Bush Forms Science Advisory Panel : Technology: Officials say the high-powered council is the first such group to report directly to a President in 15 years.

President Bush announced the formation of a high-powered science advisory group Friday as he toured two university labs in a day of promoting science and technology that delighted much of the nation’s scientific community.

“We have to keep our competitive edge,” Bush declared during a visit to a semiconductor lab at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

“All this brain work out here. It’s a little awesome,” the President said after negotiating through the lab’s maze of microscopes, work benches and other high-tech paraphernalia.

As Bush flew to Knoxville, Vice President Dan Quayle in Washington introduced the members of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology.

The group--which includes California industrialist David Packard and Norman E. Borlaug, the Nobel Laureate and so-called father of the Green Revolution--will “advise the President directly in all matters of science and technology,” Quayle said.

The Administration’s strong show of support for science and technology came only a day after more than 700 scientists, including 49 Nobel Prize winners, accused the President of being complacent about the threat of global warming.

(Meanwhile, the Washington Post, quoting unidentified Administration sources, reports in today’s editions that White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu has ordered major revisions in a speech Bush will deliver Monday on global warming, toning down remarks originally designed to underscore the seriousness of the problem.

(A draft of the speech now circulating within the Administration--parts of which Sununu is said to have personally written--shifts the focus to the scientific uncertainties of predicting that world temperatures will increase significantly because of heat-trapping gases, the Post reports.)

Although the Administration has been criticized by the scientific community on its cautious approach to the climate change issue, many were happy with the Administration’s overall attitude toward science.

Donald Hornig, who was science adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, hailed Bush’s trip and the formation of the panel of advisers. But whether those actions will translate to real gains for science and technology remains to be seen, he said.

“I’m very hopeful--even enthusiastic,” said Hornig, who now teaches at the Harvard University School of Public Health.

He and many other leading scientists in recent years have vociferously criticized the neglect of science and technology during the Ronald Reagan years. But they grew optimistic last summer with the appointment of D. Allan Bromley, a prominent Yale physicist, as the White House science adviser.

“I really think we have some movement now,” said Sue Kemnitzer, executive director of a congressionally chartered task force on minorities in science and technology. “I see a political consensus forming, and I commend the President.”

In introducing the panel, Quayle said the President “has delivered” on campaign promises of strong support for science and technology, noting that Bush’s new budget unveiled this week contains $71 billion for research and development--”a record high.”

The 12-man, 1-woman council is to meet at Camp David for three hours today with Bush, Quayle, Sununu and Budget Director Richard G. Darman, as well as Michael DeLand, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, and Michael J. Boskin, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

The science council, which will meet monthly, is chaired by Bromley, who is director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He called the council “a major new step forward in the integration of science and technology into the highest levels of the Bush Administration.”

The council, according to Bromley, is “the first science group to report directly to the President in 15 years.”

In Knoxville, Bush met with officials of the University of Tennessee and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and then took part in two demonstrations involving the use of genetically engineered microorganisms to break down toxins in hazardous wastes.

During one experiment, in which Bush gamely added solutions to pollutants, the lab was darkened for three to four minutes to demonstrate the bioluminescence of the microorganisms as they attacked the pollutants.

Accompanied by Education Secretary Lauro F. Cavazos and Energy Secretary James D. Watkins, Bush also met with 20 junior- and senior-year high school students who are top scholars in math and science.

Later, in a speech at the University of Tennessee, which has produced top-notch men’s and women’s basketball teams, Bush easily mixed sports metaphors with the scientific topics of the day.

“In science and technology, the United States is today the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. We produce more scholarly works, more breakthroughs, more international prizes,” the President said. “But like any champion, we cannot rest on our reputation.

“We have to defend our title day by day, week by week, year in and year out,” he said.

He also called on Congress to act on Administration proposals to double the budget of the National Science Foundation by 1993.

Finally, focusing on the “chaos in our classrooms,” the President said that in the search for the solution, “Franklin had a word for it. Not Ben Franklin--Aretha Franklin. She calls it: R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Kids need respect for teachers; respect for learning; respect for themselves.”

Members of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology also include Bernadine Healy, Cleveland Clinic; Solomon J. Buchsbaum, AT&T; Bell Labs; Charles L. Drake, Dartmouth; Ralph E. Gomory, Sloan Foundation; Peter W. Likins, Lehigh University; Thomas E. Lovejoy, Smithsonian Institution; Walter E. Massey, University of Chicago; John P. McTague, Ford Motor Co.; Daniel Nathans, Johns Hopkins University; Harold T. Shapiro, Princeton University.