do exist. The study, U.S. Government Funding for Science and Technology Cooperation with Russia, was prepared for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy by RAND's Science and Technology Policy Institute, based in Washington, D.C. The Science and Technology Policy Institute is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed by RAND. The institute conducts independent research and analysis on policy issues that involve science and technology.
Aerospace: top of the list
The RAND study observes that the United States government spent, on average, $350 million a year in the 1990s to support science and technology cooperation with Russia. The top area receiving a good chunk of American dollars is in aerospace. Large-scale, international NASA projects -- where both sides toss in funding and know-how -- account for a number of these projects. While not directly addressing the America-to-Russia cash flow used to build the International Space (ISS), money spent on the mega-project helped push aerospace to the top of the partnership list. "Aerospace cooperation shows up as a disproportionately large share of total cooperation because costs of equipment are so large. For the purposes of our study, ISS is considered as a single project. So we count the full amount in our inventory," said RAND's Caroline Wagner, who led the study. "This is why aerospace funding commitments look so large when compared to other activities, Wagner said. "It doesn't necessarily mean that the government is placing policy emphasis on aerospace cooperation over other possible areas," she told SPACE.com. Wagner said the RAND study did not address specifically the International Space Station (ISS) as a flagship for international space cooperation.
NASA dollars
The RAND study finds that NASA dollars spent on Russia rank first among U.S. government agencies engaged in cooperative science and technology projects with that country. For 1994, 1996, 1998, and 1999, NASA sent an estimated $712.1 million in cooperative activities with Russia to support 143 projects, the RAND study notes. For instance, major levels of cash spent in 1996 and 1998 centered on two activities:
The Mars 98 Orbiter and Lander projects that carried Russian science gear - two NASA Mars probes that failed to achieve their goal, but not due to Russian involvement. Advanced aerospace technology work at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and data management system work for the International Space Station. The RAND report cites a number of NASA-Russian joint research efforts that span a variety of scientific fields, such as: a bilateral project to measure air pollution from Russian space equipment which ran from 1996 to 1999;
a decade-long bilateral effort - begun in 1993 and stretching through 2004 - under the Joint U.S.-Russian Human Space Flight Activities initiative; In 1992, a multilateral cell and developmental biology study began to refine the gravity field of Mars and determine its spin pole orientation; and A multilateral scientific study of land surface climatology in the Eurasian and African continents contrasted to remote sensing data assessments.
Russian budget woes
The RAND study found that the science and technology relationships between the United States and Russia grew during the 1990s for both scientific and political reasons. "Scientific reasons included the opening up of Russian institutes to greater international collaboration, offering unprecedented opportunities for joint work. Political reasons included the many complex factors involved in transitioning formerly defense-oriented Russian research centers to civilian activities," the study explains. However, it's not a completely rosy picture.
"Russia's budget crisis has taken a toll on science and technology funding, and many areas of Russian science are reportedly receiving less than they did in the mid-1990s," the RAND report points out. Furthermore, doing research in Russia has its challenges. Some U.S. researchers surveyed by RAND found a lack of cooperation from local officials, poor facilities, bureaucratic red tape and a maze of domestic travel and export controls, as well as communication problems.
Change ahead in funding pattern
Despite the issue of Russia's shortfall of science and technology funds, U.S.-based researchers said their Russian counterparts provided a significant contribution to joint work. "Most of the assistance has come as in-kind contributions, such as research experiments conducted in Russian labs or assistance to U.S. scientists in acquiring permits and other documentation. In addition, Russian partners have provided invaluable access to data and resources, according to U.S. scientists. Although Russian financial contributions did not equal that of the United States, scientists reported that the joint work could not have been done without Russian collaboration," the RAND study comments. The RAND study advises that there are several science pursuits where U.S.-Russian joint work may be strengthened in the future. One such area is in the earth sciences. The Russian government has set aside funds for international cooperation in this discipline. However, the United States is not making a significant investment in this area of joint work, the RAND report notes. As Russian science continues to be restructured, the RAND study team concludes, funding patterns in U.S.- Russian science and technology cooperation will likely change over time "to look more like the U.S. relationship with other scientifically advanced countries."

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