Corrections and clarifications

The 1994 and 1995 federal science budget appropriations for two of the activities were inadvertently transposed in a table that accompanied the article "Hitting the President's target is mixed blessing for agencies" by Jeffrey Mervis (News & Comment, 14 Oct., p. 211). The correct figures for Defense Department spending on university research are $1.460 billion in 1994 and $1.279 billion in 1995; for research and development at NASA, the correct figures are $9.455 billion in 1994 and $9.824 billion in 1995.     

Areawide suppression of European corn borer with Bt maize reaps savings to non-Bt maize growers

Transgenic maize engineered to express insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has become widely adopted in U.S. agriculture. In 2009, Bt maize was planted on more than 22.2 million hectares, constituting 63% of the U.S. crop. Using statistical analysis of per capita growth rate estimates, we found that areawide suppression of the primary pest Ostrinia nubilalis (European corn borer) is associated with Bt maize use. Cumulative benefits over 14 years are an estimated $3.2 billion for maize growers in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, with more than $2.4 billion of this total accruing to non-Bt maize growers. Comparable estimates for Iowa and Nebraska are $3.6 billion in total, with $1.9 billion for non-Bt maize growers. These results affirm theoretical predictions of pest population suppression and highlight economic incentives for growers to maintain non-Bt maize refugia for sustainable insect resistance management.     

Resources required for global tuberculosis control

We estimate that to achieve the World Health Organization's tuberculosis control targets, the 22 high-burden countries (HBCs) that collectively account for approximately 80% of the world's tuberculosis cases require about $1 billion per year during the period 2001 to 2005. A further $0.2 billion per year is needed for low and lower-middle income countries outside the 22 HBCs. There is a resource gap of up to around $300 million per year. Substantial progress in tuberculosis control could be achieved with increased investment that is large in the context of existing spending, but small in the wider context of global health expenditure.     

全球转基因作物的产业化发展

转基因作物进行第一次大规模商业化种植始于1996年,至2007年,12年来,全球转基因作物的种植面积增加了66倍,达到1.143亿hm2,比2006年增加了12%。同时,随着智利和波兰的加入,种植转基因作物的国家由最初6个增加到23个,其中,发展中国家(12)在数量上首次超过发达国家(11)。种植转基因作物的农户比2006年又增加了200万户,总种植户达到1 200万。全球转基因作物市场价值累计约425亿美元。2007年,全球转基因作物市场价值达到69亿美元,占农作物总价值的16%,占种子市场价值的20%。专家预测,2008年全球转基因作物市场价值大约可达到75亿美元。     

The World Bank's Support for Science and Technology

The World Bank, the largest aid-granting agency in the world, has played a substantial but largely unsung role in helping the scientific and technological development of developing countries. Its investments, totaling $15.5 billion in fiscal year 1984, involve choosing appropriate technology and financing local technological development. Since 1980, the Bank has lent $0.5 billion for agricultural research and about $1 billion for scientific and technological education. It contributes to and mobilizes finances for large international research programs in agriculture and the health sciences. It supports research on labor-based construction, low-cost sanitation, renewable energy resources, and control of traffic congestion. It provides training in the technological aspects of development policy. As funds for aid become scarce, the Bank is reexamining its approach to science and technology.     

Human food from ocean and land

The figures in Table 1 yield some interesting results. The total annual value of food and mineral resources taken from the ocean is $8.3 billion, in contrast to $309 billion from the land. Using the land value as the yardstick, if the annual value of produce from the ocean were in ratio to the area relationship of ocean and land, the ocean potential would be $750 billion; the actual recovery for 1964 was only 1.1 percent of that potential. This very low percentage is the basis for either great optimism for the future development of the ocean (on the basis of unrealized potential), or great pessimism (on the basis of high costs compared with further development of land resources, or present exploitation to near the limit of productivity).     

IMMIGRATION POLICY: Growth in Visas Boosts NSF Education Programs

Last week Congress rushed through an immigration bill that gives a big boost to education programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The measure, which almost doubles the number of skilled foreign workers eligible for high-tech U.S. jobs under so-called temporary H1-B visas, marks a hard-fought victory for high-tech companies scrambling for talent. In addition, it provides more than $100 million to help NSF tackle what policy-makers say is the real problem: the need for more homegrown scientists and engineers.     

The tokamak: model T fusion reactor

During the past several years there have been significant scientific and technological advances related to the tokamak magnetic confinement scheme. These are summarized in the context of a recent tokamak reactor design study which emphasizes reduced size, higher power density, and enhanced plant reliability and maintainability relative to earlier tokamak reactor design studies. The direct plant cost of the proposed reactor is estimated to be in the range $1000 to $1500 per electrical kilowatt. A three-phase strategy for demonstrating tokamak fusion power generation at a committed site is outlined. It is estimated that implementation of the three-phase program would require about 20 years and a total escalated expenditure $10 billion to $15 billion. The tokamak power plant described here is not viewed as definitive but rather as a point of departure in the development of a plan to demonstrate tokamak power generation.     

Improving the health of the global poor

We analyzed the technical basis for a major global program to reduce disease among the poor. Effective interventions exist against the few diseases which most account for excess mortality among the poor. Achieving high coverage of effective interventions requires a well-functioning health system, as well as overcoming a set of financial and nonfinancial constraints. The annual incremental cost would be between $40 billion and $52 billion by 2015 in 83 low-income and sub-Saharan African countries. Such a program is feasible and would avoid millions of child, maternal, and adult deaths annually in poor countries.     

广西公益林生态效益补偿研究

为了研究合理的公益林生态效益补偿标准,维持公益林的经营动力,该文采用林木资产评估方法和本金折息法,并以价值损失补偿计量标准,计算公益林生态效益补偿金额.结果表明:①如果政府一次性购买广西集体和个人经营的公益林归国家所有,对公益林经营者进行补偿所需的补偿金额为220亿元人民币;②如果公益林产权不变,仍由所有者按公益林建设规程进行经营,保证公益林正常发挥生态效益,每年对公益林经营者进行补偿所需的补偿金额为7.22亿元人民币.各树种类型公益林补偿标准为:杉木236.0元/(hm2·a)、马尾松214.4元/(hm2·a)、阔叶树219.1元/(hm2·a)、桉树195.4元/(hm2·a)、竹林87.4元/(hm2·a)、灌木林39.1元/(hm2·a).公益林有典型的外部经济性,政府必须对公益林经营者进行合理的经济补偿才能维持公益林的经营动力.      

Materials science. Lighting initiative flickers to life

Researchers met in New Mexico last week to map out priorities for the proposed Next Generation Lighting Initiative embedded in a broader energy bill moving through Congress. The 10-year, $500 million project is designed to help the United States stay ahead of competitors in Japan, Europe, and Korea for global leadership in the $40 billion lighting industry.     

2001 spending. NIH gets $2.5 billion more as Congress wraps up budget

Last week, the U.S. Congress approved a 14.2% increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to a record $20.3 billion, keeping the agency on track to double its budget by 2003. The 15 December vote essentially upheld a funding deal that lawmakers had sealed on 29 October with a red wine toast, overcoming last-minute opposition from fiscal conservatives who sought to freeze budgets at existing levels.     

中国农产品贸易平衡分析与展望

21世纪以来,中国农产品贸易发展迅速,2012年农产品进出口总额由2001年的277.8亿美元增长到1740.5亿美元,年均增速18.2%。耕地和水资源不足、劳动力资源丰富的资源禀赋决定了农产品贸易明显的结构性特征,自2004年开始出现逆差且呈扩大之势,2012年逆差额达到489.2亿美元,是2004年的10倍。其中,既有国内供需矛盾、结构性调剂、主动开放市场和利用国外市场资源的原因,也有国际市场价格变动和国际贸易壁垒的因素。展望未来,中国农产品贸易规模将不断扩大,逆差将成为常态但增速有望放缓,农产品贸易政策调控也将有针对性地因势利导。     

RESEARCH COSTS: Canada to Begin Funding Overhead on Projects

Last week federal Finance Minister Paul Martin announced a $268 million outlay for future equipment awards provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), a $1.3 billion entity created in 1997 to rejuvenate labs in universities and research hospitals. The money is the first direct federal outlay for overhead costs, which up to now have been met by a combination of provincial operating grants to universities and federal transfer payments for postsecondary education. School administrators say it meets a desperate need.     

Humans as the world's greatest evolutionary force

In addition to altering global ecology, technology and human population growth also affect evolutionary trajectories, dramatically accelerating evolutionary change in other species, especially in commercially important, pest, and disease organisms. Such changes are apparent in antibiotic and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) resistance to drugs, plant and insect resistance to pesticides, rapid changes in invasive species, life-history change in commercial fisheries, and pest adaptation to biological engineering products. This accelerated evolution costs at least $33 billion to $50 billion a year in the United States. Slowing and controlling arms races in disease and pest management have been successful in diverse ecological and economic systems, illustrating how applied evolutionary principles can help reduce the impact of humankind on evolution.     

ECONOMICS: 'To Your Health' Is More Than a Toast to Economists

Whereas growth accountants use standard monetary measures of return on investment to estimate information technology's impact on productivity, those who study the country's $45 billion annual investment in biomedicine tend to talk instead about "the social rate of return." In health, they argue, the coin of the realm is having a longer, more comfortable life. Two reports released last May conclude that this return is huge-in some cases, more than $20 for every dollar invested.     

2000-2011年中国-东盟农产品贸易变化分析

通过分析中国和东盟农产品比较优势和贸易互补性的变化,探讨了中国-东盟农产品贸易变化趋势及特征。研究发现,随着中国-东盟自贸区的建设,中国-东盟农产品贸易快速增长,朝着体现双边比较优势的方向发展,贸易额从2001年的30．27亿美元上升到2011年的275．46亿美元,年均增长率为24．71％。但中国对东盟农产品贸易逆差不断扩大,中国出口农产品结构和东盟进口农产品结构互补性呈现下降趋势,中国一东盟农产品贸易互补指数值由1996年的1．3下降到2011年的0．32,未来中国对东盟农产品出口的增长前景不太乐观。     

Considerations on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Dryland Areas

Drylands of the world cover 41%of the Earth＇s land surface and are a direct source of livelihood for 6.5 billion people, especially in developing countries. However, nearly all drylands are at risk of land degradation as a result of human activities. Poverty and desertification in dryland areas are major problems threatening sustainable agriculture and rural development in dryland areas. Several topics that are significant for sustainable agriculture and rural development for food security and environmental rehabilitation in dryland areas were stressed in this paper.     

How shall we pay for research and education?

In the article "How shall we pay for research and education?" by Paul E. Klopsteg [Science 124, 965 (16 Nov. 1956)], the first sentence under the subhead "Income taxes and individual giving" on page 966 should read: "Notwithstanding the apparent unqualified approval by government of the taxpayer's charitable inclinations, expressed by its permission to him to deduct up to 30 percent of his adjusted gross income for legal charities, he failed in 1954 by about $20 billion to take advantage of this exemption." The printed version "$20 million" was a typographical error.     

Research policy. Report tracks federal funding in each state

Maryland is the most research-intensive state in the country, according to a new report that describes in unprecedented detail where the federal government's annual $80 billion research budget is spent. Its authors hope the report will raise public awareness about research as well as inform politicians.