Январь 2010 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• Russians Wary of Cyrillic Web Domains
• Internet: What's Yahoo in Cyrillic?
• Russia plans new generation of nuclear weapons
• Investments Will Remain a Gamble Until Rule of Law Comes to Russia
• Russia's Armageddon plan to save Earth from collision with asteroid
• La science et les technologies russes au jour le jour:
  • Des embryons de poules pour traiter les blessures
  • Un laser pour passer au peigne fin le milieu environnant
  • 2,5 milliards de roubles pour des panneaux solaires performants
• Russian science in a state of "decline"
• Physics and Mathematics to Help Fighting Tumors
• Chernobyl nuclear accident: figures for deaths and cancers still in dispute
• New research sheds light on Earth's coldest temperatures
• Russian investment will expand production of application units for nanocoatings
• Putin Move Stirs Russian Environmental Row
• Russian Nuclear Expert Wants More New Technology Cooperation with India
• L'IFREA est lancé
• Book World: Review of The Dead Hand, by David E. Hoffman
• La Finlande organise un sommet pour sauver la Baltique
• La science et les technologies russes au jour le jour:
  • Détecter suffisamment tôt l'ostéoporose
  • Combustible amélioré pour les centrales nucléaires RBMK
  • Du pétrole pour combien de temps encore?
• Sukhoi flies new PAK FA fighter

Аналитики Thomson Reuters опубликовали доклад, в котором составили рейтинг "научности" ведущих стран мира. Работы российских ученых составляют около 2,6% всех исследований, опубликованных в специализированных журналах в течение последних пяти лет. Это больше, чем у Бразилии (2,1%), но меньше, чем у Индии (2,9%) и у Китая (8,4%). Российские ученые по-прежнему лидируют в ядерной физике (10,3%), минералогии (10,1%) и физике частиц (9,9%).

Despite launching the world's first artificial satellite and being a leader in the nuclear arms race, science in Russia is in a state of decline and the country is losing its standing as a scientific powerhouse. So says a new report by the information-services provider Thomson Reuters.
Entitled The New Geography of Science: Research and Collaboration in Russia, the report warns that the country's research base "has a problem, and it shows little sign of a solution".
Over the last five years, researchers in Russia have produced about 127,000 papers across all sciences, accounting for about 2.6% of the world's output, according to data taken from Thomson Reuters' Web of Science database. This share of publications is less than that for researchers in China and India, with 2.9% and 8.4%, respectively, but higher than fellow BRIC nation Brazil, whose scientists publish about 102,000 papers that account for 2.1% of the world's output.
Russia still maintains a strong focus in the physical sciences but this too is in decline compared with other countries' output. Between 1999 and 2003, physics articles published by researchers based in Russia accounted for 9.7% of the world's output, with about 38,000 papers published. However, between 2004 and 2008 that number had shrunk to 7.4%, or 35,000 papers.
Still strong in nuclear science
Russia, however, is still potent in some areas of physics. Its strongest area is nuclear science, with Russian researchers publishing 3100 papers in the field between 2004 and 2008 - about 10.3% of the world's output. Mineralogy is its second best field, followed by particle physics, which accounts for roughly 9.9% of the global total.
"I think the overall tendency of a decline in Russia's research output since the early 1990s is reflected correctly in this report," says theoretical physicist Andrei Starinets from Oxford University, who co-authored a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last October along with 170 other Russian researchers working abroad that called for reforms to the country's science base. "The main reason for the decline is the total neglect of fundamental science by the post-Soviet governments in Russia, especially from 1992 to 2002."
Starinets agrees that the Russian government is, however, doing little to reverse the decline. "There is an absence of serious structural reforms in science in the country," says Starinets. "Recent attempts by the government to improve the situation still fall short of the actual needs."

Сотрудники Физического института им. П.Н.Лебедева (ФИАН) разработали основанную на биологических принципах физико-математическую модель злокачественной опухоли. Эта модель позволяет определить вероятность появления метастазов и прогнозировать эффективность тог или иного препарата.

Russian physicists developed a physical and mathematical model of a malignant tumor, which can help telling whether anti-tumor therapy would be effective or not and predicting behavior of cancer cells.
Growth of a malignant tumor is determined by a number of factors. A model of the Russian scientists, which are employed in the Institute of Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences, considers several of these factors, and among them there is the fact that tumor cells run out of nutrients by consuming them, and cells, located at tumor rims, get the major parts of nutrients. The model regards tumor as some king of growth, which consists of inactive, nearly dead cells in the middle, and active cells, located peripherally. This is the reason why tumor growth tends to slow down, and its dimensions grow linearly, rather than exponentially. The authors of the model didn't try to simulate experimental data, they did their best to predict them, using fundamental biological principles, and succeeded.
Another factor, which was considered by the Russian scientists in their model, was cell mobility in living tissue. Each cubic centimetre of living tissue can contain up to 10⁶-10⁸ cancer cells, and after several divisions, cell density (the number of cells in one cubic centimetre) increases until cells start spreading around and leaving their mother-tumor. Such behavior of malignant cells is very similar to that of incompressible liquid, and authors paid attention to this in their mathematical model. The model is a perfect tool for predicting how far dangerous malignant cells have moved, what is the possibility of metastasis and telling how effective therapy would be.
The third important thing, to which scientists didn't forget to pay attention in their model, is extremely intensive growth of blood vessels, which carry nutrients to cancer cells. If this nutrient supply would be interrupted, tumor growth might slow down and even stop. Scientists from other countries have developed new anti-tumor agents, which act as a "plug" for blood supply to a malignant growth. The model, developed by the Russian physicists, can predict which pharmaceutical agents, aimed at stopping blood supply to cancer cells, would be most efficient.
Scientists are currently testing their model during independently performed experiments. Existing experimental methods and facilities allow determining almost all free parameters of the new models, however, this process is quite expensive. Russian scientists try to find a compromise between costs and efficiency with the help of their foreign colleagues, who provide necessary experimental data, since in Russia hardware, required for such work, is used for therapy and not for fundamental research.
Researchers keep working on their model, expanding its functions and adding new parameters, which take into consideration deep processes of tumor incidence and growth.

