Features

THE International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation ended on 29 February with a plenary session that adopted the reports of all the study groups. Hermann Bondi (right) Chief Scientist at the UK Department of Energy and leader of the British delegation to INFCE, assesses its work

THE International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE) was set up to release growing tension between states over control of the nuclear fuel cycle and the possible spread of nuclear weapons, but, argues Ian Smart, without political agreement between governments INFCE alone could not do this

Eric Ashby (right) looks at a recent report on public participation in technology decision-making in OECD countries and argues that better public information could reduce disenchantment with representative democracy

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the world's least “developed” countries. A third of its three million people have only emerged from the neolithic age over the past 40 years. The people are divided by mountain ranges reaching 4,700m, torrential rivers, forests, ravines, seas, malarial swamps and language — more than 700 are spoken. But in the five years since independence from Australia, the government has launched an ambitious Improvement Plan, under which western science and technology are being introduced enthusiastically. All projects are funded by the National Public Expenditure Plan, which absorbs 21% of all spending. The main national aims are equal distribution of development among a population that is 85% rural and largely dependent on subsistence farming and a reduction in the number of western expatriates on whom development still largely depends. Both aims are meeting with mixed results, as Tony Ades reports

Jim Hitter records some observations on what was “effectively the first public debate on science and technology in France for more than a decade”. It was staged last month, by Les Amis de la Terre.

In Sweden, as in most European countries, young scientists are facing problems finding work. Wendy Barnaby reports on the falling market in research positions for newly-qualified PhDs

In the last of three articles on science and technology in China, Tong B Tang, research fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge, UK, reports on scientific education and popularisation

Robert Walgate speaks to a former film-maker who subjected himself to the ‘discipline’ of science, and succeeded

In the second of three articles on the development of science and technology in China, Tong B Tang, research fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge, UK, who visited China at the end of last year, examines scientific services

Model-based predictions of energy demand and supply are unreliable, since the behaviour of individual producers and consumers cannot be guaranteed. Alvin M. Weinberg (right) of the Institute for Energy Analysis at the Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Tennessee, argues that technical fixes involving increased supply offer the most reliable way of averting an energy crisis

Although scientists in China are being forced into a new role by rapid changes in Chinese life and closer contacts with the West, they are still guided by Marxist philosophy and the principle of social relevance. In the first of three articles on developments in Chinese science policy over the past year, Tong B. Tang, describes the organisation of research. In future articles, he will discuss higher education and the popularisation of science.

François Jacob wants industry's money for fundamental biology — but not its control. A Nobel laureate for his work on the lac operon (he shared the prize with Jaques Monod), he is head of the cellular genetics unit in the department of molecular biology, Institut Pasteur in Paris. He spoke with Robert Walgate

The brain drain of scientists from the poorer countries of the Middle East has switched from the industrialised West to the oil-rich countries of the region. And some countries are running successful schemes to attract expatriate scientists back. Ziauddin Sardar reports

Many problems faced by scientists in the Arab world are common to all Third World countries. Dr A B Zahlan takes the Arab case to test some general assumptions about the problems of science and technology in developing countries

As Secretary of State for Education and Science in the last Labour Government, Mrs Shirley Williams (below) took an above average interest in the health of the scientific community. David Dickson talked recently to her at Harvard University, where she has just been a visiting fellow

Britain has decided to renew its independent nuclear deterrent, probably by buying the submarine-launched Trident C-4 missile from the United States. Judith Reppy, Visiting Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, argues that this would be a questionable decision on economic grounds