American competitiveness initiative

Industrial competitiveness relies on leadership in science. Increasingly, start-up companies exploit scientific discoveries made at universities with federal support. Technology transfer from universities to industry has been facilitated by the Bayh-Dole Act. New companies are continually being started to exploit innovations from biotechnology and nanoscience chemists are often crucial players in these discoveries and new ventures. President Bush s American Competitiveness Initiative proposal, which calls for a large increase in support for research in the physical sciences and for science and math education, could have a major impact on the health of chemistry research in the United States. 

FIG. 11 General mechanism for the heterogeneous photoreduction of a species Q located in the organic phase by the water-soluble sensitizer S. The electron-transfer step is in competition with the decay of the excited state, while a second competition involved the separation of the geminate ion-pair and back electron transfer. The latter process can be further affected by the presence of a redox couple able to regenerate the initial ground of the dye. This process is commonly referred to as supersensitization. (Reprinted with permission from Ref. 166. Copyright 1999 American Chemical Society.)... 

Initially, neuromnscnlar jnnction blockers were isolated from curare, the extract of which is produced from South American plants Strychnos and Chondodendron. Today, synthetic compounds as well as tnbocnrarine, an alkaloid isolated from curare, are used as antidepolarizing or cnrare-like drags, which are called antidepolarizing or competitive blockers. 

Business plan competitions are now a weU-proven tool for surfacing ideas for new businesses in both a regional and a corporate context (Fig. 9.3). In one American life sciences company, for example, 1000 ideas were generated. These were turned into 100 business plans, of which 56 received seed funding. In a business plan competition, participants develop a fuUy-fledged business plan, usually in three phases from the initial description of the business idea to concrete details such as the appointment of the management team and a financial plan (Fig. 9.4). 

OSB was developed explicitly as an alternative to plywood, at a time when that industry was faced with falling availability of modestly priced, large diameter logs for traditional construction plywood. OSB capacity has increased rapidly and now provides a competitive alternative to plywood sheathing over the timber frame of a North American house. While most OSB production is in North America, capacity is increasing elsewhere, particularly in Europe but also in South America. While initial growth was as a replacement for plywood, it has evolved to fill new market niches. 

The evolution of the profitable chemical businesses in three of the oldest and largest American industrial companies provides quite a different perspective on interindustry competition than the evolution of the petrochemical businesses of the petroleum companies. General Electric, Pittsburgh Plate Glass, and Eastman Kodak each created their learning base in chemicals to provide essential ingredients for the production of their primary product lines. They then improved the initial products they had commercialized and developed new related specialty products primarily through internal investment. 

Having lost the battle to inspect German plants, the representatives of the industry turned their attention to the provisions of the peace treaty, which also had them concerned about the lack of technical expertise in the American peace mission. Initially, the American manufacturers rejected all attempts to bring German dyes into the United States under the reparations provisions of the treaty. They resented the competition not just of German dyes but of apparently free German dyes. They acquiesced to reparations dyes for two reasons. First, they worried about extra reparations dyes in the hands of their competitors in Allied countries. On the issue of dyes, the textile industries held sway over the delegations... 

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