Численность погибших и заболевших раком в результате аварии на Чернобыльской АЭС до сих пор не определена.
По официальным данным ВОЗ и МАГАТЭ, погибли 56 человек, еще 4 тыс. скончаются от ее последствий в будущем. Международное агентство по изучению рака прогнозирует, что итоговая численность жертв аварии составит 16 тыс. человек; РАН оценивает количество скончавшихся в 200 тыс. человек, из которых 60 тыс. погибли в России, остальные - в Белоруссии и на Украине.
Отсутствие единого мнения The Guardian объясняет тем, что подсчет носил разрозненный характер, многие данные были утеряны в период распада СССР, а профильные органы ООН до сих пор принимают во внимание лишь публикации в ограниченном количестве англоязычных реферируемых журналов.

At the children's cancer hospital in Minsk, Belarus, and at the Vilne hospital for radiological protection in the east of Ukraine, specialist doctors are in no doubt they are seeing highly unusual rates of cancers, mutations and blood diseases linked to the Chernobyl nuclear accident 24 years ago.
But proving that infant mortality hundreds of miles from the stricken nuclear plant has increased 20-30% in 20 years, or that the many young people suffering from genetic disorders, internal organ deformities and thyroid cancers are the victims of the world's greatest release of radioactivity, is impossible.
The UN's World Health Organisation and the International Atomic Energy Agency claim that only 56 people have died as a direct result of the radiation released at Chernobyl and that about 4,000 will die from it eventually.
They also say that only a few children have died of cancers since the accident and, that most of the illnesses usually linked to Chernobyl are due to psychological distress, radiophobia or poverty and unhealthy living.
But other reputable scientists researching the most radiation-contaminated areas of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are not convinced. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, another UN agency, predicts 16,000 deaths from Chernobyl; an assessment by the Russian academy of sciences says there have been 60,000 deaths so far in Russia and an estimated 140,000 in Ukraine and Belarus.
Meanwhile, the Belarus national academy of sciences estimates 93,000 deaths so far and 270,000 cancers, and the Ukrainian national commission for radiation protection calculates 500,000 deaths so far.
The mismatches in figures arise because there have been no comprehensive, co-ordinated studies of the health consequences of the accident. This is in contrast to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where official research showed that the main rise in most types of cancer and non-cancer diseases only became apparent years after the atomic bombs fell.
With Chernobyl there have been difficulties in gathering reliable data from areas left in administrative chaos after the accident. Hundreds of thousands of people were moved away from the affected areas, and the break-up of the Soviet Union led to records being lost.
Controversy rages over the agendas of the IAEA, which has promoted civil nuclear power over the past 30 years, and the WHO. The UN accepts only peer-reviewed scientific studies written in certain journals in English, a rule said to exclude dozens of other studies.
Four years ago, an IAEA spokesman said he was confident the WHO figures were correct. And Michael Repacholi, director of the UN Chernobyl forum until 2006, has claimed that even 4,000 eventual deaths could be too high. The main negative health impacts of Chernobyl were not caused by the radiation but by the fear of it, he claimed.
But today Linda Walker, of the UK Chernobyl Children's Project, which funds Belarus and Ukraine orphanages and holidays for affected children, called for a determined effort to learn about the effects of the disaster. "Parents are giving birth to babies with disabilities or genetic disorders … but, as far as we know, no research is being conducted."

В июле 1983 года на антарктической научной станции "Восток" была зарегистрирована температура -89,2°C (при средней июльской температуре около -65°C). Британская антарктическая служба (BAS) и Арктический и антарктический научно-исследовательский институт (ГНЦ РФ ААНИИ) провели исследование с целью выяснить причину экстремально низкой температуры и попытаться определить ее нижнюю границу. Ученые пришли к выводу, что на Восточно-Антарктическом плато температура может опускаться до -96°C, а в некоторых точках - до -100°C.

Results from the first detailed analysis of the lowest ever temperature recorded on the Earth's surface can explain why it got so cold and how cold it could possibly get.
During the Antarctic winter of 1983 (July) temperatures plunged to a record-breaking -89.2°C at the Russian Vostok research station - more than 30°C lower than the average winter temperature. Until this study scientists did not understand why or how the temperature on the vast East Antarctic plateau could hit such an extreme low.
Scientists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in Russia found that for a period of 10 days the air flow that is normally fed from the Southern Ocean on to the high Antarctic plateau almost stopped. A flow of cold air circling Vostok was preventing the mixing of this warmer air from lower latitudes, isolating the station and causing near optimum cooling conditions.
Adding to this was the absence of cloud cover and the layer of tiny particles of ice suspended in the air (known as diamond dust) allowing more heat from the ice surface to be lost to space.
The study was able to successfully simulate the rapid loss of heat over the 10 day period, which will aid the development of climate models used to predict the future evolution of the Antarctic climate system.
Lead author Professor John Turner at BAS says, "The majority of Antarctica has not yet warmed to the same extent as the Arctic, but over the next century we expect to see this situation change as the effects of greenhouse gas emissions have an impact. Distinguishing between natural variability and human induced changes to the Earth's atmospheric climate is at the heart of our research and we wanted to understand why this 'normal' weather system was thrown out of balance so severely. Our findings indicate that this was a natural event, but this is an important reminder of just how extreme Earth's natural events can be and that we must always consider the potential for such anomalies to occur. The East Antarctic plateau is remote from the ocean and extremely cold, and we believe that Vostok, at an altitude of 3,488m could get even colder, possibly reaching -96°C if an extreme isolation period such as this occurred over a longer period of time. Temperatures may even drop to -100°C at the higher Dome A - the summit of the East Antarctic Ice Cap. By appreciating that such possibilities can occur and in turn striving to understand the processes that cause them we are better equipped to make predictions for how the planet might react to future changes in polar atmospheric climate."

