For a World Science Association

Now is the time to establish an International Association for the Advancement of Science. Such a move would mark a major step toward regaining for science its international prestige, now so sadly deteriorated. It should be constituted from the national associations for the advancement of science existing today in the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, France, India, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. Floated in the March and June 1986 issues of Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, the

Written byAnthony Michaelis

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The function of the International Association (IAAS) should be:

It must appear extraordinary to urge the oldest scientific associations in the United States and Europe to form an international association. (The oldest is the German Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Arzte, founded in 1822; the British Association for the Advancement of Science held its first meeting in York in 1831 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science was inaugurated in 1848.) But scientists belong to the most international of all professions. International cooperation in scientific research, irrespective of race, creed or sex, has always been the pride of scientists. Furthermore, each individual scientific discipline, be it chemistry, physics or radio science, has formed its own international union, which is united with all others in the International Council of Scientific Unions.

Only the national associations for the advancement of science lack their own international union. They must regain the initiative ...

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