--President Bill Clinton

• early studies of the DNA molecule would lead to genetic engineering to develop new and effective drugs, more productive crops, and more nutritious foods;
• ultra-precise atomic clocks invented to test the laws of physics would become the heart of the Global Positioning System - now a multi-billion-dollar business used for navigat ion, emergency rescue, tracking commercial vehicles, and perhaps soon for air traffic control;
• basic research on the way liquids pass through holes would lead to improved fuel injection systems for cars, ink-jet printers, and artificial heart valves;
• basic studies of the attitudes and behaviors of tens of millions of military personnel over decades would lay the foundation for many of today's high-performance business management practices;
• engineering experiments on microelectromechanical systems would create a billion-dollar industry providing acceleration sensors for automobile air bags, and many other products;
• fundamental research on magnetism would transform our society, making our information age possible through tape recorders, video cassette recorders, and everything else that records and stores information; or
• decades of research in basic physics and chemistry would provide the sophisticated tools essential for molecular biology, genome sequencing, and advanced medical diagnosis and treatment.

Although it is virtually impossible to predict specifically how today's basic research results will eventually improve our quality of life, or to imagine the new industries and markets that will eme rge, there is no question that such improvements and industries will arise. America's scientists and engineers are working in universities, industrial laboratories, research institutes, and national laboratories on important research. Their results will t ransform our lives in the twenty-first century, just as we now reap the harvest from past discoveries. Our children and grandchildren will look back with the same wonder we experience today at the myriad ways frontier basic research has advanced society.

Basic science studies matter at all levels of aggregation, from the materials we experience everyday down to their most fundamental constituents. This progress leads to new scientific and technical knowledge and, years later, to innovative prod ucts and lucrative commercial markets. These advances have generated millions of high-skilled, high-wage jobs and significantly improved the quality of life for Americans.

The Administration's commitment to basic research derives from a clear and positive vision for the future prosperity of our nation and a strong belief that by creating knowledge and a well-educated citizenry, we gain the power to shape our future. Therefore, the Administration has championed Federal investments in science and technology, stressing repeatedly that science fuels technology's engine - the engine of economic growth that creates jobs, bu ilds new industries, and improves our standard of living. Moreover, a significant component of Federally sponsored research is performed in colleges and universities, where young scientists and engineers are trained in the process of creating new knowledg e.

OUR NATIONAL GOALS FOR SCIENCE

To advance America's interests in science, mathematics, and engineering, the Administration set forth the following goals in its 1994 science policy statement, Science in the National Interest:

• To sustain leadership across the frontiers of scientific knowledge.
• To enhance connections between fundamental research and broad national goals.
• To stimulate partnerships that promote investments in fundamental science and engineering and effective use of physical, human, and financial resources.
• To produce the finest scientists and engineers for the twenty-first century.
• To raise the scientific and technological literacy of all Americans.

Achieving these goals will ensure that our nation has the specialized human resources as well as the modern infrastructure needed for cutting-edge science and technology. The science and technology enterprise weaves a vast and variegated fabric of knowledge, ideas, devices, and questions that covers a broad range of human curiosity and innovation.
This report is organized around these science policy goals, and this chapter focuses on leadership in the generation of fundamental knowledge that defines basic science. The chapters on technology, health, environment, and national security capture the partnerships and connections that harness new knowledge, helping us reach those overarching national goals. The chapter on human resources addresses the production of the world's best scientists and e ngineers, and the need to improve public literacy in science and technology.

SUSTAINING LEADERSHIP ACROSS THE
FRONTIERS OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Leadership across the frontiers of scientific knowledge is not merely a cultural tradition of our nation - today it is an economic and security imperative. Creative people working in diverse fields generate new knowledge - rich in wonder and often leading to unexpected applications. The range of our research spans all major fields of science and engineering and is one of its most powerful attributes.
There is a solid consensus that maintaining the human resources and modern infrastructure essential for scientific leadership is a fundamental Federal responsibility. Thus, public funding of researc h and development traditionally has enjoyed strong, bipartisan support. Government investments provide world-class facilities, promote scientific breakthroughs and interdisciplinary linkages among the major science and engineering fields, and train talent ed people to tackle emerging scientific challenges. As corporate R&D laboratories have increasingly favored applied research and development projects likely to improve competitiveness in the near term, the Federal government has become the dominant sponso r of the nation's long-term, basic research portfolio. The Administration has embraced this role by continuing to support the basic science programs of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE) , and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. These programs are vital to our nation's future, as are those at the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Com merce (DOC), Interior (DOI), and other Federal agencies with targeted missions. Between FY 1993 and the Administration's FY1998 budget request, Federal investment in basic research has risen from $13.36 billion to $15.30 billion - an increase of 14.5 percent.
This diversity of Federal sources of research funding and the rich variety of institutions and organizations conducting the research are two of the strengths contributing to U.S. leadership across t he scientific frontiers. Universities and colleges - where education proceeds synergistically with the creation of new knowledge - consistently perform about one-sixth of all Federally funded R&D, and over half of our basic research. Federal laboratories, nonprofit research institutes, and industrial firms are also major players. The laboratories of DOE, NIH, NASA, and USDA, particularly, are deeply integrated into America's fundamental science enterprise in their mission areas. Rich in human talent and e ngineering capability, these Federal laboratories are renowned for unique, state-of-the-art scientific facilities, instruments, and other resources, operated for and made available to the national scientific community. Of course, a major component of the R&D portfolios of these laboratories, as well as those of DOD, DOC, and other agencies, serves their overriding missions to ensure national security, and to promote technological progress, health, environmental quality, and food supply as described in the other chapters of this report.
Most important, the people actively engaged in the quest to understand the unknown power our innovation system. They recognize, pursue, and exploit breakthroughs, no matter where in the world they a re made. For example, in the mid-1980s European scientists discovered high-temperature superconductors. Immediately, American investigators with the requisite expertise turned their energies with great success to extending and exploiting this discovery, both in te rms of fundamental understanding and engineered applications.

