Vietnam Rebuilds: Dialectics and Diodes

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Vietnam Rebuilds: Dialectics and Diodes

by Unknown

‘Science for the People’ Vol. 7, No. 6, November 1975, p. 20-23, 34-36

During the Indochina War, Science for Vietnam groups both in the U.S. and in Europe contributed skills and materials directly to aid Vietnamese forces struggling against U.S. imperialism. Many of these groups are still working but now with the objective of aiding in the reconstruction of S.E. Asia. 

Most progressive science-related people welcome giving assistance to the Vietnamese to help strengthen the science and technology base for their development. Some organizations in the U.S., for example, the Scientists’ Institute for Public Information, are actively raising funds, making arrangements for exchange programs and collecting materials as part of this effort. [see “Science in Vietnam: The Postwar North Seeks American Assistance”, Science, 29 August, 1975, p. 705) While these efforts are for the most part undoubtedly well-intended, they do appear to neglect some important questions concerning the kind of scientific development which is appropriate and ultimately, the kind of social order which is being sought in Vietnam. It is these questions that the Science for Vietnam groups in Europe are particularly concerned with in developing their programs for aid. Furthermore, they see these issues as having direct bearing on their own science and political practice at home. The following report was written by a member of the Science for Vietnam group in Naples, Italy, who was visiting in Boston during August and September. 

Why “Science for Vietnam” 

Now that the war is over, people often ask: “Why Science for Vietnam?” It sounds like a third-world-helping program: good intentions and some danger of cultural imperialism (transferring our technology to a country fighting to construct socialism).

We are aware of the dangers; they are not easy to control (because of what we are, scientists in capitalistic countries; because of what Vietnamese scientists often are, formed in France or in the Soviet Union). But we see many reasons for continuing with the program and for intensifying our effort after the Vietnamese victory.

I want to give a few of these reasons here, in the concrete context of two recent visits to the DRV: the first in September 1974 by me (a physicist); the second in May 1975 by a delegation of the Italian SfVN Collectives (Tullio Artusi, an hematologist; Sancia Gaetani, a nutritionist; Carlo Pagani, a physicist).

We invited two Vietnamese scientists to Italy in the Spring of 1974; they spent three weeks visiting 4 out of a dozen or so of our SfVN Collectives. They met research workers and students in the universities, discussing concrete proposals of collaboration and exchange of people.

They insisted on our sending a delegation to Vietnam. What they could tell us, they said, was not enough to give us the correct feeling of what research in Vietnam was  like: its shortcomings, on one hand, its social, political context on the other. We raised the necessary money through a national solicitation and with some help from the Italian Ministry of foreign affairs.

We have seen so many things, met so many people, visited so many institutions that a detailed report would be impossible here 1. I shall try and give only the outlines of our program and make a few comments on what we have seen.

We already had a number of scientific contacts with Vietnamese scientists, sometimes at a personal level, sometimes through official institutions; we tried to visit all laboratories, research groups, colleagues with which we had been in contact in the past or that had demonstrated an interest in our programs. These personal contacts were essential to us. SfVN Collectives work in the general frame defined by Federscience, the Vietnamese institution related to the State Committee for Science and Technology and responsible for scientific contacts with foreign countries, but the actual definition of any scientific collaboration has always been done through a personal visit and discussion. We felt that the Vietnamese colleagues were as interested as we were in avoiding unnecessary bureaucratic structures and in exchanging on a laboratory to laboratory basis scientific information and technical requests.

Three main fields of interest and contact are: research in the Institute of the State Committee (Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Earth Sciences, Oceanography, Computing Sciences); research and teaching in the University of Hanoi, the Polytechnical Institute and the Pedagogical Institute; medical research in the institutes of the Ministry of Health (Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology; Hygiene and Epidemiology), at the medical school of Hanoi and at the Bach Mai hospital.

I also spent two days in the most extraordinary school I know of, the agricultural complex of Hoa Binh. It is”in the mountains some 80 miles west of Hanoi; I shall say a few things later about this school and the interest it can have for us.

