Early Government Support

Schematic Diagram of Flow of Process Gas in Gaseous Diffusion Cascade. Reprinted from Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., The New World, 1939-1946, Volume I of A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (University Park Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962). 

President Roosevelt responded to the call for government support of uranium research quickly but cautiously. He appointed Lyman J. Briggs, director of the National Bureau of Standards, head of the Advisory Committee on Uranium, which met for the first time on October 21, 1939. The committee, including both civilian and military representation, was to coordinate its activities with Sachs and look into the current state of research on uranium to recommend an appropriate role for the federal government. In early 1940 the Uraniimi Committee recommended that the government fund limited research on isotope separation as well as Fermi s and Stilard s work on chain reactions at Columbia. 

Scientists had concluded that enriched samples of uranium-235 were necessary for further research and that the isotope might serve as a fuel source for an eiqilosive device thus, finding the most effective method of isotope separation was a high priority. Since uranium- S and uranium-238 were chemically identical, they could not be separated by chemical means. And with thdr masses differing by less than one percent, separation by phyacal means would be extremely difficult and expensive. Nonetheless, sden-tists preyed forward on sevoul complicated techniques of physical sq)aration, all based on the small dfference in atomic wdght between the uranium isotopes. 

Gaseous diffusion appeared more promising. Based on the well-known prindple that molecules of a lighter isotope would pass through a porous bar- 

The Uranium Committee s first report, issued on November 1, 1939, recommended that, despite the imcertainty of success, the government sho d immediately obtain four tons of graphite and fifty tons 

---

Hendrickson, 1961. Walter B. Hendrickson. Nineteenth-Century State Geological Surveys Early Government Support of Science . Isis 52 357-371. 

As already indicated, the early postwar decades saw an enormous growth of both basic and applied nuclear research. Almost everywhere, certainly in the USA, Western Europe, the Soviet Union, and Japan, governments supported nuclear science on a scale never before experienced. At the first Atoms for Peace Conference convened in 1955 at Geneva under the auspices of the United Nations, a vast amount of previously classified information was publicly presented for the first time (PUAE 1956). This conference gave a considerable impetus to the dissemination of nuclear research and the worldwide use of nuclear technology. 

Early detection of deliberate biological releases can influence subsequent morbidity and mortality by enabling rapid containment and effective treatment. In generic terms, government-supported public health units are responsible for monitoring disease activity in... 

Despite the efforts of the select committee and others, early in 1978, the then Secretary of State for Energy, Tony Benn, made an announcement in the House of Commons that the SGHWR was to be abandoned and that the CEGB and SSEB were to each build a twin-unit AGR station. In addition, Benn said the government supported the industry s intention to order a PWR station. 

Several findings support this model. For instance, an early report suggested that there is a positive correlation between the density of (postsynaptic) jS-adrenoceptors in rat cortex and behavioural resistance to a mild environmental stress (novelty and frustration) but a negative correlation between these parameters when the stress is intensified (Stanford and Salmon 1992). More recently, it has been proposed that the phasic response of neurons in the locus coeruleus (which governs attentiveness ) depends on their tonic activity (which determines arousal). Evidence suggests that the relationship between these two parameters is described by a bell-shaped curve and so an optimal phasic response is manifest only at intermediate levels of tonic activity (Rajkowski et al. 1998). 

GLP regulations require QA personnel to inspect/audit each study conducted, but the extent to which QA personnel are involved in software development and the val-idation/verification process varies from company to company. In some companies, there is little or no QA involvement in these processes, whereas in others QA personnel are involved. QA personnel can provide assistance in the area of vendor audits for purchased software or can conduct inspections of in-house software development to ensure that internal procedures are being followed. QA personnel, who conduct in-process inspections and review the resulting data and validation report for accuracy, could provide inspection support during the validation and verification process. During system development and validation, properly trained QA personnel can provide the regulatory advice needed to ensure that the system will meet government standards. QA personnel become more familiar with the system(s) that will be used when they are involved early in the validation process. 

Based on their corporate experience in supporting their own research and development projects as well as a number of government-sponsored activities, the development of scientific software at BBN grew out of a long history of support of a variety of scientific applications. For example, in the 1960 s, BBN developed a hospital information system for Massachusetts General Hospital which used an early minicomputer, the PDP-1, to support clinical research activities. Under the sponsorship of the National Institutes of Health, they developed a system called PROPHET (1) which provides a... 

---