Blueprint Approved

In the midst of war, the director of the wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development began plumping for a peacetime project. Last week, just before they adjourned, the House and Senate passed a bill to establish a National Science Foundation. To wise Yankee Scientist Vannevar Bush, it was the happy end of a two-year fight (TIME, July 30, 1945).

The Foundation, as blueprinted, will mobilize 24 top U.S. scientists, who will direct and promote, through grants, loans and scholarships, basic research in all fields of science. Specified by the bill were special commissions for research on cancer, poliomyelitis and heart diseases, and a special division of national defense. Suggested (but not appropriated) by the Congress, as an appropriate annual payroll: $23 million--far short of the $122 million sought in Dr. Bush's original plan for the Foundation.

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