РОСНАНО одобрило проект по расширению производства отечественных установок для нанесения покрытий нанометровой толщины на материалы и изделия с помощью плазмы магнетронного разряда. Проект заявлен ЗАО "Лаборатория 23", созданным в 1994 году на базе лаборатории № 23 НИИЯФ Томского политехнического университета.

(Nanowerk News) A project to expand production of units for applying modified coatings of a single nanometer thickness on materials and goods with the help of a plasma magnetron discharge has won approval from the Supervisory Council of RUSNANO. Realization of the project will bring existing small-batch domestic hi-tech production created by Tomsk scientists to a new level and broaden its presence in Russian and foreign markets.
Units produced by the project initiator - Laboratory 23 - are part of technology founded on the physics of deposition of nanometer coatings (PVD technology). According to forecasts by MarketResearch.com, in 2015 the global market for units using PVD technology will be $12.8 billion. Such units have wide application for developing light-reflective surfaces for satellites, radio-reflective surfaces for satellite antennas, and anti-reflective compositions for solar batteries. All are appropriate to conductive coatings on the surface of dielectric materials.
The use of nanosized coatings may have considerable socio-economic impact as well. Take, for example, the benefit to homes and businesses from reduction in heat loss when coatings are deposited on glass.
Production of standard units will be expanded as part of the project. There are also plans to adapt the units to each particular client. Units Yashma, Opal, and Ruti, which are already in operation, facilitate deposition of one and many layers of coatings of nanometer thickness of a variety of materials (conducting, semiconducting, and dielectric). They are used to deposit heat-reflective coatings on the surface of space flight hardware and for medical coatings, to deposit low-discharge (heat-saving) coatings on sheets of glass, to deposit modified coatings on material and elements for space equipment to be used inside cabins or capsules.
After expanding production, the project company will be able to compete in the space industry and in the optics and medical industries and to sell units for research purposes. Alternative energy is another promising sector for development, particularly solar energy, thanks to the laboratory's extensive work in production of anti-reflective coatings for use in the space industry.
According to a prognosis by project experts, the establishment of a new production complex will increase sales to 450 million rubles. The total budget for the project is put at 320 million rubles. Tomsk Polytechnic University will contribute patents and know-how to the project company. Laboratory 23 and RUSNANO will put up the necessary monetary resources.
Laboratory 23 was established in 1994 from the then existing laboratory 23 of the Scientific-Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at Tomsk Polytechnic University, which had been formed in 1986. The company develops and produces units for application of modified coatings with nanometer thickness on materials and goods. The units employ a magnetron discharge to make the application. Since 1991 Laboratory 23 has developed, produced, and sold more than 30 units; nine of these were exported to Japan, South Korea, the Czech Republic and the CIS.
Tomsk Polytechnic University, the first Russian engineering higher educational institute founded beyond the Urals, was established in 1896 to further industry in Siberia. The university is one of the largest technical educational facilities in Russia. Its scientific-educational complex has excellent infrastructure for scientific research and is composed of three scientific-research institutes (nuclear physics, high voltage, and introscopy), the Cybernetic Center, nine scientific-research centers, and 68 scientific-research laboratories, including 13 international laboratories. The university possesses tremendous professional potential. It has won worldwide recognition as an scientific center and had considerable influence on the development of Russian science.

В октябре 2008 года ОАО "Байкальский целлюлозно-бумажный комбинат" объявило о своем закрытии после того, как природоохранные органы обязали его создать систему закрытого цикла для переработки отходов. На прошлой неделе премьер-министр РФ исключил из списка действий, запрещенных в акватории Байкала и в окрестностях озера, сброс отходов от производства целлюлозы, бумаги и картона. В результате комбинат вновь начинает работать. Российские экологи возмущены - они много лет воевали с комбинатом, и в 2008 году суд по их иску запретил сбрасывать отходы в озеро.

