Advances in knowledge in such areas are impor- 

 tant to high-priority thrusts in agricuhural and 

 forestry technology or to advances in institutional 

 arrangements and in the quality of life in rural 

 communities and homes. 



List of Priorities 



Agricultural Research 



• Nitrogen fixation 



• Photosynthesis 



• Genetic engineering for plants 



• Recombinant DNA 



• Plant protection 



• Respiratory and enteric diseases 



• Hormonal control of growth and re- 

 production 



• Physiological control of cellular growth 

 in animals 



• Human nutrition 



• Basic properties of food systems 



• Terrestrial and aquatic ecology as 

 related to atmospheric transfer and 

 precipitation systems 



• Crop growth models 



• Characterization of new pathogenic 

 nucleic acid moieties 



• Alternative sources of energy 



• Salt control of irrigation return flows 



Forest Research 



• Biomass productivity and fuel com- 

 bustion efficiency 



• Combustion products and their pho- 

 tochemistry 



• Wood structure and durability 



• Nutrient gains and losses associated 

 with intensive forest management 



• Forest fire effects 



• Chemical derivatives from wood 



• Methodologies for measuring non- 

 timber goods and services of forest 

 rangelands 



Social Science Research 



• Consequences of and adjustments to 

 price instability 



• Comprehensive forecasting and pro- 

 jection models 



• World food situation and country 

 market studies 



• Population and migration 



• Regional and rural development 



• Food, nutrition, and income 



• Capital and credit 



• Impact assessment. 



304 PRIORITIES AND GAP AREAS 



Department of Commerce 



National Bureau of Standards (NBS) 



In the future as in the past, measurement sci- 

 ence will be the principal driving force for basic 

 research at NBS. The needs will be for more pre- 

 cise values of the basic physical constants, for 

 more sophisticated chemical analysis, for more 

 accurate characterization of materials, and for 

 more accurate and economical techniques for mak- 

 ing all sorts of physical measurements of tempera- 

 ture, sound, electromagnetic fields, etc. In pursuit 

 of this challenge, NBS expects to continue to oper- 

 ate at the forefront of the physical science discip- 

 lines and integrate research in the disciplines to 

 provide the measurement services needed in areas 

 of major national concern (e.g., nuclear safe- 

 guards, energy, technical bases for government 

 regulation, health, safety, and technology underly- 

 ing better consumer information). 



List of Priorities 



• Measurement science 

 — Organic analysis 

 — Instrumentation 



• Atomic and molecular science (chem- 

 ical reaction rates, ozone layer dy- 

 namics, very high temperature plas- 

 mas, new lasers) 



• Science of surfaces (catalysis, corro- 

 sion) 



• Materials science (phase transitions, 

 kinetics, structure, deformation, frac- 

 ture, high temperature, and extreme 

 environments) 



• Fire research 



• Nuclear science 



• Mathematics and computer science 

 (analysis, statistics, large scale math- 

 ematical models, sampling theory) 



• Thermal studies (nonequilibrium sys- 

 tems) 



• Buildings research 



• Electronic technology (electronic de- 

 vices at the micrometer and submi- 

 crometer levels). 



List of Gap Areas 



• Sensitive, accurate techniques for 

 determination of low concentrations 

 of organic compounds in diverse 

 media 



• Accelerator with much higher duty 

 cycle than the present NBS LINAC 

 for detection of nuclear decay prod- 

 ucts in coincidence experiments 



• Measurement techniques to meet 

 requirements of submicrometer mi- 

 crocircuit devices and beyond 



