RESEARCH

Federal R & D Budget Hits Peak— Basic Research Gains Expenditures, Billions o f Dollars Basic Research, % of R&D Budget

10 ^.p. -v__ </;>:-"

£*'*. *ι "~ - " -*V . Basic Research "4*1 ~ * r * ^ Ί * . **"•* * **

1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 (Bt.) 1958 (Est.)

Basic Research Gains New Support Low man in a record-high federal R&D budget, basic research now seems about to be spotlighted

W HILE CONGRESS was getting sugges­tions on how to reorganize government science activities (see page 38) , the Defense Department was taking a new look at basic research. Reacting to sharp criticism of its policy toward basic research, the Defense Department says that it may double spending in this area. Says a Defense Department spokesman, "We are trying to find out how much more can profitably be spent without distorting the national science picture."

The federal R&D budget, meanwhile, continues its upward dollar spiral. Government spending for R&D hit $3.0 billion in fiscal 1957, a jump of 20% over fiscal 1956. But fiscal 1958 prom­ises to shatter all records with $3.3 bi l l ion-4.5% of the total U. S. budget —for R&D, says the National Science Foundation in its latest report on the government research budget.

Two agencies, the Defense Depart­ment and Atomic Energy Commission, dominate the budget picture, account­

ing for 85% of a l l R&D spending in 1957. Eight agencies out of 23 sur­veyed spend 99% of government R&D funds.

• W h e r e t he Money Goes . Nearly half—489c— of the R&D money is spent within the Government. T h e Defense Department accounts for 70% of all "intramural" R&D spending.

Biggest part of the remaining funds goes to profit organizations, this group getting 35%. Nearly 98% of the $1 billion going to profit organizations comes from the Defense Department and AEC. About one fourth of the amount went to research centers op­erated b y profit organizations, with AEC putting up most of the money here.

Ranking a poor third in line for fed­eral R&D money a r e educational institu­tions, with 14% of the total. Again the Defense Department and AEC figure prominently, supplying 7 0 % of the money. On a less grand scale are the significant amounts spent by National

Institutes of Health for medical re­search in schools and by the Depart­ment of Agriculture for state agricul­tural experiment stations.

Today's distribution of the federal R&D dollar is in sharp contrast to that of only five years ago. Then, only 2 5 % of the money was spent within the Government, with profit organizations getting 6 0 % .

k What It 's Spent For. Most of the federal R&D dollars-60%—go for de­velopment. Funds for this category in­creased 20% between fiscal 1956 and 1957. The Defense Department and AEC loom large here, too, accounting for 98% of the development money. Over 75% of the R&D budgets of both these agencies is tagged for develop­ment.

Total funds for research alone are rising, too. From fiscal 1956 to 1957 this category showed a 14% gain, and another 6% increase is scheduled for fiscal 1958. On a per cent basis, re­search alone accounts for 40% of the total R&D budget. The Defense De­partment accounts for nearly half of the research total, with AEC and Agricul­ture each accounting for 10%.

Over 75% of funds for research go for applied research. On an over-all basis, basic research amounts to less than 8%

4 8 C & E N NOV. 2 5, 1957

Here's the R&D Spending Record of Top Six Federal Agencies

3000

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT Expenditures, Millions of Dollars

Source: National Science Foundation

2250

1500

' 800

ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION Expenditures, Millions of Dollars

Source: National Science Foundation ~ ~ *~

U

1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 !957(E,t.)l958 {% 1952 1953 1954 ϊ 955 1956 !957(Est.)l958

-200

HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE Expenditures, /Aillions of Dollars

ί» Source* National Scîènc» Foundation 140

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Expenditures, Millions of Dollars

^^rc^Sional^iei ie F o u ^ ^ F F ^ > ^ « ^ f Ϊ

35

1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 <uj 1958 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 <E.t.) 1958

NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR AERONAUTICS Expenditures, Millions of Dollars

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ¥ i Expenditures, Millions of Dollars

1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957(E»>.)1958

N O V . 2 5. 1 9 5 7 C & E N 4 9

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RESEARCH

of the budget. Physical sciences, es­pecially engineering, dominate the re­search picture. Two thirds of all re­search money is channeled into physical sciences. Within t h e life sciences group, medical sciences get the most attention.