What the Vietnamese colleagues ask 

The problems with which the Vietnamese colleagues are faced are almost always beyond the reach of the technical devices on which they can rely. During the war, problems were imposed by necessity and the very limited scientific resources were strained to the extreme in order to attack them. Things are much the same after the victory, even if now the sense of urgency is less strong. There is a basic inadequacy of the entire scientific structure to cope with the problems posed by the reconstruction of the country and by the construction of socialism.

This does not imply that Vietnam now has to imitate our scientific development, copy our school and research institutions, send young scientists abroad. They are trying to find their way and that will be, hopefully, rather different from ours. But it is clear that in this transition period we can be of use: from very small things (sending up-to-date information, books and back issues of journals to fill the ten-year gap left by war in their libraries; small amounts of electronic materials easy to find in our labs and on the market, extremely difficult for them to obtain) to more complex programs (as doing basic or applied research for them in fields, such as the carcinogenic properties of defoliants, where there is urgency but not enough experience and equipment in Vietnam; writing computer programs adapted to their computers; finding computer time for programs too complex for their computers).

I am giving in the Appendix a first set of lists of urgent material requested by Vietnam. There are more detailed lists available for specific fields of research and interested readers should contact one of the SfVN Collectives in the U.S. or in Europe. But already the lists given here will show the enormous effort that is necessary to help much essential research to start or to continue in Vietnam.

There is a basic question to which I am unable to give a clear-cut answer but to which I think I can give a tentative answer. The question is: how are research programs, priorities, investments defined in Vietnam today?

When we receive lists of requests from our Vietnamese colleagues, when we try to develop collaboration with their institutes, the intensity and urgency of our commitment will. depend on the answer to this question.

This is why I feel that the question is a basic one. We want to help, to participate in the construction of socialism in Vietnam; however, we do not want to be instrumental in constructing an elitist, technocratic structure of power for scientists. Our experience in Europe has shown us very clearly both the use of this structure by the ruling classes and the collusion of the scientist’s power with the interests and the policies of the ruling classes. We believe that class struggle is going on in Vietnam at this very moment and we do not want to work on the side of the past (even when it presents itself in the glittering light of a modern, perfectly efficient scientific institute). We want to be useful in constructing the future.

I feel that there is a tentative, optimistic answer to this question. The problems on which Vietnamese scientists are presently engaged, the fields in which they are asking for our help, seem to be very concretely related to the needs of a country ravaged by war and now engaged in a deep transformation of its economic structures. When we discussed with biologists (in particular, plant and animal physiologists and geneticists) the general guidelines of their research and their demands on our Collectives, we found that the improvement of food production (via selection and transformation of local varieties, improvement in protein content in a number of staple plants, utilization of proteins from algae, etc.) provided the unifying frame for their programs. When we talked with physicists, we found that the choice of advanced applications of solid-state physics as the dominant sector of investment was explicitly motivated by the necessity of producing and eventually adapting to the Vietnamese context the basic electronic devices that allow for the development of automation, large-scale control of the production process, telecommunication, and military equipment (electronics being one of the fields in which Vietnam is at present totally dependent on help from both the Soviet Union and China and in which more autonomy could have important political implications). When we spoke with colleagues involved in medical research, we found that the equipment and material they were asking for was directly related to the production and development of vaccines (in particular, for leptospirosis), the analysis of nutritional deficiencies (often determined by the war) and the development of preventive medicine.

We have been told of the existence of an effective feedback between production units and research institutions direct contact of scientists with teaching and production seems to be frequent, even if not generalized.

It is clear that Vietnam is not an ideal country in which ideal communists lead the working classes toward a classless society; remnants of the privileged groups (in particular, among the intellectuals) could still be strong and dangerous, and their activity could easily hide itself under the cover of “pure scientific research” and “technical efficiency”. But the war (the political, even more than the technical, experience of war) and the leadership of the communist party have created forms of democratic participation which justify our continuous interest in the Vietnamese experience and our desire to be useful to Vietnam.

What we can learn from Vietnam 

We have repeated so often to ourselves that the structures of our scientific institutions, defined by the interests of the ruling classes, are permeated by their ideology and instrumental in the imperialist design of global control, that we are beginning to feel a bit bored by these generalities. It is true but, left at this level of generality, it seems to me of little use.

