Август 2001 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• Asia symposium on advanced technologies
• Academy Backs Off Cold War-Style Rules
• Kim will meet scientists during stopover in Novosibirsk
• ASEAN ambassadors visit enterprises in Novosibirsk rgn
• Fear, Horror and Awe in Europe Over Human Cloning
• Forest Saving Efforts Should Focus on 15 Countries: UNEP
• Digital Element Uses NewTek's LightWave 3D to Retrain Russian Nuclear Scientists to Make Art Tools Instead of Weaponry
• Suitcase Bomb Plutonium
• ALEXANDER BOROVOI: He stalks the Chernobyl nuclear reactor
• Zhores Alferov nominated honorary professor in Georgia
• About Ten Wild Tigers Found Living in NE Province
• Russia Snaps Together a New Supercomputer
• Russia's bargain supercomputer
• Putin proposes setting up National Education Council
• Cancer Studies Begin on ISS

Aug 15, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Prominent Russian scientist, Nobel Prize winner Zhores Alferov has been nominated an honorary professor of the Batumi state university, according to decision adopted by the university board on Tuesday.
The honorary title has been awarded to the Russian scientist for his contribution to the development of Batumi state university which also created a physics laboratory named after Zhores Alferov.
At the awards ceremony in Batumi, which was broadcast on local televsion on Wednesday, Zhores Alferov said that he had been maintaining friendly and business contacts with teachers and scientists of the Batumi university for 23 years. Alferov promised that he would come to Batumi next year to deliver lectures to university students.
Alferov told the ceremony that a representative international conference of physicists would be held in Batumi in 2002 with the participation of Georgian and foreign scientists.

В северо-восточной провинции Китая обнаружены около 10 тигров, что намного больше того количества, о котором сообщала совместная экспедиция ученых из Китая, России и США, которая проводилась в 1999 году

HARBIN, Aug 20, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- After years of tracking and investigation, zoologists in Heilongjiang Province have concluded that eight to 12 wild tigers are living in this northeast China province.
This figure is three to five more than the founding of scientists from China, the United States and Russia who carried out a joint expedition on wild tigers in 1999, local officials said Monday.
The latest research shows that wild tigers mainly live in three regions in Heilongjiang, a province neighboring Russia. An official from the provincial forestry bureau said the province has set up three trans-national protection zones of tigers. The neighboring Jilin Province has also established protection zones at the border area. These protection zones will guarantee the free move of tigers between China and Russia.
Departments concerned are considering setting up a large-scale ecological protection zone by connecting these tiger protection zones to help maintain ecological balance for wild tigers, the official said.

В России создан новый сверхмощный компьютер, способный производить свыше 85 миллионов операций в секунду

Calling it a breakthrough research tool, scientists have unveiled the first Russian supercomputer capable of 1 trillion operations per second. Russia, in building the computer, has found an easy way around U.S restrictions on exporting to Russia computers capable of handling more than 85 billion operations per second. Scientists merely bought components from the United States and assembled them into the supercomputer.
The Russian government-funded $10 million computer, started in 1998, can be used for a range of operations including modeling cosmic systems, investigating oil and gas deposits and forecasting weather. The MVS-1000, which sits in the Russian Academy of Sciences, also has the ability to simulate nuclear explosions an ability Russia already had but not at such great computer speeds, a top researcher on the project said after the unveiling last week.
"In the sphere of scientific research, it's [our] most powerful computer. It's important to us now that the [supercomputing] program continues", said Boris Shabanov, deputy director of research and development at the Russian Academy of Sciences. He said President Vladimir Putin has lent his support to the program.
But others in the computer industry downplayed the novelty of the breakthrough, pointing out that the MVS-1000 still runs much slower than the world's best and was made by assembling parts from the United States.
"They didn't design the microprocessors themselves, they just assembled them. The whole complexity is in microprocessors", said Boris Babayan, whose work developing the Soviet Union's most powerful computers has earned him the title of Russia's Seymour Cray, the supercomputer pioneer who set several world benchmarks.
The MVS-1000 was made by cobbling together 768 Alpha processors made by U.S. company Compaq. It has a theoretical peak operating performance of 1 teraflop, or 1 trillion operations per second. In contrast, IBM's ASCI White supercomputer is capable of more than 12 teraflops and cost some $100 million to develop.
Only companies in Japan and the United States have produced more powerful computers, Shabanov said. One of the more famous machines, IBM's Deep Blue, claimed victory over Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. "What is good about this project is its substantial computer power", said Sergei Tarasov, country manager for Sun Microsystems. "This is the fastest, but only for certain scientific applications".
Russian project leaders said the new machine would rank 30th on the list of the world's 500 most powerful supercomputers. "They should be proud of it. It gives research institutions the ability to try out their ideas", Babayan said. The MVS-1000's ability to simulate nuclear tests could raise eyebrows in Washington. The U.S. government requires companies to obtain export licenses to sell certain powerful computers to Russia, partly on the grounds that they could be resold to countries such as Iraq and North Korea, which could then use them to conduct clandestine nuclear tests. "The concern is that the U.S. government does not want the top-of-the-line computers to be on the commercial marketplace", said Steven Aftergood, a senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington. But with the unstoppable pace of technological advances and with the computer industry not willing to forgo opportunities in foreign markets, it's a difficult policy to sustain.
"The processors are very fast, and they are available. And it's fairly easy for somebody to assemble a very powerful computer", said Jack Dongarra, a professor at the University of Tennessee and a co-author of the Top 500 supercomputer list. "The policy just makes it harder to do that. It certainly doesn't prevent it". Russian scientists won't be able to prove their assertions that the MVS-1000 belongs on the Top 500 list until an updated version comes out in November. Dongarra said he had not received an application from Russia yet but thought that it could be the first time the country makes the list. Vladimir Fortov, vice president of the Academy of Sciences, said Boeing and the Indian government have shown interest in the supercomputer, Vremya Novostei reported. India already cooperates with Russia on supercomputers and last year a Russian institute imported an Indian computer as a way around U.S. restrictions, according to a spokesman at the Indian Embassy. While the limits remain in place, exports of the more powerful U.S. computers are on a case-by-case basis. In the past year, companies have had an easier time obtaining permission, said Natalya Zheleznykh of IBM's supercomputer department in Moscow. She said IBM has run into no difficulties obtaining approval to export to Russia in the past year. She and Shabanov both cited joint supercomputer projects between Russia and the United States as proof that the policy, which they say is left over from the Cold War, was expiring. Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control in Washington, disagreed that export restrictions are being relaxed and blamed the Clinton administration for ceding too much to manufacturers. "It's not in U.S. interests to help any country make better nuclear weapons, including Russia", he said. Shabanov said plans for a $20 million MVS-5000, which would be five times as fast, are already on paper and could be realized by 2003. The United States plans to have a system operating at 30 teraflops by that time, Prime-Tass reported. "We're already entering another level. We have thetechnology", he said.

