The National Academy of Sciences is a focal point of the highest credibility for the greatest scientific community the world has ever known. Not only does the Academy recognize, reward, and reinforce excellence and creativity in science, setting the highest standards of quality and discovery, it also powerfully fosters the uses of science and technology in judicious, humane, and democratic ways.
The scientific community is the best approximation we now have to a truly international community, sharing certain fundamental interests and standards, as well as certain fundamental curiosities about the nature of matter, of life, behavior, and the universe. The shared quest for understanding is one that knows no national boundaries, no inherent prejudices, no necessary ethnocentrism, and no barriers to the free play of information and ideas. So, to some extent, the scientific community can provide a model for human relationships that might transcend some of the biases and ...