What we need is a concrete analysis of these structures: their roles, their origins, their ideological image. We should learn how to tackle our own work, laboratory, university, and see beyond them to their class and ideological roots. It is so easy to say and so difficult to do that we have been practically unable to do it except in a very few instances (mostly from social sciences and medicine, where the ideological ties seem to be most apparent).

We think that our activity in the SfVN Collectives has helped us in this direction. What we learn from Vietnam (not only directly from Vietnam, but from the fact of working together for Vietnam) is useful in our everyday political activity, modifies our relation to scientific work, opens a new, critical frame for our past experiences as scientists. It gives us a number of new dimensions in which to organize our experience and see it in a larger context.

Our Vietnamese colleagues have asked us to collaborate to the development of the Computing Center at both the University of Hanoi and the State Committee; we have already sent them electronic material, computing manuals, textbooks, program libraries. But at the same time we have been led to question the whole idea of central electronic control in economical production and planning (the discussion of a technocratic experiment in Chile under Allende being very useful to us). Is productive efficiency always consistent with workers’ control and overall grasp of the economical perspectives and choices? What are the political implications of automation in a socialist society? We are now trying to write down a critical bibliography on these problems for ourselves and our Vietnamese colleagues: we understand better an issue that is vital to our life here, in capitalistic society, and now, as well in the developing countries.

Our Vietnamese colleagues have asked us to collaborate with the development of science teaching in both high school and university; we have sent them a number of books and are at present trying to send them a few copies of the basic laboratories of the P.S.S.C. type. But at the same time we have been stimulated to prepare a systematic survey of the interests and choices that led to the current methods in science teaching. We have already sent to Vietnam a critical bibliography of the P.S.S.C.; we are preparing a more detailed report on integrated science teaching and on its ideological implications m a capitalistic society.

From South Vietnam, through the Provisional Revolutionary Government, a request has reached us to help in the construction of a Faculty of Medicine. The French Collective, in particular, has already collected money and books for a basic library and some equipment. This however has led us to an analysis of medical education in a capitalistic society (our feeling being that the PRG seemed rather ready to import and imitate such a structure). A small group in Geneva is preparing materials on this problem, a critical bibliography for Vietnam on the ideological basis of medical education, health care institutions and the very conceptions of medicine (health vs. illness).

It is hard to say how much of this thinking, writing of critical bibliographies, and discussing in small groups, can afterwards be translated into action, into initiatives in our own practice. This will depend on us, but also on the situation in which each of us operates. We found however that the reflections we were led to in our engagement in SfVN have already enriched us.

It should be clear that we do not want to give outside advice to Vietnam. We want it to participate in our concerns. Paths of development are not obvious in the construction of socialism; capitalistic technologies seem often to offer an easy, efficient solution to technical problems. To make use and take control of some of them is clearly inevitable for Vietnam and could be extremely positive. But this very fact obliges us to ask ourselves a lot of questions about the dangers of which these solutions are ridden. The comprehension that we reach in this process can clarify much of our political engagement and stimulate a more active struggle inside our own institutions.

The Hoa Binh School 

A few words now on the Hoa Binh school. We have to recognize the technical superiority of our capitalistic society in so many fields that it is exhilarating to experience an example in which a socialist country like Vietnam is clearly leading the way.

The Hoa Binh school (it is called: The School of the Socialist Working Youth of Hoa Binh) is at the same time an agricultural commune, a small industry, a center of dissemination of modern agritechniques and a pioneering group working its way in the mountains, opening them up for agricultural exploitation.

As a school, it provides about 800 students from the national minorities living in the region with live-in accomodations and schooling from age 11 on, including into the faculty of agronomy of the university (the ratio male/female for the students being nearly one). The teaching is in Vietnamese; a majority of the 200 teachers or so is Vietnamese, but more and more of the new teachers are previous students of the school and are therefore of national minority origin. School activity takes approximately 4 hours/day; there are then at least 2 hours/day of individual study.

