the research and development (r and d) work carried out in the bhabha atomic research centre (barc), bombay during 1988 is summarised and presented in the sections entitled physical sciences, chemical sciences, materials and materials science, radioisotopes, reactors, fuel cycle, radiological safety and protection, electronics and instrumentation, engineering services, life sciences and general at the end of each section a list of publications is also given. the r and d work of the outstation units of barc, namely, nuclear research laboratory, srinagar; high altitute research laboratory, gulmarg and variable energy cyclotron centre, calcutta are also described in this report. some of the highlights of the work during the year are: (1) medium energy heavy ion accelerator (mehia) facility set up jointly by barc and the tata institute of fundamental research (tifr) at tifr premises became fully operational in september 1988. a number of new compositions of high temperature supconducting materials were synthesized. the highest transition temperature achieved was 125 k. research work to improve the quality of sintered uranium oxide pellets achieved the purpose. nuclear fuels were fabricated by using sol-gel process. r and d work for 235 mwe and 500 mwe phwr type reactors is continuing. conceptual design of the fuel handling system for the prototype fast breeder reactor was finalised. (sup 233)u+al alloy fuel for kamini reactor was fabricated. progress has been made in industrial applications of enzymes. various applications of radioisotopes are being continued certain technologi