RESEARCH
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Tam Tuk Reservoirs, as well as the spillway of Tai Po Yu Weir, Plover Cove.
A study of Hong Kong's agricultural products was begun this year as the first major international research project of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The University signed a contract with the Economic Research Service and the Foreign Agricultural Service of the United States Department of Agriculture to conduct a study and make a projection of Hong Kong's demand and supply for agricultural products in the next 15 years. The object of the study is to assess future demands and supply in view of the long-term trends in local development and the world demand for Hong Kong's exports.
GOVERNMENT
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The main emphasis in research by the Medical and Health Depart- ment remained on poliomyelitis and cholera. Further studies were undertaken by the government virus unit on serological response both to the continuing poliomyelitis vaccination campaign and to alternative schedules of administration of the vaccine. In addition sampling of nightsoil was carried out to detect the circulation of both wild and vaccine virus. The virus unit also conducted a survey of respiratory infections in children which indicated that respiratory syncytial virus is an important agent in such infections in children under the age of one year.
In the case of cholera, research continued into various aspects of the carrier state including the dissemination and prevalence of cholera vibrios in nightsoil, and preliminary work was under- taken into the mutation characteristics of the organism.
In the meteorological calendar January 1964 was the beginning of the International Years of the Quiet Sun when sunspot activity was at a minimum. The International Geophysical Year in 1957–8 occurred at a time of high sunspot activity and throughout the world many of the extra observations made in 1957-8 were repeated during 1964 in order to investigate the meteorological effects of sunspot activity. The Royal Observatory used extra large balloons on internationally selected days and made many special upper-air soundings to over 100,000 feet. Measurements of solar radiation were improved and a complete reassessment of the records made during the International Geophysical Year period was undertaken.