Российские ученые обошли запрет на экспорт суперкомпьютеров из США, создав собственный, который можно использовать для моделирования ядерных взрывов. В теории это позволит новым ядерным державам секретно создавать ядерное оружие и не проводить его испытания

RUSSIAN scientists have defeated an American embargo on exporting supercomputers by building a machine of their own that could be used to model nuclear explosions. In theory it would enable new nuclear powers to develop weapons in secret without testing them.
The Pounds 7 million MVS 1000M computer, whose designers say it is the most powerful in Europe, is capable of performing a trillion (1,000 billion) calculations per second and is said to have cost the Government a tenth as much to build as similar computers in use in the United States and Japan. Its development is a breakthrough for Russian computing - "akin to breaking the sound barrier in aviation", according to Vladimir Fortov, vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He said at the launch of the supercomputer that Boeing, the Russian space programme and the Indian Government were among potential customers.
Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, has accused Russia of selling nuclear technology and expertise to "States of concern", and Western diplomats said yesterday that they would seek reassurances from the Kremlin that its latest computer would not find its way to countries such as Iran, Iraq and India. All three are thought to have started nuclear weapons development programmes with the help of underfunded Russian institutes and production facilities.
The new computer, which took two years to build, uses generally available software and more than 700 off-the-shelf microprocessors. Besides particle physics, it should find applications in aerospace design, genetic engineering and modelling global climate change.
Initially at least, its usefulness for nuclear physicists will be in simulating the controlled reactions involved in atomic energy generation, Mr Fortov said. A more advanced model capable of five trillion calculations per second is due to be completed by 2003.

MOSCOW, Aug 29, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin asked the State Council to discuss the need for setting up and national education council and its functions.
"Working out state education standards is not a concern for the educational department alone", said Putin. "Teachers, scholars and scientists and, possibly a national education council, should work in conjunction here". Having said that the state education standards are among the most important questions in the process of modernizing the system of education in this country, Putin recalled that "we have no such standards" at present.
"Many discussions of the education reform are pointless, including the discussion of a 12-year school education system", Putin said.
The president declared, "it is time to establish a balance between the universal nature of knowledge, its fundamental character and the pragmatic orientation of education towards the real needs of the state".

Abstract:
Highlights the initial cancer research to be conducted on board the International Space Station (ISS) by the new United States/Russian Expedition 3 crew. Studies on the growth of ovarian cancer cells; Biotech system's integration into the ISS Express Rack 4; Logistics transfers made by the Discovery crew.