Scientific breakthroughs spur new technologies that, in turn, enable improved scientific capabilities to explore the unknown. It was not until the mid-1980s that physics understanding, niobium purity, and ultraclean manufacturing and processing techniques made it feasible to build a superconducting electron accelerator needed to explore the innermost structure of the atom's nucleus. The world's largest assembly of superconducting accelerator cavities is now at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia.

Given the growing linkages among the scientific and technical disciplines, it is impossible to predict what expertise will be indispensable for future developments. As with any investment portfolio, certain areas will be emphasized at any given time becau se of special opportunities for progress and impact. The Federal portfolio, however, must remain broad-based and accommodate the high-risk investments that may have enormous long-term impact. It is increasingly evident that the major fields of science a nd engineering mutually catalyze one another - strengthening the fabric of science and, with it, the entire science and technology enterprise. By advancing all frontiers of knowledge, creative American scientists and engineers, along with their students, enrich the present and shape the future.

The diversity of Federal sources of basic research funding, and the variety of institutions and organizations conducting the research contribute to U.S. leadership across the scientific frontiers spanned by the Federal scientific and technical research portfolio.

In this time of constrained resources, some have argued that less emphasis should be placed on basic research, since its results are typically available to anyone in the world. Japan, for example, h as developed strong market positions for some products, particularly consumer electronics, for which American scientists did much of the original research and development. The Administration rejects this simplistic argument. The dominance of our basic res earch enterprise is a core American strength that must be preserved. This enterprise, in addition to producing new knowledge that is indeed appropriable by others, generates the physical and human infrastructure that underlies our national innovation syst em and our society's resourcefulness in the face of rapid technological change.
We also must remember that basic research repays society in the near term through newsworthy discoveries that inspire our children and society at large. This ability to uncover and understand nature 's secrets is a uniquely human accomplishment. Only the Federal government can supply the truly "patient capital" for the long-term investment in basic research.
The human infrastructure - creative scientists and engineers, trained at the research frontier and able to move boldly in response to new opportunities and challenges - positions America at the fore front of the "brainpower industries" of the future. Such industries - high technology, health-care technology and biotechnology, business technologies, multimedia technologies, and others - increasingly support expansion of our export economy. America's e conomic resilience, as demonstrated in the rapid recovery of our leadership in semiconductors over the last five years, is clearly tied to our strength in science and technology, especially the basic and applied research capacity and human capital that sp ring from our research universities. Indeed, it is noteworthy that Japan's decision to dramatically increase research funding emphasizes strengthening its research universities.
Competitive advantages clearly accrue to nations fashioning the future through investments that return new, basic knowledge. Although our total investment in non-defense research and development rem ains the highest in the world, it is only 75 percent that of Japan and 85 percent of Germany's as a fraction of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). We must not let our position erode and thus compromise our future.

The nondefense R&D/GDP ratios of both Japan (2.7 percent) and Germany (2.4 percent) considerably exceeded that of the United States (2.0 percent) in 1993 and have done so for years. The nondefense R&D ratio of France matched the ratio of the Un ited States; the ratios of the United Kingdom (1.9 percent), Canada (1.5 percent), and Italy (1.3 percent) were somewhat lower.

for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities
for the study of gravitation.

NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY awarded for contributions to the developments of
methods within DNA-based chemistry with one-half to:
Kary B. Mullis, La Jolla, CAm for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
method and one-half to:
Michael Smith, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, for his fundamental
contributions to the establishment of oligonucleiotide-based, site-directed mutagenesis and
its development for protein studies.

NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE awarded jointly to:
Richard J. Roberts, (U.K.), New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA, and
Phillip A. Sharp, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA,
for their discoveries of split genes.

BANK OF SWEDEN PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES IN MEMORY OF ALFRED NOBEL awarded jointly to:
Robert W. Fogel, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, and
Douglass C. North, Washington University, St. Louis, MO,
for having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and
quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change.

for pioneering contributions to the development of
neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter

for development of
neutron spectroscopy and one-half to: Clifford G. Shull, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, MA, for the development of the neutron diffraction technique.

NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY awarded to:
George A. Olah, University of Southern California, for his contribution to carbocation
chemistry.

NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE awarded jointly to:
Alfred G. Gilman, University of Texas Southwest Medical Center, Dallas, TX, and
Martin Rodbell, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park,
NC, for their discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction
in cells.

BANK OF SWEDEN PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES IN MEMORY OF ALFRED NOBEL awarded jointly to:
John C. Harsanyi, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA,
John F. Nash, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and
Reinhard Selten, Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms Universitat, Bonn, Germany, for their
pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games.

for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton
physics

for the detection of the
neutrino.

NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY awarded jointly to:
Paul J. Crutzen (Netherlands), Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany,
Mario J. Molina, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, and
Sherwood F. Rowland, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, for their work in
atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone.

NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE awarded jointly to:
Edward B. Lewis, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA,
Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, Max Planck Institut fur Entwicklungsbiologie, Germany, and
Eric F. Wieschaus, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, for their discoveries concerning the
genetic control of early embryonic development.

BANK OF SWEDEN PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES IN MEMORY OF ALFRED NOBEL awarded to:
Robert E. Lucas, Jr., University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, for having developed and applied
the hypothesis of rational expectations, and thereby having transformed macroeconomic
analysis and deepened our understanding of economic policy.

ADVANCING THE FRONTIERS
OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Maintaining U.S. leadership across the frontiers of scientific knowledge is achieved through investments by numerous Federal agencies that span all fields of science and engineering. Diverse combinations of expertise and approaches, along with teamwork an d collaboration, contribute to the steady progress and major breakthroughs advancing today's frontiers. By bringing specialists together to tackle problems that transcend disciplinary boundaries, we cross-fertilize scientific fields and spur further advan ces.
The five thrust areas discussed below typify the breadth of Federal investments and the multidisciplinary character of today's frontiers of knowledge. Many other examples could be chosen; indeed, ma ny others are discussed throughout subsequent chapters. Taken together, these five research thrusts convey the varied, vibrant, and active character of science: simultaneously satisfying our curiosity, leading to new technologies, and serving our overarch ing national goals.

Each theme listed below represents an area of emphasis in our Federal research portfolio:

• Origins of the universe, solar system, and life
• Understanding earth systems
• Materials research
• Medical advances through genome research
• Human learning and potential

In each area, several Federal agencies bring to bear powerful capabilities and complementary perspectives. The research enlists the talents and institutional resources of the best university faculty and students, government and national laboratory scientists and engineers, and industrial researchers throughout the nation. Priority goes to efforts that are judged most worthy of taxpayer investment on the basis of merit review and that also serve the missions of the Federal agencies. The competition for resources is fierce. Annually our nation's scientists and engineers submit some 70,000 proposals just to the NSF and NIH for scientifically sound and worthwhile studies - easily three to five times mor e than can be funded.

ORIGINS: SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS
TO FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BIRTH AND
DEVELOPMENT OF GALAXIES, STARS,
PLANETS, AND LIFE

At present, scientists can claim a rudimentary understanding of the physical evolution of the universe from about 10-35 seconds after the start of the Big Bang to today. Recent discoveries by space-based instruments, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, by NSF's ground-based observatories, and by a new generation of large privately funded telescopes, have made recent years outstanding ones for astronomy.
We now have strong observational evidence for formerly exotic theoretical concepts such as black holes, one of which may lie at the center of our own galaxy. Most scientists now agree that modern di scoveries confirm that there was a cataclysmic moment of creation - the Big Bang - that gave birth to the universe. And at about the same time the fundamental structure of matter was being determined, small breaks in the otherwise uniformly smooth fabric of the universe were setting the stage for the formation of galaxies. NASA's COBE satellite observed the effect of these inhomogeneities by looking back to a time w hen the universe was about a million years old. Primordial gases cooled and somehow collected together - perhaps influenced by concentrations of dark matter - to become the first galaxies, and then smaller clumps of gases within them became the first star s. Now we can observe stellar nurseries, like the Eagle Nebula (see photo).