• Spotlight on Basic. The basic re­search picture is obscured because there seems to be little agreement on definition of the word basic. On a percentage basis, basic research shows large gains; on a dollar basis, the gain is small. According t o NSF figures, the Defense Depar tment has consist­ently allocated less than 2% of its R&D budget for basic research. In fiscal 1955, the figure dropped to 1.1%. This figure will rise to 1.6% for fiscal 1958. Defense Department figures run two to three times this level.

Big gun in the basic research camp appears to be AEC. Fiscal 1954 saw AEC spend 15% of its R&D budget on basic research. The figure has slowly declined to an estimated 8.3% for fiscal 1958.

• Respiratory cancer a n d cardiovascu­l a r d i sease are no more common among employees of tobacco process­ing plants than among t h e average U . S . population, although t h e tobacco plant employees smoke considerably more, according to a study made by H. B. Haag, professor of pharmacology of the Medical College of Virginia, and H. R. Hanmer, research director of American Tobacco. Over-all dea th rate of Ameri­can Tobacco employees is 3 1 % lower than for the general populat ion; death rates for respiratory cancer are the same as those of the general population.

• A r m o u r Research F o u n d a t i o n d i d a record volume of research during its 1956—57 fiscal year. I ts gross volume increased to $14.1 million—an increase of more than $2 million or 18% over the previous year. I t conducted 734 research projects dur ing the year, 404 for industry and 330 for government.

• The r a t e a co r ros ive gas a t tacks a solid surface can be measured by a technique using time-lapse photog­raphy. The procedure, developed by J. D. McKinley of the National Bureau of Standards under a n AEC grant, is applicable to any of a large number of gas-solid reactions. F r o m photographs of the reacting solid, a n accurate meas­ure of dimensional changes and,

thereby, the rate of change of mass of the sample can be obtained. Reactions are s tudied at high temperatures and low pressures.

• A col l id ing-beam part ic le accelera­tor is proposed by physicists a t Mid­western Universities Research Associa­tion as a U. S. answer to Russian supremacy in high-energy physics. With A E C support, M U R A scientists have built an operating model of an accelerator they say would cost $100 million a n d take eight years to build. Its particle beam would circle one way and target particles the other; when allowed to collide, they could release the equivalent of a trillion electron volts.

• Fu r t he r i ng basic research is the primary object of a new $1,650,000 program at the University of Pennsyl­vania. An anonymous gift of $1 mil­lion is start ing it off. T h e program will involve building a new research building to cost $1.5 million, including equipment. And $150,000 will be spent for converting certain present laboratories into new teaching and office space.

• Lithium-7 can b e s e p a r a t e d from lithium-6 in the laboratory via a process recently developed by Degussa of Frankfort, Germany. Lithium-7, with its very low neutron capturing cross-section of 0.1 barn, could b e used as a heat exchange medium in nuclear re­actors, in a similar way to sodium or sodium-potassium alloy. But a t pres­ent the AEC price for lithium-7 is so high that its use is almost impossible to consider, even for experimental pur­poses. Degussa's lab work points to a more economical production process. However, full scale production will not be at tempted unless the company is fairly certain it can better the present price considerably.

• A p o t e n t i a l l y v a l u a b l e est rogen has been isolated from Ladino clover, and its structure has been determined by scientists at USDA's Western Utiliza­tion Research and Development Di­vision. The estrogen, named coumes-trol, is also known to be present in al­falfa and strawberry clover. It is about 30 times more active than genistein, one of the most potent estrogens previously found in forage crops. However, it is considerably less power­ful in its effects on animals than the synthetic estrogen stilbestrol.

5 0 C & E N N O V . 2 5, 1957

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