APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090015-0
Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering in San Sebastián. Work here has included the continuous casting of steel, nondestructive testing of steel products, and the cyclic torsion testing of stainless steels at elevated temperatures.
Very little research is done by industry. The small metallurgical industry is dependent on foreign technology, which is supplied by US and West German firms that have financial interests in Spanish industry. For example, US Steel Corporation has just entered into an agreement to build a large steel plant, and US Steel is to have a 25% interest in the planned mill, which by 1980 is to have an annual capacity of about 6 million tons.
b. Physics and mathematics
Although physics research in Spain is limited to breadth, certain areas are stressed because of their importance to economic development of the country. Major emphasis is placed on the nuclear sciences, and capabilities are growing rapidly in nuclear technology. Some progress has been made in solid-state physics. Fundamental research is pursued primarily in the universities, and a major portion of this research deals with high energies, because it is felt that high-energy research provides an element of scientific prestige. Approximately 12% of all research efforts devoted to the natural sciences is related to physics, and approximately one-half of this deals with nuclear physics. In the category of high-energy nuclear physics, the subjects studied include inclastic processes and scattering amplitudes, muon capture, hyperon decays, and hadron interactions. The high-energy research at most of the Spanish universities is approximately 5 years behind research done by physicists in more advanced European countries. Other nuclear physics research is of an applied nature which supports reactor development or contributes to the production and application of radioactive isotopes for industry, medicine, and agriculture. Also, some studies are made of spectroscopic factors of nickel isotopes.
Solid-state physics absorbs approximately one-fourth of the physics research effort. During the past few years, significant progress has been made in improving capabilities for growing thin films, particularly silver on graphite, at the Leonardo Torres Quevedo Physics Research Center. JEN and the Universities of Madrid and Valladolid study thermoluminescence, interlayer forces of graphite crystals, and ferromagnetic materials. Some modest programs for studying lasers and masers are underway at the Complutensian University, Madrid, where physicists are investigating power levels of optically pumped sodium atoms for their laser action. Other limited research programs are underway in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), plasma, and acoustics. The plasma and MHD programs are pursued at the Science Faculty of the University of Madrid, whereas the acoustics work is done at the Leonardo Torres Quevedo Center.
Only a small amount of mathematical research is performed in Spain, despite an apparent abundance of trained mathematicians. Mathematical publications typically treat subjects of primarily academic interest and are often largely expository. Recent publications touched several major branches of mathematics, but only quite selectively; publications in algebra stressed category theory, and those in analysis stressed measure theory. Other branches touched upon included geometry, probability, operations research, and mechanics of particles. There seems to be little activity in numerical analysis and relatively little with differential equations. Thus, applied mathematics is weak, indicating a gap between science and industry.
Little recent information is found concerning computers, probably because computing is still at a low level. The University of Madrid and the University of Bilbao have been reported to have fairly modern electronic computers, but there is little evidence of their use.
c. Astrogeophysical sciences
(1) Astronomy and meteorology—Astronomical observatories and organizations associated with astronomical activity are relatively numerous, but observing equipment is poor, and the research performed is not of international significance. The leading city in astronomy is Barcelona. Installations include the Fabra Astronomical, Meteorological, and Seismic Observatory, the observatory at the University of Barcelona, the principal activity of which is solar observing, and the Comas Sola Observatory. An observatory at Madrid makes routine solar observations and collects and publishes summaries of the solar data acquired throughout Spain. It also makes determinations of the positions and orbits of asteroids and comets and conducts research on double stars and in stellar spectroscopy.
The Naval Institute and Observatory, San Fernando, works in positional astronomy, but it is known principally for the annual publication of Astronomical Ephemerides, which is on a par with the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac.
Other observatories at which astronomical, principally, solar, observations are made include the Seminary of Astronomy and Geodesy of the University
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090015-0