This eerie, dark pillar-like structure in the Eagle Nebula in this Hubble Space Telescope image is actually cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust incubating new stars. Stars are born when clouds of dust and gas collapse because of gravity. As more and more material falls onto the forming star, it finally becomes hot and dense enough at its center to trigger the nuclear fusion reactions that make stars, including our Sun, shine.

While we have answered many age-old questions, the progress of the past several years has forced new questions upon us. We do not know the exact paths along which galaxies, stars, and planetary syst ems evolve. Only within the past two years have we discovered possible planets around other stars. We do not completely understand the Sun's impact on processes here on earth. We are only beginning to explore the detailed features of our nearest planetary neighbors.
These new questions have prompted a natural shift to an "origins' perspective. Because understanding the evolution of the universe, including the life within it, takes the combined contributions of astrophysics, space science, particle physics, nuclear physics, exobiology, and chemistry, the broad questions of origins now connect many of the nation's scientific efforts in a highly complementary way.
For example, while astronomers using NASA spacecraft and NSF observatories are focusing on large-scale galaxy formation and planetary studies, complementary work in particle and nuclear physics is b eing conducted at DOE and NSF accelerators to understand the structure of matter at its most fundamental level and how that structure was manifested in the first few minutes of the universe. Such studies will continue in the future with American scientist s working at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe and at new U.S. facilities such as DOE's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collid er on Long Island and its B-factory in California.
New Administration budget initiatives also strengthen NASA's research efforts to look for earth-like planets and nascent galaxies by advancing the launch of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility and initiating preparations for interferometry, both on earth and in space. And because every prior improvement has revealed unanticipated astronomical wonders, the Administra tion is supporting even more advanced facilities, such as NSF's twin Gemini Telescopes and Phase 1 of the Millimeter Array, and NASA's Advanced X-Ray Astronomical Facility and the Next Generation Space Tele scope design.
In parallel with this research to understand the evolution of the physical universe, the quest to understand and explore the staggering diversity of life on earth is bringing together experts in bio logy, chemistry, earth sciences, oceanography, polar studies, astronomy, and ecosystems. More and more, we find life forms thriving in extreme environments, with water in some form being the only apparent necessity. Only last year scientists decoded the g enetic material of an archaeon, confirming that it represented a third and previously unknown branch of life - the Archaea - on our own planet. Collectively these di scoveries provide insights into the possibility for life elsewhere in the universe.
The analysis last summer of a putative Martian meteorite found 20 years ago in Antarctica has whetted the public's interest to find solid evidence of life on other worlds. Now two new probes are off to Mars, and more are planned, including the retrieval of appropriate samples from Mars. Clearly, a discovery of life beyond earth will provide a landmark in mankind's millennia-old qu est to understand our place in the universe.

LEARNING HOW TO ENSURE
EARTH'S LONG-TERM HABITABILITY

Because of both natural and manmade causes, our earth undergoes local, regional, and global changes on time scales ranging from momentary to geological. Humans and other creatures affect earth's habitability by just living. In fact, over eons, photosynthe sis by early plants on the ancient earth created the oxygen-rich atmosphere we and other animals breathe. Now, to maintain our high standard of living we convert vast quantities of energy and raw materials into forms we desire, consume, and often discard. This consumption has adverse effects on the earth's air, water, weather, landforms, and agricultural productivity. The U.S. Global Change Research Program coordinates the efforts and invest ments of 13 Federal agencies and collaborates with international partners to study these problems.
A fundamental challenge of our age is to understand how numerous natural and human phenomena interact to influence global habitability. Earth's orbit, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanism, ocean currents, storms, drought, erosion, fires, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, electricity generation, and transportation are among the processes that affect the environment. Our goal is to understand - even predict - the natural phenomena, and to learn h ow to maintain - even enhance - our standard of living and that of people in developing nations while sustaining earth's habitability for future generations.
Today, scientists use observations, models, and the geological record to answer questions such as the following: How fast and why does climate change? What role do carbon dioxide and methane cycled through ecosystems play in global atmospheric changes? How do plants, soils, and ocean plankton amplify or reduce climate change through their chemical interactions with the atmosphere? What is the role of bacteria in geological processes, such as rock-w eathering, oil formation, and the clean-up or aggravation of pollution in soils? What role do oceans play in year-to-year and long-term climate change? How can we accurately predict catastrophic earthquakes? How do changes in the land, ocean, and atmosphe re affect human systems and vice versa?
Studies combining biological, earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences will help us understand the feedback loops among earth's systems. On time scales ranging from a few years to centuries, variation s in ocean circulation modulate climate, but we do not know what drives the changes in ocean currents. For example, El Nino currents in the Pacific Ocean bring war m surface waters to the coast of South America, and apparently disrupt weather patterns dramatically in many parts of the world on an irregular three-to-ten-year cycle. Scientists suspect that El Nino figured in flooding of the Mississippi River Valley i n 1993 and in California two years later. Trying to determine whether this seemingly extreme weather is part of a normal or unusual climate fluctuation requires a combination of approaches. We are now amassing a very impressive data set through the flight of radar altimeters, such as TOPEX-Poseidon, international programs such as the World Ocean Circulation Experiment and the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere program, painstaking studies of historical records of floods, droughts, and fishing, along with climate clues from corals, glaciers, and tree rings, and novel proxy measurements of past ocea n currents. Taken together, these measurements provide sensitive indicators of ocean temperature and rainfall over several centuries, which can tell us if the weather extremes of the past few years are consistent with normal patterns.
This multifaceted basic research portfolio to understand climate and other global phenomena utilizes field and laboratory experiments, new global networks such as the Global Seismic Network created by DOD and operated now by NSF and DOI's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), remote-sensing measurements from NASA' s Mission to Planet Earth and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) weather satellites, NSF's Long-Term Ecological Research Network, and new computer models able to simulate complex processes with increasing realism.
Breakthroughs have occurred. The discovery of the "ozone hole," for instance, derived from atmospheric chemistry research in the 1970s and 1980s and was recognized by the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry. A pressing problem now is to understand climate change, notably through the greenhouse effect, since further warming of only 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit could imp act society in unknown ways. Basic research to monitor, understand, and mitigate the natural and human-induced changes to our planet can produce the discoveries and insights needed to help us enhance humanity's standard of living while keeping earth and a ll its ecosystems healthy.

