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-- Superconductors. These extraordinary materials, which carry electrical current without resistance, may be used to build battery-like devices that store power indefinitely or supercomputers many times smaller than today's. In 1986 American researchers discovered a new class of ceramics that become superconductors without having to be cooled to nearly absolute zero (-460 degreesF). Nine months later, President Reagan announced an eleven-point Superconductivity Initiative that included plans for relaxing antitrust laws to allow joint-production ventures. Last week's report, citing Japan's rapid advances, called for creation of four to six research consortiums that would pool the talents of leading scientists from industry, academia and the national laboratories.
-- Advanced semiconductors. Scientists on both sides of the Pacific are moving beyond silicon as a base material and creating superfast computer chips of such exotic materials as gallium arsenide and indium phosphide. The Japanese have already taken a decisive lead in a new manufacturing technology that could pack a thousand times more data into a single chip by using X rays rather than light to etch the tiny circuits. The U.S. semiconductor industry has responded by forming a research consortium called Sematech to develop advanced chipmaking tools. Last year Austin-based Sematech got its first $100 million transfusion from the Department of Defense, bringing its annual budget to $250 million.
-- High-definition TV. The Japanese have taken a daunting head start in the race to develop television of the future. In 1987 Japan launched a 20-year project to perfect and market HDTV worldwide. The new televisions would not only double the resolution of the images on home TV screens but could also have a ripple effect on the rest of the electronics industry by creating huge market opportunities in semiconductors, computers and VCRs. Support is building in Congress and the Commerce and Defense Departments for a national program to ensure that the market for this product does not become another virtual Japanese monopoly. The AEA's Krause has proposed a joint Government- industry venture to wire almost every U.S. home with cables capable of carrying HDTV signals, a project he estimates would cost about $20 billion annually for a decade.
-- Biotechnology. Prowess in creating new life-forms in the lab is one of the bright spots on the U.S. technological horizon. Yet Japan has launched an initiative targeting biotechnology as one of the "next-generation industries" it wants to dominate. The centerpiece of the U.S. response is the Government's mammoth effort, known as the genome project, to map and analyze all the genetic material in the human cell. Last fall the National Institutes of Health announced that the $3 billion, 15-year project would be led by biologist James Watson, the Nobel laureate who discovered the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) with Britain's Francis Crick in 1953.