Dear Colleagues,
For the last 6 years, the IRAM Newsletter has kept you informed about technical activities, Programme Committee recommendations, and scientific results in press. We would like now to extend its role.
The spectacular progress in sensitivity and resolution made in the last decade and the exciting prospects opened by the MMA/LSA are making of mm-waves a fundamental tool in almost any branch of Astronomy. It is time now to enlarge the European community of mm-wave users and to help non-radio astronomers to gain a critical understanding of the observational results. The mm Interferometer School organized this summer in Grenoble is a first step in this direction. The wish that the IRAM Newsletter contributes also to this goal.
Firstly, we plan to publish at regular intervals 1-2 page articles reviewing exciting results or important decisions in scientific and technical matters having an impact on mm-wave astronomy. We have presented in the last issue the preliminary conclusions of the Arcachon meeting, where the main priorities for Astronomy in France were discussed. We plan in the next issues to publish a review about mm/submm SIS-mixer receivers.
Secondly, we wish to add to the present section of ``Scientific Results'', which presents abstracts of accepted articles dealing with observations made with the IRAM telescopes, a section entitled ``Comments & Upper limits''. This latter section would report positive and negative results that you intend or do not intend to publish, as well as comments on papers in press or published. The format is free and the style can be polemical, but the subject should be of interest to the mm-wave observers. The comments and notes submitted for publication in this section will be properly refereed; IRAM reserves the right to accept, edit or reject them. A date of reception and of acceptance will be appended to the accepted contributions. We plan to start in the next issue: please, send your contributions (.tex and .ps files) by email to ``guelin@iram.fr''.
Michel Guélin