As an agricultural commune, Hoa Binh is responsible for 200 acres of pasture, rice fields, manioc fields etc.; this land has been reclaimed from forest and marsh by the joint labor of students and teachers. Work takes approximately 4 hours/ day; to this, one has to add the work necessary for all communal activities (cooking, cleaning, washing etc.). At the beginning, a large part of this activity went into the construction, with local material, of the class-rooms and the dormitories. Everything there has been constructed by the students and the teachers.

As a small industry, it produces alcohol by manioc distillation; this alcohol is then sold to the State and provides the commune (that is practically self-sufficient in food) with some cash for clothing, salt, tools etc.

From this center of modern agritechniques, the students go back to their villages every summer and at the end of their studies to help their families; they take home with them the agronomical know-how they learned at the commune. In most of their villages the traditional technique is still that of burning parts of the forest, exploiting them for a few years and then moving to a new part.

As a pioneering group, the school goes on with reclaiming new land in the mountains. The current program for the school is to move to a new site, where about 800 acres of land will be reclaimed and almost 2,000 acres of forest exploited; in a few years there will be 1,500 students, 400 of them at the faculty of agronomy.

The school is still experimental. I found that a number of people (for instance, at the Pedagogical Institute in Hanoi) still felt a bit uneasy about it. “Could it be that such a school works only for the national minorities?”; “Perhaps only in the mountains?”; “How to extend this experience to the towns, to the plain?”. There are many problems still to be solved in the context of Hoa Binh. It is easy to see, for instance, how to use in everyday work many of the things learned at school; much more difficult is to find out in which way the very fact of working should modify the way in which things are taught, the choices to be made etc. But I still think that in Hoa Binh Vietnam is ahead of many countries that are so much more technically developed.

There is much to learn and there are many ways to be useful in a collaborative program with the Hoa Binh school.2

Conclusions 

Activity along the lines given here is going on in Europe.3 I have tried to clarify the reasons for which we think that this activity is important, both for Vietnam and for our political engagement in our countries. Moreover, the experience obtained by the SfVN Collectives could be useful in several other contexts in which national liberation movements are at work or in which democratic, socialist societies are being born.

I think that our commitment to SfVN should not be used as a pretext for not being deeply engaged, at a personal and collective level, in political activity and analysis in our own institutes, laboratories, communities. It is clear that such a cover has been used in the past. A number of scientists and organizations have overemphasized the importance of technical help to liberation movements and socialist countries while playing down the importance of demystifying the scientific research and teaching carried on in our society, the need to clarify their underlying class determination and the role they play in making possible that same imperialist policy we  want to fight against. Examples can be given of scientists sincerely willing to work in such collaborative programs but unwilling to live up to, in a consistent way, this engagement in their personal life, their relations with students and colleagues, their research choices.

We should be aware of this danger and be clear about the connection that we have to make between our SfVN experiences and our activity in the university, the laboratories and the local communities, in the context of our struggle for a socialist society. Science for Vietnam, if correctly approached, can concretely lead in this direction. By helping us in seeing through the capitalist ideology in much of scientific research, it can make us stronger in our everyday fight against this ideology (separation of roles, contempt for technical and manual work, reliance on expertise, etc.). By deepening our understanding of the class roots in much of the scientific choices and priorities it will help clarify the strategy of attack against the class interests that dominate all scientific fields.