MOSCOW - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who plumbed the depths of Lake Baikal in a minisubmarine in August and pronounced the lake "ecologically clean," has given a well-connected tycoon's paper mill the go-ahead to resume dumping waste there, reversing what had been a landmark victory for environmentalists.
A decree Mr. Putin signed last week removed waste discharges in the production of pulp, paper and cardboard from a list of operations banned by environmental legislation in and around the world's largest body of fresh water.
As a result, OAO Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill said Tuesday it will restart operations that it halted in October 2008 after environmental authorities instructed the company to introduce a closed-loop waste-treatment system. Such a system would prevent discharges into the lake, but the company deemed it unprofitable, declared a permanent shutdown in February and began laying off its 2,000 employees. It started bankruptcy proceedings in March.
Mr. Putin's decree brought relief to Baikalsk, where workers had staged hunger strikes and blocked highways for a week in June to protest the demise of the Siberian town's biggest employer. It also resolved a problem for Oleg Deripaska, the tycoon whose control of the plant had cast him as the villain of those protests.
But the measure has enraged Russia's environmental activists, whose campaign against the mill gained widespread attention in the late 1980s as leading Soviet political and literary figures rallied behind it. The effort, disrupted by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,finallysucceeded after environmental groups sued the company and won a 2008 court decision banning the discharge of waste water into the lake.
The mill, built in 1966, can produce 200,000 metric tons of pulp and 12,000 metric tons of packaging paper per year. A portion of the pulp, a special grade that can be produced only by using lake water, is used in Russia's nuclear warheads. Environmentalists said the mill's discharge threatened hundreds of species of wildlife, including a rare type of freshwater seal.
"This decree undoes more than two decades of struggle to defend the lake," said Roman Vazhenkov, head of Greenpeace's Lake Baikal campaign. Greenpeace appealed to President Dmitry Medvedev to reverse the measure. "To allow chemical wastes to be dumped there," he said, "…what else can you call it but a crime?"
He added: "The only thing I can conclude is that Putin is doing this to protect the interests of one person-Oleg Deripaska." Mr. Deripaska's LPK Continental Management, part of his Basic Element industrial group, controls 51% of the mill. The state owns the other 49%. People close to Mr. Deripaska say he has used direct access to Mr. Putin and other top officials to become a major recipient of Kremlin bailouts and preserve a sprawling business empire that was threatened by the financial crisis a year ago.
Mr. Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, denied any favoritism toward Mr. Deripaska. "The only interests we can speak about protecting," he said, "are the interests of the 16,000 people in Baikalsk, whose lives depend almost entirely on that mill."
Mr. Peskov said preserving the lake's ecology is a "high priority" that the prime minister had to weigh against the town's fortunes. He said Mr. Putin consults frequently with scientific experts on Baikal and had ordered "strict government surveillance" of the mill's discharges once they resume.
Some economists say Mr. Putin's focus on saving jobs has delayed the restructuring of inefficient Russian companies crippled by the crisis. The Russian leader has been making televised appearances around the country, visiting near-bankrupt factories, scolding their managers and owners, and ordering banks to issue loans to revive employment.
The decree to rescue the Baikalsk mill, published on the government Web site, was first reported late Monday by Russian media. Oksana Gorlova, a spokeswoman for the Baikalsk mill, said Tuesday that the government decision behind it had been made in July, a month before Mr. Putin's televised dive in the minisub.
"I see the bed of Lake Baikal and it is clean," Mr. Putin told reporters through a hydrophone from 1.4 kilometers beneath the surface. Later, he said, "There is practically no environmental damage" and hinted that the mill might reopen.
Mr. Deripaska invested $6 million in November to start reviving the mill, the spokeswoman said. She said the company recently upgraded its technology for purifying waste water.
"Baikalsk Pulp and Paper does not do any ecological harm to the lake," she said.
Greenpeace's Mr. Vazhenkov disputed that, saying the mill's waste for years has exceeded legally established limits on concentrations of hazardous dioxin and sulfuric compounds.
Those limits, he said, are binding on Russia under international agreements aimed at preserving the lake, which contains one-fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh water and has been declared a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Вице-президент РНЦ КИ, академик РАН Н.Н.Пономарев-Степной полагает, что программа по ядерным энерготехнологиям нового поколения должна быть ориентирована на Индию.

Jan. 17 (EIRNS) - The vice-president of the Russian Nuclear Center - Kurchatov Institute, called for Russia to orient its scientific and technological advances in the nuclear power sector toward cooperation with India, as well as other partner nations to which Russia is exporting nuclear power plants. EIR of Jan. 22 will publish an overview of the role these Russian exports are playing in the overall turn to nuclear power, throughout Asia. Academician Nikolai Ponomaryov-Stepnoy, made the statement upon his return from India early this year, according to a Jan. 15 report by Regnum.ru.
Referring to India, Academician Ponomaryov-Stepnoy said:
There is colossal potential there - colossal natural and human resources, but not enough power. It is therefore very important that they have very definitely decided on the development of nuclear energy, and especially that they are developing their nuclear power industry with our help and together with us. At least in the first stage, when you have to build on designs which have already been tried and proven in practice. ... India still is giving preference to Russian reactors. I think the explanation is simple: fortunately, it so happened that Russia began to experience the renaissance of nuclear power earlier than other countries. After all, we've already built facilities in India, in Kudankulam, and have shown what we can do. Therefore we need to continue to work at the highest level, drawing the very best forces into this work. After all, we're going to be building power plants which will function for 60 years. And they should work safely and perform well.
The Russian scientist emphasized that the nuclear industry cannot merely coast on existing technologies. He called for cooperation on fast breeder technology with a complete fuel cycle (such as Russia is now developing for export to China, under agreements reached in October 2009). He stated that:
India is thinking about the future. And we should think about the future, too. The reactors we build will need fuel for their entire service life, i.e., into the 2070s. Therefore we have to be thinking about new nuclear technologies, for which there will be a guaranteed fuel supply. In this sense, the program for new-generation nuclear energy technologies, which the government has not yet finally approved, needs to be oriented toward India inclusively, as well as toward all our partners. I mean fast breeder reactors, with a complete fuel cycle. I think we now need to be offering India cooperation in this area. In the course of that, we shall provide our partners not only with electric power, but also fuel for hydrogen or electric cars.
On Jan. 12, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of government officials on implementation of an already approved plan to upgrade the role of the famous Kurchatov Institute - which, among other things, is the flagship institution for Russian research on nuclear fusion power - within the Russian economy. Putin said that supplementary direct federal funding to the Kurchatov Institute is intended to enable it to "serve as a model for organising all national research centers," of which a network of five to seven new ones is planned. In addition to "the junction of nano, bio and information technology," Putin named nuclear power as a priority area of concentration.

По случаю открытия Французского института исследований Арктики (IFREA) 19-21 января в университете Версаль-Сен-Кантен-ан-Ивелин состоялась конференция, в которой приняли участие французские, русские (Арктический и антарктический научно-исследовательский институт, СПбГУ, Государственная полярная академия) и немецкие ученые (Институт полярных и морских исследований им. Альфреда Вегенера). Одной из тем конференции было создание совместного франко-русского научно-исследовательского центра.