Initial cancer research is getting underway on board the International Space Station this week as the new U.S./Russian Expedition 3 crew begins at least four months aloft on the 132-ton outpost. Studies on the growth of ovarian cancer cells will be started by about Aug. 24 in the new Cellular Biotech Support System hardware being operated by Expedition 3 commander Frank Culbertson and cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin.
The ovarian cancer research just launched to the ISS by the orbiter Discovery is sponsored by the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa and illustrates the type of joint NASA/university and commercial activities the agency wants to expand on the station.
"Space-based technology offers an incredibly exciting and unique approach to understanding the biology of this devastating woman's disease", said Dr. Jeanne Becker, the Tampa General Hospital cell biologist leading the ovarian studies.
THE NEW CREW, along with 4 tons of supplies and the Italian/Alenia Leonardo logistics module, was delivered to the ISS by Discovery, which was launched here Aug. 10. The orbiter, piloted by STS-105 mission commander USAF Col. Scott Horowitz, docked Aug. 12 with the ISS at 210 naut. mi. and will return to Earth this week with the outgoing second crew.
"Expedition 3 intends to accomplish a lot of science, and some of it could be spectacular-like looking for cures for cancer and other diseases", Culbertson said.
The cancer cell studies are the first of what should be two decades of ongoing human cell research to be conducted on the station. Different colon cancer, human kidney and neuroendocrine cell research by three other investigators also is beginning on the ISS.
The ovarian project's goal is to grow three-dimensional ovarian cancer cell clusters in zero-g. The 3D clusters are to be returned to Earth in December. They are expected to function more like cancer cells within the human body than do 2D cultures traditionally grown for research in flat petri dishes in Earth-based labs.
Becker has been using a rotating-wall fluid system on Earth to obtain ovarian cell clusters in a fluid suspension environment. But research using the higher quality 3D clusters grown in weightlessness should allow scientists to better visualize why anti-cancer agents do not kill the more human-like 3D clusters.
The ISS data factored into ground research "could give physicians a better first shot at predicting which cancer treatments will work", Becker said. The biotech system is integrated into the new ISS Express Rack 4, a science unit twice the size of a home refrigerator launched in Leonardo. A second Express rack also was transferred, along with 10 additional stowage racks and platforms holding logistics.
The ovarian cell growth will be conducted for two weeks. Culbertson will inject previously frozen cancer cells into multiple containers with growth medium. He will then periodically check various chemical indicators of growth using a portable clinical blood analyzer.
THE CELL WORK IS PART of 18 U.S. and about 20 Russian Expedition 3 research programs on the ISS (AW&ST Aug. 6, p. 35).
A potential 38% cut in Bush Administration ISS science-related funding and a tepid response from some research quarters are complicating science planning. But the investigations set for Culbertson's crew and follow-on experimentation into 2002 remain unaffected.
The day after docking, Discovery STS-105 astronaut Army Lt. Col. Pat Forrester used Discovery's manipulator arm to berth the overall 20,000-lb. Leonardo to the Node-1 Unity module. It is Leonardo's second trip to the ISS. The Discovery crew unloaded most of its 6,500 lb. of cargo the day after its attachment. Repacking it with 2,000 lb. of spent hardware and trash for return to Earth took up the rest of the flight because of precise coordination with mission control to assure loading was done within precise weight and center-of-gravity parameters.
The four-member Discovery crew did most of the logistics transfers as Culbertson's crew conducted a systematic handover with the Expedition 2 crew of Yuri Usachev, Jim Voss and USAF Col. Susan Helms. That multi-day transition was guided by a large "handover checklist" reviewing the status of each ISS system.
Among the hardware moved from Discovery to the ISS were an "Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility" sponsored by the European Space Agency and a "Dynamically Controlled Protein Crystal Growth Experiment" in which parameters can be varied. Both are "powered" systems that could maintain temperature control without electricity for no more than 30 min. The crew was able to move them from orbiter to station power within only 5 min. The two units carry hundreds of protein crystal samples, many of them sponsored by commercial companies for pharmaceutical research.
A different unit, the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth experiment with about 1,000 samples, has been functioning on the station for weeks and was moved back onto Discovery for return to Earth and sample analysis.
Before Discovery's planned Aug. 20 undocking, STS-105 astronauts Daniel Berry and Forrester were to conduct the second of two extravehicular activities.
During their first 6-hr. EVA on Aug. 16, the shuttle arm operated by Horowitz was used to lift a 1,400-lb. ammonia cooling servicing system to Berry and Forrester positioned on the P6 electrical module high above the Destiny laboratory.
The EVA crew, choreographed by copilot Marine Maj. Frederic Sturckow, then installed two Langley Research Center "Misse" materials cases with 750 samples ranging from components such as switches and sensors to materials like polymers, composites and optical glasses. The samples, to be exposed for 18 months, are sponsored by several NASA centers as well as the Boeing Phantom Works and the Air Force Materials Research Laboratory.
During the second EVA scheduled for Aug. 18, they were to string wiring on Destiny for the first section of the station's truss to be launched in early 2002.
Sturckow was to pilot Discovery's undocking and a flyaround of the station on Aug. 20.
Horowitz and Sturckow were then (weather permitting) to land Discovery here at about 1 p.m. EDT on Aug. 22. A large medical team will receive Usachev, Voss and Helms to ensure their safe readaptation to gravity following five months on the station, where Helms said the crew was especially "productive in helping the ISS become a full-up facility to support science".

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