>> Back to Vol. 7, No. 6 <<

How and Where to Send the Required Materials and Books

  1. Single books, single issues of journals, internal documents, preprints and reprints: they can be sent as third class mail (both sea route or air mail) directly to the addresses printed above each separate list; registered mail is not accepted by the U.S. Post Office, but printed material seems to arrive regularly to Hanoi.
  2. Collections of books and journals: they can be sent or delivered directly at the Science for the People Office, 16 Union Sq., Somerville MA 02143; call (617) 776-1058 if there are delivery problems; the material collected will then be sent to Vietnam through Medical Aid to Indochina (contact in Boston is Tom Davidson, (617) 492-0205; the person coordinating the activities of MAl is Francois D’Heurle, Spring Valley Road, Ossining, NY 10562 (914) 941-2216.
  3. Electronic material, computer programmes, and so on are best sent to Vietnam from Europe: send them to Scienza por il Vietnam, c/o Bruno Vitale, Istituto di Fisica Teorica, Mostra d’Oltremare, pad.nr. 19, Napoli 80125, Italy.
  4. Requested by: Bibliotheque Centrale des Sciences et des Techniques
    26, Ly Thong Kiet,
    Hanoi, Rep. Dem. du Vietnam
    The following collections are incomplete (in parentheses, the missing issues)—single issues are welcome:
    -Acta Metallurgica, New York (1969)
    -American Heart Journal, St. Louis (1970-1971)
    -American Journal of Botany, New York (1956, 1958)
    -American Journal of Cardiology, New York (1970-1971)
    -American Journal of Diseases of Children, Chicago (1970-71. 1973)
    -American Journal of Medicine, New York (1970, 1972)
    -American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, St. Louis (1970-1971)
    -American Journal of Pathology, Washington (1968-1971)
    -American Journal of Physiology, Boston (1958-1960)
    -American Journal of Roentenology, New York (1962-1970)
    -Analytical Biochemistry, New York (1965)
    -Analytical Chemistry, New York (1947-1950, 1955-1961)
    -Anatomical Record, Philadelphia (1958-1965)
    -Annals of Surgery, Philadelphia (1970-1972)
    -Applied Microbiology, Washington (1957-1963)
    -Applied Physics Letters, New York (1962-1963)
    -Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, New York (1954-1958, 1962)
    -Archives of Internal Medicine, New York (1970-1971)
    -Archives of Surgery, Chicago (1970-1971)
    -Cancer Research, Baltimore (1958, 1962-1965, 1967-1971)
    -Cancer, Philadelphia (1958-1972)
    -Endocrinology, Chicago (1962-1963)
    -Gastro-Enterology, New York (1970-1972)
    -Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, New York (1957-1962, 1970)
    -Journal of the American Chemical Society, Washington (1948, 1957, 1963)
    -Journal of the American Medical Association, Chicago (1970-1971)
    -Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, New York (1965)
    -Journal of Animal Science, New York (1965)
    -Journal of Applied Physics, Philadelphia (1957, 1969)
    -Journal of Applied Physiology, Washington (1963)
    -Journal of Bacteriology, Baltimore (1958, 1962, 1963, 1965)
    -Journal of Biological Chemistry, Baltimore (1958-1960, 1965)
    -Journal of Cell Biology, New York (1965)
    -Journal of Chemical Physics, New York (1957-1961)
    -Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Philadelphia (1963-1970)
    -Journal of Economic Entomology, Menaska (1934-1936, 1938-1944, 1958-1963)
    -Journal of the Electrochemical Society, New York (1970)
    -Journal of Experimental Medicine, New York (1970)
    -Journal of General Physiology, New York (1965-1966)
    -Journal of Geophysical Research, Washington (1958-1964)
    -Journal of Immunology, Baltimore (1970)
    -Journal of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry, New York (1959)
    -Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine, St. Louis (1970-1971)
    -Journal of the National Cancer Institute, New York (1970)
    -Journal of Neurophysiology, Springfield (1964-1965)