À l'occasion du lancement de son Institut français de recherches et d'études arctiques (IFREA), l'université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines a organisé un séminaire de réflexion franco-russe sur l'Arctique, du 19 au 21 janvier 2010. Ce nouvel institut unique en France a été créé à la demande du Président de la République Nicolas Sarkozy.
Le séminaire a permis le développement de coopérations avec cinq principaux partenaires russes et allemands. L'Institut géophysique de l'Académie des sciences de Moscou, l'Institut Arctique et Antarctique de Saint-Pétersbourg, l'Université d'Etat de Saint-Pétersbourg, l'Académie polaire de Saint-Pétersbourg et l'Institut polaire allemand Alfred Wegener de Bremerhaven, font partie de cette coopération.
Par ailleurs, des projets de recherche dans les domaines de l'information, des humanités et des études culturelles, ont été abordés. L'autre objectif de cette coopération est de créer un centre de recherches franco-russe commun à l'Institut français de recherches et d'études arctiques en co-direction avec l'Académie polaire d'Etat sur les peuples et les territoires du Nord dans les domaines de l'anthropologie, des cultures et de l'écologie.
Pour Mr Jan Borm, le directeur de l'Institut, il s'agit du seul institut sur le thème de l'arctique en France. L'IFREA, qui est situé au cœur de l'observatoire de l'université à Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, aura pour missions la formation, la recherche, l'observation, la documentation et la diffusion des savoirs. Ses recherches sont axées sur l'histoire de la découverte de l'Arctique, l'écologie humaine et à l'archéologie.
Le séminaire s'est déroulé en présence du professeur Jean Malaurie qui en est à l'origine, de Françoise Olivier-Coupeau, présidente du groupe Arctique à l'Assemblée nationale, de Sylvie Faucheux, présidente de l'université, et de nombreux partenaires russes et allemands.
L'institut s'est d'ores et déjà engagé dans de nombreux partenariats de coopération internationale, avec la Russie mais aussi avec le Groenland, la Finlande, l'Allemagne, les États-Unis ou encore le Canada.

В издательстве Random House Inc. вышла книга известного журналиста Дэвида Хоффмана, обозревателя газеты Washington Post, с 1995 по 2001 год возглавлявшего московское бюро газеты. Книга называется "Мертвая рука. Неизвестная история гонки вооружений в годы "холодной войны" и её опасное наследие" и посвящена соперничеству США и СССР в сфере ядерного вооружения. "Мертвой рукой" неофициально называлась советская автоматизированная система запуска ядерных боеголовок, разработка которой началась в середине 1970-х гг.

THE DEAD HAND
The Untold Story of The Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy
By David E. Hoffman. Doubleday. 577 pp.
Americans are obsessed with weapons of mass destruction and the damage they could inflict on us all. Books and films ranging from journalist John Hersey's "Hiroshima," published in 1946, to ABC's television extravaganza "The Day After," broadcast in 1983, from Fox's ongoing counter-terrorism Armageddon drama "24" to apocalyptic novels like Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," reflect a preoccupation with a nuclear-, chemical- or biological-weapons attack and its aftermath dating from at least the end of World War II. The fear that scientific expertise will be married to ideological conflict, technological advances and social hate pervades these doomsday-themed books and movies.
Now comes David E. Hoffman's "The Dead Hand," a welcome, unsettling, nonfictional addition to this still timely genre. Hoffman, a Post contributing editor and former Moscow bureau chief, examines the Soviet struggle to build biological, chemical and nuclear weapons as a counterweight to American power in the Cold War's final years. "The Dead Hand" argues convincingly that America's victory in the Cold War wasn't nearly as triumphant as the most self-congratulatory among us have tended to believe. When the arms race between the two superpowers ended in the 1990s, a second terrifying competition replaced the first. The collapse of the Soviet regime precipitated a breakdown in internal controls on weapons of mass destruction. Russian scientists began losing their jobs, and weapons facilities and nuclear materials were often left undefended. Hoffman reports that terrorist organizations and rogue regimes rushed into this breach to acquire these horrific weapons, while U.S. officials worked furiously to prevent them from falling into hostile hands.
Against the backdrop of this reconfigured arms competition, Hoffman's book is a chillingly modern historical tale about a collective failure with lasting consequences. Chronicling the breakneck drive in the U.S.S.R. to develop methods for inflicting death on a massive scale, Hoffman captures the reckless abandon with which the Soviet Union (and the United States) pursued the arms race, from the 1970s to the early '90s.
We learn, for instance, that the U.S. record on biological weapons was far from sterling. When the Nixon administration abolished the program in 1969, the United States had already developed a vast trove of agents of death, including some "220 pounds of anthrax dried agent . . . 804 pounds of dried tularemia bacteria and 334 pounds of the incapacitating agent Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus."
As the U.S. program ended, the Soviet initiative was only just beginning. Code-naming biological weapons programs
"Bonfire" and "Ecology" and establishing an organization called "Biopreparat" to develop such weapons, communist officials endeavored to weaponize "the most dangerous pathogens known to man." Tons of anthrax spores cultivated in top-secret facilities were manifestations of the late-Soviet era times, while a "630-liter smallpox reactor, standing five feet tall" offered more evidence still of this frenzied weapons quest.
Equally disconcerting, Hoffman reports, was that Soviet leaders invented a doomsday program dubbed the "Dead Hand": If communist officials were killed in a first nuclear strike by the United States, then "a small crew of duty officers surviving deep underground" would still be able to retaliate using nuclear weapons. Hoffman sings the praises of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan for envisioning a world liberated from the chokehold of nuclear missiles.
"The Dead Hand" at times veers too quickly from stories of spies to politicians and to scientists and varied weapons facilities, and its portrait of Reagan is surprisingly benign. Hoffman shortchanges Reagan's decades-long description of the Cold War as a fight to the death that could involve military means, and his lengthy record of belligerent commentary (for instance, he proposed that North Vietnam be paved into a parking lot).
But Hoffman also makes a convincing case that Reagan and especially Gorbachev deserve credit for embracing arms control and reaching accords that significantly cut each nation's nuclear stockpiles. Yet as the Cold War wound down, some U.S. diplomats and political leaders in the East and West understood that, despite these reductions, the Soviets' formidable WMD arsenal posed a major problem. Non-proliferation efforts, including the bipartisan Nunn-Lugar initiative, helped secure Russian weapons facilities, protect Russian trains transporting "loose nukes" and ship highly enriched uranium used for building nuclear bombs to the United States from unstable states such as Kazakhstan. Americans paid Russian scientists not to assist rogue regimes and terrorists seeking chemical, biological and nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union.
Two decades have now passed since the Berlin Wall was toppled, and the Soviet Union has long since vanished as a national security threat. Yet as "The Dead Hand" demonstrates, the symbol of triumphant democratic capitalism - the tearing down of the Berlin Wall - also has a less well understood counterpoint: the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Far from being an unadulterated moment of democratic triumph, the two-decade anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall should also remind Americans that unsecured Soviet-era weapons of mass destruction coveted by terrorists and rogue regimes are the Cold War's most unnerving legacy.

