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<jats:p> <jats:bold>PARIS</jats:bold> —European space scientists gathering in Geneva last week had the unenviable task of trying to fit too many top-rated projects into the European Space Agency's shrinking budget. They made one painful decision: to recommend that a mission to the planet Mercury, slated for launch in the first decade of next century, be delayed indefinitely. But even that loss will not free up enough money to fly all the other missions space scientists had planned by 2010, nor will it guarantee Europe's participation in future collaborations such as the Next Generation Space Telescope. </jats:p>

<jats:p>In about a year, the people of Switzerland will vote on a constitutional amendment that, if approved, would ban basic research involving the genetic manipulation of animals and would forbid the release of any genetically altered organism into the environment. Prominent Swiss scientists and drug companies warn that research would have to move abroad if the amendment is passed.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Last week, Senate Republicans were falling all over themselves with promises to do more for basic research than advocates had dreamed possible. Although the proposals are so far just kind words, supporters see them as a very good way to begin another tough budget year.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Next week, the National Science Foundation (NSF) will ask Congress, as part of its 1998 budget request, to approve starting two new projects: the Millimeter Array and the Polar Cap Observatory. The agency is able to fund such expensive projects while its budget is constrained thanks to a new mechanism it created 3 years ago that aims to fund big science in an orderly manner.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Universities are breathing a sigh of relief after a federal appeals court last week threw out a lower court's award of $1.6 million in a case brought by a graduate student who had claimed that the University of Alabama, Birmingham, defrauded the government by wrongly accepting grant money for work she had done</jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>PARIS—</jats:bold> Claims about the health risks posed by nuclear-power installations are always controversial, but nowhere more so than in France, where some 75% of the nation's electricity is generated from nuclear energy. So, it was no surprise that publication of a study by two French epidemiologists earlier this month claiming to show a link between cases of childhood leukemia and the nuclear-waste reprocessing plant at La Hague on the Normandy coast sparked fireworks in the French press. Several French epidemiologists sharply criticized the study's methodology and conclusions. Their attacks have now drawn an unusual response from the <jats:italic>British Medical Journal</jats:italic> ( <jats:italic>BMJ</jats:italic> ), in which the paper appeared. </jats:p>

<jats:p>On 14 February, space-walking astronauts will put two new instruments into the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope—and thereby quicken the pace of astronomical discovery. If all goes as planned, Hubble's gaze will be able to encompass hundreds of objects at once, thanks to instruments called NICMOS (Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer) and STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph).</jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>SAN DIEGO</jats:bold> —A large team of U.S. fusion researchers last week began poring over the latest blueprints for the $10 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The review, prompted by controversy over the reactor's design and the best way to spend the shrinking U.S. fusion budget, is likely to give ITER a green light despite concerns that the design may not be adequate to reach the ultimate goal of a self-sustaining fusion burn. </jats:p>