Government scientists for for the green

No one ever got rich working for the government. It's after leaving public service that the big bucks roll in. Just look at the plethora of well-heeled lobbyists and consultants whizzing around Washington, many of whom gained their expertise (or contacts) as government or elected officials.

Now it seems that government scientists are no longer immune, either. Engineers and computer scientists at America's national research laboratories were once often happy to trade smaller paychecks for a chance to do cutting-edge science. Now, however, they are finding the siren call of the high-tech industry's fat salaries and even heftier stock options more alluring.

Government labs have helped spawn many advances, ranging from the Internet to microchips to breakthroughs in genetics, that once helped keep their brain trusts intact. No more. For instance, at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, the attrition rate at one time rarely budged from 4 percent. Now, the rate in its computing groups is 11 percent. The rate within sectors of the Lawrence Livermore lab is 12 percent while 14 of 34 employees-41 percent-in the Advanced Computing Laboratory at Los Alamos have headed for the exits.

There are worries that the exodus could play havoc with federally funded research into technology and science, and thus on national security. "If the attrition continues to escalate, at some point you get behind the power curve, no matter what you do," David Pehrson, deputy associate director of engineering at Lawrence Livermore told The New York Times. "It's a slow, creeping kind of thing."

But some observers think those fears are overstated. "The scientists and engineers who leave are often still involved with the labs," notes John Yophelson, president of the Council on Competitiveness in Washington, a nonpartisan group that's actively supported increased government spending on research and development. "Many of them continue to do collaborative research projects and we are seeing increased partnerships among industry, government, and higher education that promote economic development."

Despite that comforting view, perhaps the best the national labs can hope for is an economic slowdown that takes the shine off tech share prices and reins in Silicon Valley's free spenders.