10 февраля правительство Финляндии совместно с Baltic Sea Action Group проведет саммит, цель которого - спасти Балтийское море, самое загрязненное на планете. В саммите примут участие 9 стран - Россия, Финляндия, Швеция, Дания, Германия, Польша, Эстония, Литва, Латвия.

La Finlande a invité les chefs d'Etat et de gouvernement des pays riverains de la Baltique à un sommet le 10 février, destiné à sauver la mer, considérée par les autorités finlandaises comme la plus polluée de la planète. "Nous voudrions qu'ils viennent ici avec un engagement précis sur ce qu'ils feront, ce que leurs gouvernements feront", a déclaré l'ambassadeur finlandais pour la Baltique, Jari Luoto. La présidente finlandaise, Tarja Halonen, et le premier ministre, Matti Vanhanen, organisent cette réunion en collaboration avec le Groupe d'action pour la mer Baltique (BSAG), une fondation qui cherche à générer et coordonner les initiatives pour sauver cette étendue d'eau menacée par la pollution.
DU CONCRET APRÈS L'ÉCHEC DE COPENHAGUE
Les eaux peu profondes, enclavées et saumâtres de la Baltique sont particulièrement vulnérables à la pollution car elles mettent beaucoup plus longtemps que les autres mers pour éliminer les substances toxiques. Après l'échec du sommet de Copenhague sur le climat, le sommet de la Baltique veut "se concentrer sur la mise en œuvre et l'action", plutôt que d'être une plate-forme de négociation, ou d'accoucher d'une simple déclaration, a affirmé M. Luoto.
Parmi "la centaine d'engagements" à des actions concrètes, qui doivent être pris à Helsinki pour sauver la Baltique, certains concerneront notamment le recyclage des eaux usées ou la sécurité maritime.
Les neuf nations riveraines de la Baltique (Suède, Danemark, Allemagne, Pologne, Russie, Estonie, Lettonie, Lituanie et Finlande) ont confirmé "un haut niveau" de participation, a assuré M.Luoto, ajoutant que les noms des représentants seraient annoncés le 2 février. D'après les médias finlandais, le premier ministre russe, Vladimir Poutine, et la chancelière allemande, Angela Merkel, seront présents. Ont également été invités la Norvège en tant que voisin et contributeur aux efforts d'assainissement de la Baltique, le président de la Commission européenne, José Manuel Barroso, des responsables de milieux d'affaires, ainsi que des ONG. Au total, environ 400 personnes sont attendues.

Сотрудники петербургской биотехнологической компании "Ген" создали диагностический набор "ОстеоГЕН-М", способный определить предрасположенность к остеопорозу, что позволяет своевременно начать профилактику. По данным ВОЗ остеопороз занимает четвертое место в мире по тяжести заболевания и стоимости лечения после болезней сердечно-сосудистой системы, онкологических заболеваний и сахарного диабета.

Une technologie novatrice permettant de déceler assez tôt le risque d'ostéoporose a été mise au point en Russie, rapporte le site strf.ru. Des spécialistes de la compagnie pétersbourgeoise de biotechnologie Gène ont
élaboré et breveté un kit de détection baptisé OsteoGEN-M, qui permet de mettre au jour avec une grande efficacité une prédisposition à l'ostéoporose - autrement dit à une fragilité des os - et par là même de contribuer à prévenir son apparition et son développement. Cette découverte a été sacrée l'an dernier meilleur projet d'innovation de la ville en médecine lors du concours municipal intersectoriel doté du Prix du Gouvernement de Saint-Pétersbourg.
Selon les données de l'Organisation mondiale de la santé, l'ostéoporose, de par sa gravité et le coût de son traitement, se situe à la quatrième place dans le monde parmi les pathologies non infectieuses. Elle vient tout de suite après les maladies du système cardio-vasculaire, les affections oncologiques et le diabète sucré.
Cette affection touchant le squelette et ses extrémités se caractérise par une modification de la structure osseuse, qui augmente considérablement le risque de fracture. Elle est le résultat de l'interaction de facteurs héréditaires et de conditions défavorables du milieu.
On sait que les processus de formation et de reconstitution des os sont contrôlés par des gènes. Les chercheurs pensent que le développement de l'ostéoporose est provoqué par le travail insuffisant de certains gènes, notamment au niveau de l'assimilation du calcium et de la vitamine D. Les progrès réalisés dans le diagnostic génétique moléculaire et la mise sur le marché de l'OsteoGEN-M donnent pour la première fois la possibilité de détecter rapidement, à tout âge, et donc bien avant l'arrivée de la ménopause, les personnes présentant un risque d'apparition d'ostéoporose et d'entreprendre à temps un traitement prophylactique ciblé à l'aide de vitamines, de préparations à base de calcium et d'hormones.
L'OsteoGEN-M permet, avec un seul kit de diagnostic, de prévoir quatre mutations de gènes, alors même que les autres tests du même type, à l'instar de ceux fabriqués en Israël ou en Allemagne, ne permettent d'en détecter qu'une seule.
L'OsteoGEN-M a été élaboré et breveté en août 2009. Il est déjà utilisé par les hôpitaux de plusieurs villes et régions russes (Tver, Saransk, Rostov-sur-le-Don) et un laboratoire commercial de Saint-Pétersbourg.
Les fractures du col du fémur consécutives à une ostéoporose constituent l'une des principales causes d'invalidité. Ajoutons à cela que le quart des patients décèdent dans les six mois suivant l'accident. Les études épidémiologiques ont montré qu'au total, en Russie, le taux de mortalité dû à cette affection et ses conséquences variait, selon les régions, de 19,7 à 55 %.
Selon des études menées en 2007 à Saint-Pétersbourg dans des services de traumatologie regroupant 250 lits, ce sont quelque 2.500 à 3.000 patients qui sont traités chaque année pour des fractures du col du fémur. Le séjour moyen en hôpital est de 30 à 35 jours, pour un coût de 1,5 million de roubles par personne. En Europe et en Amérique du Nord, le traitement et la réhabilitation des patients ayant subi ce type de blessure coûtent entre 28 et 40.000 dollars. Et seul un quart des personnes victimes d'une fracture de l'extrémité proximale du fémur finissent par pouvoir être remises totalement sur pied avec un bon pronostic fonctionnel. D'où l'intérêt, pour le malade et la société, de détecter aussitôt que possible l'ostéoporose et d'en atténuer les conséquences.

