November 27, 1984

Gulf and Western Industries and Prentice-Hall Inc. announced jointly yesterday that they had agreed to merge, creating the nation's largest book publisher. The agreement followed an offer by Gulf and Western to increase its previously rejected $70- a-share offer by $1 a share. Already one of the biggest conglomerates in the country, Gulf and Western is a major book publishing company through its ownership of Simon & Schuster, currently the sixth-largest publishing house in the United States. Prentice-Hall, a publisher of textbooks and professional materials used by lawyers and accountants, is 11th in the nation.

MICHAEL BERGELSON admitted that he had no inventory, no sales force and no customers. But if he had $1.4 million, he was telling a recent gathering at the Harvard Business School Club in New York, his nascent company would have profits of $1.7 million on $16.5 million in sales in three years. Mr. Bergelson, a 46-year-old Russian emigre with a doctorate in computer science and an eye to the main chance, was making his pitch at the club's ''new venture workshop,'' a monthly, two-hour forum at which would-be entrepreneurs are invited to send up their trial balloons - usually to see them shot down by experts. The workshop's purpose is to give entrepreneurs such as Mr. Bergelson free professional advice, access to venture capital and a salutary dose of realism.

Acknowledging that issues of states' rights were involved, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said today that it was moving to restrict banks from going into new lines of business under authority recently granted by some states. The proposed regulations, which would apply not only to federally chartered, or national, banks but to state-chartered banks also, would restrict the ability of banks to engage in real estate; insurance brokerage and underwriting, and travel services. A number of states, including New York, have recently authorized state- chartered banks to enter these lines of businesses. In June, for example, the New York State Assembly approved a bill that would allow state- chartered savings banks to invest in and control real estate development.

The New York City Transit Authority proposed sweeping changes in its $6.3 billion rebuilding plan yesterday, calling for more money to buy new buses and overhaul subway cars. The reshuffling of the five-year capital plan would affect almost every aspect of the city's aging transit system, from elevated track structures to shops and barns. Under the new plan, more money would also be spent to rebuild bus depots and the Staten Island subway system. In addition more funds would be set aside for such items as air-conditioning, chemical car washes to remove graffiti, and improvements in television monitoring systems and other security measures.

THE dark world of bats has long been hidden from humans, surrounded by myth, fear and ignorance. But scientists have recently begun to discover that the world's only flying mammal is a much more sophisticated and benign creature than previously believed. Because bats are nocturnal, live in secluded caves and roosts, and are so different from all other mammals, thorough studies have been difficult. But new research in both the laboratory and the field, using such esoteric technologies as infrared scanners, high-frequency telemetry, luminescent wing bands and computerized data bases, have shed light on many of the mysteries of bats. As a result, this often maligned creature, possessor of what may be the oddest physique and strangest assortment of grotesque faces of any of earth's animals, is beginning to gain the respect of scientists and nature lovers. These are some of the findings: