July 1974

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Dramatic changes in a star, altering its chemistry and foretelling its death, had been observed for the first time, Dr. Robert F. Kraft, California Lick Observatory astronomer, reported in Sky and Telescope. FG Sagittae, a superstar 8000 light years away in the constellation Sagitta, was undergoing a sudden cooling, abrupt changes in color and brightness, and increases in the number and amounts of heavy elements in its atmosphere. The changes, which occurred in every star that was exhausting its nuclear fuel, might also take place in our own sun, possibly in 10 billion yrs. (Sky and Telescope, July 74, 18-22; O'Toole, W Post, 10 July 74, A3)

Industrial research and development spending had totaled $19.4 billion in 1972, an increase of 6% over 1971, National Science Foundation re-port Research and Development in Industry 1972 (NSF 74-312) revealed. Company R&D funds had increased 7% and Federal R&D support registered a 6% gain after three years of decreases. The full-time-equivalent number of R&D scientists in industry had increased to nearly 360 000 between January 1971 and January 1972, the first increase since January 1969, when the total was 386 000. Dept. of Defense and NASA had pro-vided 87% of the Federal R&D funds to industry in 1972 and supported 88% of the industrial R&D scientists and engineers working on Federal programs. (Text)

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