Combustible amélioré pour les centrales nucléaires RBMK

На атомных электростанциях с реакторами типа РБМК, таких как Ленинградская АЭС, будет использоваться ядерное топливо с повышенным обогащением урана. Это более эффективно с экономической и технологической точек зрения.

La centrale nucléaire Leningradskaïa va bénéficier d'un combustible nucléaire plus économique, rapporte le site strf.ru, citant lui-même dr.ru.
Les réacteurs nucléaires RBMK (réacteur de grande puissance à tube de force )* de la centrale Leningradskaïa, située à Sosnovy Bor, non loin de Saint-Pétersbourg, devraient bénéficier prochainement d'un nouveau combustible nucléaire, à la fois plus économique et plus efficace. Il s'agit d'un combustible de nouvelle génération, reposant sur un mélange uranium-erbium enrichi à 2,8 % et nouvellement "profilé".
Le premier lot de ce nouveau combustible, déjà livré, devrait être testé dès cette année à Sosnovy Bor, au sein du réacteur N° 2. L'exploitant de la centrale a reçu le feu vert du Rostekhnadzor (Service fédéral de surveillance écologique, technologique et nucléaire) pour commencer à exploiter ces nouveaux assemblages de combustible.
La centrale nucléaire Leningradskaïa a été la première du pays à avoir été dotée de réacteurs RBMK-1000 (réacteurs nucléaires uranium-graphite de type canal à neutrons thermiques). Cette centrale compte quatre réacteurs d'une puissance unitaire de 1.000 MW. C'est également la première centrale du pays à avoir utilisé l'uranium-erbium comme combustible.
"L'uranium-erbium avec un U-235 enrichi à 2,4 % a commencé à être utilisé dans les réacteurs RBMK-1000 en 1996, rappelle Anatoli Egorov, président du conseil de sûreté nucléaire des centrales RBMK et directeur adjoint du département Exploitation des centrales RBMK du trust Rosenergoatom.
A cette époque, la durée d'exploitation de ces cartouches de combustible était de quatre ans. Depuis, l'enrichissement de l'uranium dans les assemblages fissiles a été porté à 2,8 %, et leur durée de "service" dans la zone active a été multipliée par 1,5. Par conséquent, l'exploitation de ce combustible plus enrichi a vu son efficacité bondir de 60 %."
Actuellement, les centrales RBMK utilisent un mélange uranium-erbium avec un enrichissement de l'U-235 identique sur toute la hauteur de l'assemblage du combustible. Le nouveau combustible aura un enrichissement "profilé" : il sera de 3,2 % au centre et de 2,5 % dans ses parties inférieure et supérieure. Cela permettra d'économiser de l'ordre de 6 % de ce précieux combustible qu'est l'U-235, sans amoindrir l'efficacité de l'utilisation du combustible, et de porter la durée d'exploitation des assemblages à 8 ou 10 ans.
Après analyse des propriétés d'exploitation du nouveau combustible, les spécialistes prendront une décision quant à son introduction dans les autres réacteurs du type RBMK-1000.
(*) 17 réacteurs RBMK ont été au total mis en exploitation en URSS - 11 en Russie, 4 en Ukraine (Tchernobyl) et 2 en Lituanie(Ignalina). 11 sont toujours exploités en Russie (4 à Leningradskaïa, 4 à Koursk, et 3 à Smolensk). Leur sûreté a été considérablement renforcée. La centrale de Tchernobyl a fini par être totalement arrêtée après le grave accident survenu sur son réacteur N° 4. A la demande de l'Union européenne, la Lituanie a arrêté à la fin décembre 2009 son dernier réacteur RBMK encore en service.

Du pétrole pour combien de temps encore?

Академик А.Э.Конторович (Институт нефтегазовой геологии и геофизики им. А.А.Трофимука СО РАН) уверен, что вопрос об истощении запасов нефти в России и мире станет актуальным к концу XXI века.

