WHILE NATO is dominated by its military and political role, the science element, its third dimension, is often overlooked. So says Brian Heap, master of St Edmund鈥檚 College, Cambridge, whose views I admire. Heap believes scientific resourcing could have significance for the future of NATO 鈥� and he should know, as he serves as Britain鈥檚 representative on the NATO science committee.
NATO鈥檚 Science Programme, with its Environment and Society Programme, involves 53 nations: not just member states but also partner countries from the former Soviet Union. For an investment of 拢20 million, it brings together 10,000 scientists each year. It has produced more than 2000 publications, awarded 2500 fellowships to partner countries, and created a Virtual Silk Highway across central Asia.
Its Science for Peace Programme encompasses 109 projects involving 135 research teams and 2620 researchers in NATO and partner countries, and has filed 200 patents. The programme also links to bodies such as environmental agencies, and more than 550 commercial and environmental organisations.
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Heap鈥檚 proposal is that the UK should press for a dramatic expansion of this programme to help bring together the US, European and former Eastern bloc nations. George Robertson, the secretary general of NATO, appears not to favour this idea, but he will soon be moving on. I hope his successor will take a more positive view.
THE UK鈥檚 armed services do not keep a centralised medical record of troops returning from Iraq, as I pointed out some months ago (快猫短视频, 24 May, p 59).
Ivor Caplin, the new veterans minister at the Ministry of Defence, tells me that while the services all have their own policies on medical record keeping, they comply with the requirements set by the Defence Medical Services, which in turn follow Department of Health guidelines. 鈥淲e nave no plans to centralise medical records,鈥� he adds.
Caplin went on to remind me of the House of Commons statement on 7 May announcing plans to gather information on health status and exposures from a cohort of those who were deployed in Iraq. This, said the minister, would be done by way of a questionnaire, which will also go to a comparison group made up of personnel who did not go to Iraq. Results from the research will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Officials will keep in touch with members of both groups, wherever possible, in order to conduct further surveys and to monitor any changes.
I understand that sweltering temperatures, rising to about 52 掳C in the Basra area, have contributed to illnesses, particularly among personnel who arrived since the fighting ended. Unlike their predecessors there, they did not have the opportunity to acclimatise during the spring, when temperatures were not so high. Let鈥檚 hope we are not ignoring the medical lessons of the last Gulf war.