DESIGNING MATERIALS FOR BUILDING
A PROSPEROUS FUTURE

From the ancient Bronze and Iron Ages to the Information or Silicon Age of today, materials have been at the heart of technological revolutions. Advances in communications, computers, medicine, transportation, energy, and defense technology are all made p ossible by new materials and materials-related phenomena.
In recent years we have seen spectacular improvements in the performance of materials. Compared with 1970, we now have permanent magnets with magnetic strengths three times greater, superalloys that operate at temperatures 500 degrees Centigrade higher, semiconductor chips one-thousand times denser, and optical fibers so many orders of magnitude more transparent that they have become the backbone of modern communications and computer networks. Mater ials research provided the scientific underpinning for these advances, and gave rise to the communications revolution, more efficient turbine engines, personal computers, smaller electric motors, and many other technological advances with multi-billion-do llar economic impacts.
As we enter the twenty-first century, materials research is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, with progress often occurring at the interfaces with other disciplines such as biology, chemistry , civil engineering, and atomic and molecular physics. Fullerenes - the hollow carbon molecules recognized by the 1996 Nobel Prize for chemistry - are being made no w in fiber-like tubes that are excellent conductors and likely to be 100 times stronger than steel at only one-sixth the weight. One can imagine this research leading to fullerene wires, precise delivery of catalysts, and novel instruments for materials r esearch and other applications.
Modern materials research spans a broad spectrum, ranging from the manipulation of individual atoms to the performance of construction materials for bridges, roadways, and buildings, from the physic s and chemistry of complex fluids to the structure and synthesis of biological materials, from high temperature superconductivity to materials for lasers and optical fibers, and from nanoscale systems for microelectronics and sensors to new alloys and cer amics for extreme conditions. The field encompasses the synthesis, processing, and characterization of materials for present and future technologies; the physics and chemistry of metals and alloys, ceramics, composites, polymers, semiconductors, thin film s, glasses, complex fluids, and biomaterials; and the development of fundamental knowledge to help us tailor new materials and exploit materials properties and phenomena. Recently scientists even used theoretical supercomputer calculations to develop a su ccessful recipe for crystals that are harder than diamond.

Neutrons penetrate deeply into materials, allowing structure determination at the atomic level for a wide variety of materials, from high temperature superconductors to large biological molecules. This image from the High Flux Isotope Reactor at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory shows two-dimensional magnetic ordering in a particular lutetium compound. With a next-generation neutron source, U.S. scientists and engineers will be able to resolve currently inaccessible, important features associated with the motion and ordering of atoms in useful materials.

In another example of the cross-fertilization so prevalent (and necessary) to modern science, research techniques in materials science now require innovations first seen in the accelerators of high energy and nuclear physics. Over the last decade, the emergence of national facilities, from atomic-resolution microscopes to powerful synchrotron and neutron facilities, has transformed the cutting edge of materials science. Together with high-performanc e computing, these state-of-the-art facilities (e.g., DOE's Advanced Light Source, its recently completed Advanced Photon Source, and a needed next-generation neutron source now being designed) will provide unprecedented opportunities to expand our knowledge of the increasingly complex materials and phenomena essential for the technological breakthroughs of the fu ture.
Partnerships across disciplines and involving universities, government laboratories, and industry have become essential to the assembly of the resources and diverse skills necessary to continue adva ncing the field. Nine major Federal agencies invest in materials research of various types. New developments in quantum engineering, nonlinear phenomena, advanced ceramics, and biomaterials hold the promise of future breakthroughs with impacts comparable to those of the transistor, optical fiber, and solid-state laser. Continued progress and innovation in materials research lies at the heart of our scientific and technological future.

