By Susan Milius
A long-awaited report on science at the Smithsonian Institution calls urgently for more federal and private funding to prevent a slide into mediocrity. The report recommends preservation of a besieged materials-research center but says that an animal facility must find substantial private support if it’s to continue.
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The governing board of the Smithsonian–the suite of federally sponsored museums and research facilities–convened a commission 15 months ago after the institution’s secretary, Larry Small, set off a furor by calling for budget cuts and restructuring in the widely dispersed research facilities (SN: 5/12/01, p. 295: Outcry saves National Zoo’s research site). Among the most dramatic changes, Small ordered the shutdown of both the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education in Suitland, Md., and a 3,200-acre animal park in Front Royal, Va., that now houses the National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center.