Since the mid-1980s, the Soviet-American Gallium Experiment (SAGE) and a second facility have detected half as many low-energy neutrinos from the sun as predicted, upsetting solar models. A 12 December letter spearheaded by John Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, signed by 15 U.S. colleagues--including 12 Nobel laureates--calls SAGE "one of the most successful research efforts in the past decade." Earlier this fall, thieves failed in an attempt to steal the ultrapure gallium at the heart of the $60 million facility (Science, 14 November, p. 1220). Now the government plans to transfer the gallium to one of its energy ministries, which wants to sell it.

SAGE's destruction "would mean the loss of a valuable world resource for ... fundamental physics," says the U.S. letter. It asks Chernomyrdin to "reserve all the SAGE gallium for basic science." Bahcall organized a similar letter 3 years ago that helped persuade Russia to keep the facility operating despite the nearby war in Chechnya. He's hoping to work similar magic again.

The U.S. letter follows a similar missive from 12 prominent Russian physicists to Chernomyrdin last month. "They might as well start selling off precious stones from the Cap of Monomach," the scientists write, referring to a lavish crown worn by Peter the Great. As Science went to press, however, it was hard to predict whether the Russian government would allow sale of the gallium--or Peter's crown, for that matter.