FROM MOLECULES
TO MEDICINE

The human genome is the complete set of genetic instructions found in the nucleus of most cells on 23 pairs of chromosomes that are long strands of DNA. Each gene is a segment of DNA that carries the blueprints for a specific molecule, usually a protein. When there is a mistake in the order of chemical bases that comprise the DNA coding for a specific protein, that protein may be altered, missing, or ineffective in the family members carrying the error. The methods for locating such disease genes include the construction of detailed maps to identify the position of the gene on a chromosome, sequencing the DNA in the area where the gene is localized, and comparing the gene sequence in individuals who have the disease with those who do not. For a newly isol ated gene, the researcher can quickly gather from on-line databases everything that has already been determined about its identity, function, and protein product.

"Visible Humans" have transformed the teaching and pract ice of medicine. A 59-year-old female and a 39-year-old male donated their bodies to science, and became immortalized as the first digitized cadavers, available to the public and the medical community over the Internet. Images obtained from comput erized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and high-resolution photographs were compiled into a database, providing complete, anatomically correct, three-dimensional views. The uses of these "recyclable" bodies include rehearsal of surgery, repeated d issection, computerized crash testing, and numerous other medical simulations.

Over many years, the list of human diseases that result from known defects in a single gene has grown to about 4,000. Many of these conditions are rare and afflict only a fairly small number of peop le; sickle cell disease is an exception, affecting more than 50,000 individuals in the United States. However, it has also become clear that many complex afflictions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, some forms of cancer, and other diseases, have a strong genetic component. By developing and making widely available the tools for locating and rapidly sequencing genes, the Human Genome Project - an ambitious international research effort - is accelerating the progress of molecular medicine.
The Human Genome Project, funded by NIH, DOE, and several international partners, is helping scientists gain a genetic understanding of disease and also of healthy processes, such as growth, develop ment, and how the immune system recognizes a foreign invader. Once the genetic basis of a disease is discovered, scientists have a better chance of defeating it. One example is prevention based on detection of a genetic predisposition to an inherited diso rder such as colon cancer. Individuals who inherit certain mutations on chromosomes 2 or 3 have a 70 to 80 percent chance of developing a particular type of colon cancer. They may benefit from eating a high-fiber, low-fat diet and from scheduling annual c olon exams starting at age 30, an age considerably younger than that recommended for the general population.
Another disease that can now be detected by testing a blood specimen is cystic fibrosis, the most common lethal hereditary disease among Caucasians. The first human gene therapy trials are under way in Federally approved clinical trials. Understanding the course of cystic fibrosis at its most elementary level already has led to the development and approval of a drug that dramatically lessens its severity and improves the quality of life for those su ffering from it.
The ethical, legal, and social issues associated with human genome research are being addressed in parallel with the scientific exploration and in a manner that encourages maximum public involvement . In addition, President Clinton established the National Bioethics Advisory Commission and charged it to consider as one of its first priorities the appropriate use and management of genetic information. Our policies and regulations need to keep pace with knowledge that promises such great rewards in disease prevention and cure.

LEARNING AND HUMAN POTENTIAL

The current revolution in information and communications technologies is creating demands for new human learning skills and interaction modes. Merely being able to read, write, and calculate is no longer sufficient. Everyone needs to master the skills req uired to extract and integrate relevant information and use it for complex decision-making and problem-solving.
The Federal government has supported much of the research on how humans learn, process information, and then use that information to solve problems. Recent decades have seen dramatic advances in our understanding of human learning, from the level of neurochemistry and brain structure to the whole person. Neuroscientists, engineers, and computer scientists have developed new tools to provide insights into how human memory organizes different kinds of information. Psychologists and linguists are characterizing cognitive phenomena and mental processes ever more thoroughly. Artificial intelligence researchers have replicated mechanisms for learning and decision-making that have widespread applicability. Education researchers have developed cognitive-based methods that significantly improve students' thinking skills through research-based teaching. Engineers and computer scientists have developed intelligent systems that can learn from their environments and operate complex systems safely and reliably. All this progress has applications in education reforms, medicine, psychotherapy, and management.
The NSF is now emphasizing the need for coordinated, interdisciplinary research that integrates knowledge about human and machine learning, creativity, communication, real-time feedback, and decisio n-making. With the introduction of educational technologies into schools, it is urgent that we develop a solid research base for educational strategies and pedagogy, and learn how to use modern tools to increase the learning of all students.
A broad Administration initiative will tackle the development of children from infancy to adulthood, as this period is extraordinarily important to giving each person the best start in life. Key res earch questions at this knowledge frontier include: What relationships exist among learning, intelligence, and creativity? How can we use technology effectively to optimize each child's ability to learn and create? What effects do multimedia technologie s have on children's development? What role does nutrition play in enhancing a child's ability to learn? What nutrients are required for optimal cognitive development and peak functioning? Contributions will come from research sponsored by the NIH, the De partment of Education, USDA, NSF, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Understanding gained will help us optimize the learning, nutrition, and health of our children in the twenty-first century.