    -Journal of Nutrition, Philadelphia (1967-1971)
    -Journal of the Optical Society of America, Philadelphia (1962, 1973)
    -Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Baltimore (1970)
    -Journal of Physical Chemistry, New York (1957-1964, 1969-1970)
    -Pediatrics, San Francisco (1960-1969)
    -Proceedings of the LE.KK, New York (1960-1962, 1970)
    -Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Chicago (1959-1960)
    -Radiology, Easton (1960, 1962, 1972)
    -Review of Scientific Instruments, New York (1958-1970)
    -Surgery, Chicago (1962-1969)
    -Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Chicago (1962-1969)
    -Transactions of the Metallurgical Society of AIME, New York (1964, 1972)
    -Virology, New York (1960, 1962-1965)
  5. Requested by: Bibliotheque
    Institut Polytechnique
    Dai Hoc Bach Khoa
    Hanoi, RDV
    The following books are requested; send, if possible, several copies of each; second-hand copies (often to be found half-priced at students’s bookstores) are welcome:
    -Messiah: Quantum Mechanics, Vol. I, II, New York, 1965
    -Tinkham: Group Theory and Quantum Mechanics, New York 1964
    -Feynman: Statistical Mechanics, New York 1972
    -Kittel: Introduction to Solid-State Theory, New York 1967
    -Wallis: Lattice Dynamics, New York 1965
    -Thor Bak: Statistical Mechanics, New York 1967
    -Kroupe; Theory of Crystal Defects, New York 1966
    -Gree and Senger: Critical Phenomena, Washington 1966
    -Longini: Introductory Quantum Mechanics of the Solid State, New York 1971
    -Wallace: Thermodynamics of Crystals, New York 1971
    -Wolfe: Applied Solid State Science, New Jersey 1971
    -Florey: Statistical Mechanics of Chain Molecules, New York 1969
    -Mayer et al: Ion Implantation in Semiconductors, New York 1970
    -Kotkin and Serbo: Ion Implantation in Semiconductors, New York 1972
    -Hooper and Graaf: Amorphous Magnets, New York 1972
    -Brown and Labes: Liquid Crystals, New York 1972
    -Khambata: Introduction to Integrated Semiconductor Circuits, New York 1973
    -Keonjiam: Microelectronics, New York 1963
    -Herskowitz and Schilling: Semiconductor Device Modelling, New York 1972
    -Pridham: Solid-State Circuits, New York 1973
    -Berkeley Physics Course, 5 vol.
    -PSSC: Text, Teacher’s Guides, Laboratory Guide, 3rd ed.
  6. Requested by: Institut de Physique du Comite d’Etat pour la Science et la Technique
    (att. Nguyen van Hieu pour Department d ‘Electronique)
    39, Tran Hung Dao, Hanoi, RDV
    New as well as recovered (working!) material is welcome:
  7. Requested by: Centre de Calcul Comite d’Etat pour la Science et la Technique
    99, Tran Hung Dao
    Hanoi, RDV
    New as well as recovered (working!) material is welcome:
    Integrated circuits:
    100 units of SFC 400E or SN 7400J,N or TL 7400N or FJH 151 or FLH 101
    100 units of SFC 403E or SN 7403J,N or TL 7403N or FJH 291 or FLH 291
    50 units of SFC 410E or SN 7410J,N or TL 7410N or FJH 121 or FLH 111
    50 units of SFC 420E or SN 7420J,N or TL 7420N or FJH 111 or FLH 121
    50 units of SFC 440 E or SN 7 440J ,Nor TL 7 440 or F JH 141
    50 units of SFC 450E or SN 7 450J ,N or TL 7 450 or F JH 151 or FLH 151
    150 units of SFC 472E or SN 7472J,N or TL 7472 or FJJ 101 or FW 111
    50 units of SFC 2709E,O or SN 74709L,N or IL 7098 or TAA 521 or muA 7090
    50 units of SFC 2710C or SN 74710C,N or IL 710S or muA 710C
    Subscriptions to the following journals (back issues will be welcome):
    -Journal of Data Management
    -Business Automation
    -Computer-Aided Design
    -Computing Survey
    -Journal of Computer and System Science
    -Artificial Intelligence Journal
    -Acta Informatica
    -Publications of the ACM
  1. Requested by: Institut de Malariologie, Parassitologie et Entomologie
    Ministere de la Sante
    Bo Y-Te
    Duong Giang Vo 198 A
    Hanoi, RDV
    Anti-malaria drugs:
    -Fansidar injectable (Sulfadoxine and Pyrirethamine): 5,000 doses