La question du tarissement des sources de production pétrolière ne se posera pas avant la fin de ce siècle, estime l'académicien Alexeï Kontorovitch (*), l'un des grands experts russes en hydrocarbures, dont les propos sont rapportés sur le site strf.ru.
Quand est-ce que les ressources pétrolières seront épuisées, que ce soit en Russie ou dans le reste du monde ? Pour Alexeï Kontorovitch, c'est une certitude, la question ne se posera pas avant la fin du XXIe siècle.
L'évocation de la disparition prochaine du pétrole et du gaz ne sert qu'à semer un peu la panique, estime l'académicien. Bien sûr, convient-il, il faut économiser les ressources, mais il est un peu tôt pour sonner le tocsin.
La production de pétrole a progressé invariablement au cours du siècle dernier et continue de croître. La crise financière mondiale n'aura constitué qu'un épiphénomène qui n'empêchera pas le navire de poursuivre sa route, après avoir tangué un peu.
Alexeï Kontorovitch souligne également que le pétrole n'est pas le seul hydrocarbure. Le gaz et le pétrole sont appelés aussi à jouer demain un rôle majeur sous des formes inhabituelles. Ainsi, les hydrates de gaz, découverts par des chercheurs russes, pourraient bien constituer le combustible de l'avenir. Ils se présentent sous la forme de glace friable contenant du méthane. On les trouve sur les pentes océaniques, à des profondeurs variant entre 400 et 500 m et plus. Les réserves de ce "gaz solide" seraient, selon certaines estimations, supérieures de plusieurs fois à celles des gisements de gaz "traditionnels".
La gazéification de la houille peut elle aussi constituer une alternative au pétrole. L'académicien Kontorovitch a ainsi lui-même en charge le programme d'innovation de l'Académie des sciences de Russie concernant le bassin houiller de Kemerovo, pour lequel existent de grands projets de création de complexes énergotechnologiques de production et de transformation profonde du charbon et de gazéification souterraine de la houille.
Toutes ces ressources vont ainsi pouvoir épauler le pétrole proprement dit au cours de ce siècle. Et les réserves d'or noir sont beaucoup plus importantes que ne le croient certains analystes et journalistes, poursuit Alexeï Kontorovitch. Selon les estimations de son institut, qui dépend de la Section sibérienne de l'Académie des sciences de Russie, on produit actuellement par an dans le monde un peu moins de quatre milliards de tonnes de pétrole traditionnel. Le pic de la production pétrolière (qu'il situe entre 4,5 et 4,8 milliards de tonnes) sera atteint dans les années 30-40 de ce siècle, et il sera possible de maintenir ce plafond pendant 8 à 10 ans si l'on ne force pas outre mesure.
A partir, en gros, du milieu du siècle, le volume de la production pétrolière mondiale va commencer progressivement à baisser, estime Alexeï Kontorovitch. D'ici la fin du siècle, la production tombera à 2-2,5 milliards de tonnes par an. Il existe cependant dans le monde d'énormes réserves de pétrole "lourd", constituées par des sables et schistes bitumineux, qui ne sont à l'heure actuelle pratiquement pas exploitées. Mais l'extraction et la transformation de ces matières premières ne peuvent être économiquement rentables que si le pétrole se négocie à un prix élevé.
Les schistes sont largement répandus de par le monde. Toute la Sibérie occidentale, par exemple, en abrite, mais les gisements se situent à des profondeurs de 2,5 à 2,7 km. Des schistes noirs se trouvent en grande quantité, et pratiquement en surface, à l'est de la Sibérie, en Yakoutie, depuis l'océan Glacial arctique jusqu'au fleuve Aldan, tout au long de la Léna. En utilisant des méthodes modernes de transformation, on peut en tirer tout un arsenal de produits pétroliers. C'est l'affaire des pétrochimistes et spécialistes de la catalyse. Si les géologues, les pétroliers et les chimistes s'attaquent un peu partout à ces ressources "lourdes", la production de pétrole à hauteur de 4,5 à 4,8 milliards de tonnes par an pourra être maintenue jusqu'à la fin du siècle, et peut-être même au-delà. Mais il faut être bien conscient qu'il s'agira d'un pétrole cher.
A propos de pétrole cher, Alexeï Kontorovitch rappelle que trois grandes régions du monde ont été les principales bénéficiaires du premier grand choc pétrolier des années 70 : l'Amérique du Nord, l'Europe occidentale et l'URSS. Avec un prix de 10 à 20 dollars, il n'aurait pas été rentable de produire du pétrole dans des régions telles que l'Alaska, la mer du Nord, la mer de Norvège, l'Alaska, le nord de la Sibérie occidentale, la Sibérie orientale, ou dans les grandes profondeurs du golfe du Mexique. Et l'académicien de conclure qu'en tout état de cause, la Russie aura absolument besoin, pour développer sa production dans des zones difficiles et inhabitées, que le pétrole demeure cher.
(*) Lauréat en 2009 du prestigieux prix "Energie globale", l'académicien Alexeï Kontorovitch est directeur scientifique de l'Institut de géologie et géophysique pétrogazière Trofimouk.

Истребитель пятого поколения Т-50 (точное название - ПАК ФА, перспективный авиационный комплекс фронтовой авиации) совершил испытательный полет на совершенно новом двигателе, не имеющем аналогов ни в России, ни в мире. Истребитель разрабатывается Объединенной авиационной корпорацией (ОАК), головной разработчик - ОАО "Компания "Сухой".

Sukhoi on Friday achieved first flight of its PAK FA advanced tactical frontline fighter. Sukhoi test-pilot Sergey Bogdan spent 47 minutes in the air and fulfilled all assigned tasks before returning to the Komsomolsk-on-Amur factory runway, the plane maker announced. "In the course of the flight we've conducted initial evaluation of the aircraft controllability, engine performance and primary systems operation, the aircraft had retracted and extracted the landing gear," Bogdan said. "The aircraft performed excellently at all flight-test points scheduled for today. It is easy and comfortable to pilot."
The fifth-generation fighter includes a new avionics suite integrating "electronic pilot" functionality, advanced phased-array antenna radar, new equipment that allows real-time data exchange with ground-based control systems and within the flight group, and use of composites and other measures to "provide for the unprecedented small radar cross section in radar, optical and infrared range".
"This is a great success of both Russian science and design school," Mikhail Pogosyan, Sukhoi company director general, said in the release. "These aircraft, together with upgraded fourth-generation fighters, will define Russian Air Force potential for the next decades. ... I am strongly convinced that our joint project will excel its Western rivals in cost-effectiveness and will not only allow strengthening the defense power of Russian and Indian Air Forces, but also gain a significant share of the world market."

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