INVESTING IN MODERN SCIENTIFIC
FACILITIES AND INSTRUMENTS

Just as Olympic-caliber athletes need the finest equipment and training protocols to triumph in their events, so do scientists, engineers, and their students need the most modern research instruments and facilities with the best capabilities, the farthest reach, and the finest accuracy and resolution. As we push beyond the frontiers of our current knowledge, research facilities, instruments, and enormous databases serving the social sciences must evolve to support ever more complex research. These major f acilities and laboratory tools require continuous modernization, upgrading, and, ultimately, replacement.
Thanks to farsighted, bipartisan investments, the United States today has an array of major scientific facilities that are the envy of the world. Federally funded facilities serve tens of thousands of scientists and students performing world-class experiments in widely diverse fields. NASA provides the Hubble Space Telescope, numerous other satellites, and space probes carrying specialized devices for astronomy, astrophysics, and observations of our own and other planets. The NSF supports sea-going research vessels for study of the world's oceans, ground-based observatories for astronomy, diverse facilities for physical science and materials research, supercomputers for university researchers, widel y shared data sets for the social and behavioral sciences, and research stations in Antarctica. The national laboratories of DOE build and operate leading-edge particle accelerators, neutron sources, supercomputers, and numerous specialized instruments for research in physical, chemical, materials, environmental, and biological sciences. The DOC supports a fleet of research vessels for oceanography, provides access to u ndersea research platforms, and operates a cold neutron source as well as the tools needed to develop new precision standards. Two unique biocontainment facilities for research on emerging pathogens are operated by DOD. The NIH sponsors Regional Primate Research Centers, an Internet-accessible archive of genetic code sequences, the "Visible Human" digital library, and other shared resource networks and biomedical research facilities. The USGS operates a data center that archives and makes available all land remote sensing data gathered by Federal agencies. The Administration's commitment to scientific infrastructure renewal is demonstrated by the number and diversity of facilities recently completed or under construction with NSF or DOE support. (See box on new facilities.)

Exceptionally intense x-rays open new vistas of research in materials science, chemistry, physics, biotechnology, and medicine. The environmental, geological, agricultural, and planetary sciences also benefit from the Department of Energy's Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. With this third generation x-ray source, researchers can study objects thousands of times smaller than can be seen with conventional optical techniques. Exposure times are fast enough to produce images of chemical and biological molecules as they react. Scientists can gain new knowledge to create new materials tailored to specific applications in such areas as superconductors, semiconductors, polymers, pharmaceuticals, and catalysts.

Via a dynamic synergism, the creation and operation of these state-of-the-art facilities is a multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art science and engineering challenge in its own right. In most cases, a ccess to these facilities is awarded to qualified scientists and engineers on the basis of peer-reviewed competitions, where the proposed research is judged for its quality and importance.
The growing National Information Infrastructure and High Performance Computing and Communications programs are now making possible the remote use and operation of facilities, and also the nearly instantaneous distribution of data to scientific collaborators around the nation and world. Even students and teachers in school class rooms can now use the Internet to access fresh data sets, images, and information. Development of the Next Generation Internet and other technological innovations is bringing experiments at m ajor scientific facilities into the home laboratories and offices of the user scientists.
Such amazing computational power and interconnectivity were made possible first by fundamental scientific advances, from which high technology resulted. Now, in a compelling example of how science a nd technology reinforce each other, these computers are used in the creation of new science in diverse fields - from materials and drug design, to the internal structure of protons and neutrons, to the large scale structure and dynamics of oceans and atmo spheres.
Over the years, Federal budget pressures prevented some scientific facilities from operating fully and effectively. To improve our national research productivity, this Administration launched, with bipartisan support, the Scientific Facilities Initiative in FY 1996. As a result, investments in research at the targeted DOE facilities, together serving more than 15,000 scientists and engineers, are buying substantially more science operations than in previous years. Full utilization enables maximum benefit and continuing returns from our sizeable national investment.
As we near the twenty-first century, there are important areas of the scientific frontier where American facilities have fallen behind, or where no adequate tools now exist. For example, with our ne utron science facilities aging, we need to upgrade current facilities and to construct a next-generation neutron source to advance our materials research agenda. To continue unraveling questions associated with understanding the origins of the universe and our place in it, new ground-based telescopes, space observatories, and planetary missions are needed. Our South Pole research station supports unique and crucial research programs for several scientific fields, but needs renewal. At many universities throughout the country, research equipment is inadequately funded to keep pace with the state-of-the-art. Both the caliber of the research, as well as the education of students, suffers.
When budgets get tight, infrastructure investments tend to be deferred. But shortchanging these needs erodes our capability and performance in the long term, and handicaps America's scientists and engineers. Sustaining leadership across the frontiers of knowledge requires investments to maintain and renew our research infrastructure. With projected budget constraints, it will take time to satisfy all the needs indicated above. Nevertheless, we must commit to continued renewal through strategic planning that phases our facilities investments to maximize research productivity.