    -D.F.D. (Diforyldiaminodyphenylsuflone): 5,000 doses
    -Trimethoprim: 5,000 doses
    -Menoctone (W.R. 49808): 5,000 doses
    Instruments: It would be important if a portable (car-borne) device could be assembled and sent (if possible, in a number of copies, or with detailed instructions and material to assemble more copies) to spray insecticides as aerosol (drop diameter 15-20 microns) and working at room temperature
  2. Requested by: Laboratoire d’Hygiene Alimentair et de la Nutrition
    Institut National d’Hygiene et d’epidemiologie
    1, Yen-Sanh
    Hanoi, RDV
    Publications: F.A.O. and W.H.O publications on nutritional science and alimentary hygiene (Codex alimentaricus)
    Strains for the assay of vitamins and amino-acids:
    -Leuconostoc mesenteroides P60 ATCC 8402
    -Lactobacillus casei 7469 ATCC
    -Lactobacillus arabinosus 17-5 ATCC 8014
    -Lactobacillus fermentum 36 ATCC 9833
    -Lactobacillus leichmannii ATCC 7830, 4797
    -Streptococcus lactis R ATCC 8043
    -Neurospora sitophila 299 ATCC 9276
    -Neurospora crassa 34486 ATCC
    -Leuconostoc citrovorum 8081 ATCC
    Media for the assay of vitamins and amino-acids:
    -Bacto arginine assay medium (B466) Difco
    -Bacto B 12 assay medium UPS (B457) Difco
    -Bacto biotin assay medium (B419) Difco
    -Bacto CF assay medium (B–) Difco
    -Bacto choline assay medium (B460) Difco
    -Bacto C.S. vitamin B-12 agar (B399) Difco
    -Bacto cystine assay medium (B467) Difco
    -Bacto folic acid assay medium (B318) Difco
    -Bacto isoleucine assay medium (B437) Difco
    -Bacto leucine assay medium (B421) Difco
    -Bacto lysine assay medium (B422) Difco
    -Bacto methionine assay medium (B423) Difco
    -Bacto micro assay culture agar (B319) Difco
    -Bacto micro inoculum broth (B320) Difco
    -Bacto neurospora culture agar (B321) Difco
    -Bacto niacin assay medium (B322) Difco
    -Bacto pantothenate assay medium (B323) Difco
    -Bacto phenylalanine assay medium (B469) Difco
    -Bacto pyrodoxine assay medium (B324) Difco
    -Bacto riboflavin assay medium (B325) Difco
    -Bacto thiamine assay medium (B326) Difco
    -Bacto tryptophane assay medium (B327) Difco
    -Bacto tyrosine assay medium (B468) Difco
    Vitamins:
    -ascorbic acid (50 gr)
    -Biotin (100 mg)
    -Nicotinic acid (100 mg)
    -Pyridoxine hydrochlorine (10 gr)
    -Thiaminium dichloride (10 gr)
    -Vitamin A (dry powder) (10 gr)
    -Vitamin B-12 (5 gr)
    -Vitamin D2 (5 gr)
    -Vitamin E (dry powder) (5 gr)
    -Beta-caroten (2 gr) -Riboflavin (10 gr)
  3. Requested by: Laboratoire de Physiologie et Biochimie Vegetale
    Comite d’Etat pour la Science et la Technique Institut de Biologie
    39, Tran Hung Dao
    Hanoi, RDV
    Chemicals:
    -polyethylene glycol (modopeg NW 1540) (500 gr)
    -Dextran T 2000 (200 gr)
    -Macerozynme R 10 (100 gr)
    -Meicellase (100 gr)
    -Onozuka Cellulase (100 gr)
    -Zestin (5 gr)
    -Calcium penthotenate (1 gr)
    -5.Bromodeoxyuridine (1 gr)
    -Thioproline (1 gr)
    -Actinomicine D (1 gr)
    -Crotylglycine (1 gr)
    -Aminoethylcysteine (1 gr)
    -Riboflavine(10 gr)

References

  1. We have, however, a number of copies of the two complete reports, with the detailed lists of the Vietnamese requests and all relevant addresses. These reports are in Italian and can be requested from: Collettivo Scienza per il Vietnam, c/o Anna Ferro Luzzi, Istituto di Scienza della Nutrizione, v. Lancisi 29, Roma, Italy
  2. To make contact with the Hoa Binh school write to: Nguyen van Tuong, Ecole de la Jeunesse Socialiste Travailleuse, Dong Xa Koi, Chu Ngia Tinh, Hoa Binh, RDV
  3. The French Collectives are grouped in the Comite pour la Cooperation scientifique et technique avec le Vietnam, c/o Yvonne Capdeville, C.G.M., C.N.R.S., 91, Gif sur Yvette, France; their Cybernetic group is the Section lnformatique, c/o A. Teissonniere, 103, rue Olivier de Serres, 75015 Paris, France. There are Collectives in Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, England.