National Nanofabrication Users Network (Nodes in California; New York; Pennsylvania; Washington, D.C.); operational in 1994. Network providing electronic access to fabrication equipment and expertise on nanoscale materials and devices.
Gemini Observatories (Hawaii, Chile); to be completed in 2000. New-generation 8-meter optical/infrared telescopes with matching facilities in Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
National Radio Astronomy Observatory/ Greenbank Telescope (West Virginia); to be completed in 1998 World's largest and most versatile steerable radio telescope.
National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO)/WIYN Telescope (Arizona); completed in 1993. Telescope for optical and infrared astronomy.
NOAO/ Global Oscillation Network (worldwide); completed in 1995. Network of telescopes to monitor the Sun.
National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (Puerto Rico); to be completed in 1997. Upgrade for planetary astronomy and upper atmosphere studies.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (Florida; New Mexico); began operations in 1993. Science and engineering research on materials.
Cornell Electron Storage Ring (New York); to be completed in 1999. Upgrade for high energy physics and synchrotron radiation experiments.
Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (Louisiana and Washington); to be completed in 2001. Will study gravitational waves to test Einstein's theory of gravitation a nd to open a new type of astronomy.

Advanced Light Source (California); completed in 1994. Provides soft x-ray beams.
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Virginia); completed in 1995. Makes it possible to explore the innermost structure of the atom's nucleus.
Advanced Photon Source (Illinois); completed in 1996. Produces exceptionally intense hard x-rays.
Environmental and Molecular Sciences Laboratory (Washington); to be completed in 1997. Advances the fundamental science essential to develop more cost-effective environmen tal clean-up methods.
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider ( New York); to be completed in 1999. Will provide ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions to study matter and energy at extremely high densi ty and temperature, as it existed in the early universe. B-Factory (California); to be completed in 1998. Will explore why antimatter is so rare in the universe.
Fermilab Main Injector (Illinois); to be completed in 1999. Will determine the properties of the newly discovered top quark.

PARTNERING TO ADVANCE
THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENTIFIC
KNOWLEDGE

Within the United States, many players sharing common goals in these times of constrained resources are partnering to sponsor or pursue research programs in their area of mutual interest. The Administration has enthusiastically encouraged and supported re search partnerships of all types. Such collaborations combine the resources of industry, academia, nonprofit organizations, and all levels of government to advance knowledge, promote education, strengthen institutions, and develop human resources.

UNIVERSITY-GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS

The compact between government and universities aimed at advancing science and technology in the national interest goes back well over a century, when the Land Grant universities were founded. In the last 50 years, this partnership has become the core of our world-class science and technology enterprise. Over half of the Federal investment in basic research goes to universities, where it supports the training of young scientists and engineers and the creation of new knowledge.
American research universities are recognized internationally for the quality of advanced education of the next generation of scientists and engineers. Our professors, courses, and research opportun ities are unsurpassed in all fields of science and technology. International students flock to our campuses to obtain their scientific degrees, some remaining here to enrich our workforce, and others returning home to launch their careers. The human netwo rks created in this way crisscross the globe, maintained and enhanced through advanced electronic communications links.
Research and education lie at the heart of this Administration's investment in America's future. These investments are essential for our nation's prosperity, security, and quality of life in the kno wledge-driven society of the twenty-first century. The Administration's investments in this area are significant, with about $13 billion annually awarded to U.S. universities for research, in addition to considerable support provided directly for technica l education.
To sustain our national level of innovation over the long term, we must become more focused and thus more efficient, and we must prioritize our activities. The changes needed to effect such improvem ents stress our societal institutions, including higher education. Consequently, the Administration has initiated a review, to be completed in Summer 1997, of the university-government partnership to be conducted under the auspices of the National Science and Technology Council. In the research arena, the focus is to ass ess how budgets, programs, policies, regulations, and the availability of scientific facilities serving university communities have affected university research.