So They Say

Verbatim excerpts from the media on the conduct of science. The Mystique of Modern Science The popularization of science is commonplace. We expect radio and television, newspapers and films to present suitably digested accounts of scientific ideas and practices. Sometimes historical reconstruction is the preferred method, at others it is careful exposition, using models, analogies and visual aids. One result of this is that there exists a vocabulary and a set of images through which modem science can be examined. These languages repeat motifs found in the general culture—heroism, daring, challenge, discovery, struggle, triumph. Science is thereby portrayed as both like other human quests and as unique in its search for truth. A certain mystique surrounds scientific and medical research, a mystique which serves to reconcile us to its demands at the same time as it binds us to the historically-rooted and socially specific character of human mastery over nature. —Ludmilla Jordanova Review of Stephen Jay Gould's "Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle" (Harvard, 1987) The Listener, p. 24 June 11, 1987 Just Like Other Men More and more, the question a scientist asks as well as the technology he produces arise not from any self-propelling detached search for truth but from the dictates of the marketplace. Both the pace and direction are determined by the needs of companies, countries and multi-national corporations to compete successfully. We can hope that scientists and engineers will "consider the ramifications of their work in the broader context within which it is applied," but I for one am not holding my breath. We are not about the see the tail wag the dog. As long as the imperatives of the marketplace obtain, there will be people willing and able to carry out the experiments, whatever the social cost. In this regard scientists are no different from other men, be they politicians left or right, bankers or trade-unionists. All act in what they see to be their own personal or group interest—family, company, country or corporate. It may take impending calamity for them to equate those interests with the rest of mankind. By then it might be too late. —William Hassett Letter to the Editor Dimensions, p. 6 May 1987 Even a Child Can Do It Roland Schmitt, chief scientist of US General Electric, has been telling me how astonished he was when a schoolgirl, aged 15, appeared as an expert witness before the National Science Board (the top US science advisers to the US government). Schmitt and his fellow advisers had invited some experts on the fashionable new subject of ceramic superconductors to brief them about its growing importance—which is causing such excitement in the scientific world. One of the experts brought his daughter along to assist. Heidi Grant's 3,000-mile trip to Washington from San Jose, California, began when her father, Paul Grant, an IBM scientist, demonstrated the new discovery to some writers. He remarked that although the novel ceramics need rare earth elements in their preparation, those substances are neither as rare, nor as costly, as is often supposed. In fact, he pointed out any school laboratory should be able to mount its own demonstration of superconductivity for an outlay of about £1. His daughter Heidi then made the point for him with a practical demonstration. Prof Paul Chu of Houston University, one of the experts called to Washington, thought she made the case well. So well, indeed, that he persuaded the national science advisers to let her go to Washington to see for themselves her homely recipe for instant superconductors. —"Domestic Science" Financial Times, p. 24 June 12, 1987 Humans Are Not the Only Beneficiaries of Animal Research Pounds and shelters take in seven million abandoned dogs every year, five million of which have to be killed. Why is it more moral to let them die in a pound instead of in a laboratory where they may advance medical knowledge? After all, humans are not the only beneficiaries of laboratory research. Today millions of pets can be treated for heart disease, leukemia or kidney failure solely as a result of experiments based on animal research. Some animal-rights activists can't seem to remember that. There may well be small but highly vocal groups of individuals in the West who've decided that life is as good as it's going to get and that the scientific frontier is a fearful and dangerous place. While their expressions of concern sometimes have a superficial populist appeal, it is important that the rest of the public attempts to inform itself about the purposes of modern scientific endeavor. Not knowing what science is doing makes it more likely that the no-nothings will retard the delivery of science's benefits to man. —"Review & Outlook: Science Under Attack" The Wall Street Journal, p. 30 June 16, 1987 No Math May Be the Best Math Mathematics education has undergone dramatic changes during the 40 years that it has been my primary interest. I was a student in the era of what I choose to call "old math." Later, I was a teacher in the era of "new math." Now it looks as though we might be entering an era of "no math." Although I am a professional educator and mathematics professor, I am convinced that "no" math is a viable alternative for many people in our society. Personally, I find mathematics the most satisfying and interesting of all the disciplines. It is genuine fun, and it grieves me that everyone does not share my enthusiasm. But I must be realistic. Those who need mathematics are a minority. Those who enjoy mathematics are an even smaller minority. The best thing we can do for most students is to teach them how to use a calculator, as that will be the extent of their need for mathematics. —John W. Meux "Old Math, New Math, No Math" The Chronicle of Higher Education, p. 84 June 17, 1987 The Art of Learning How is it possible that the Harvard faculty voted by an overwhelming majority to install a curriculum that all but ignores science? Why have most major universities and colleges done likewise? Scientists do not really want to teach the "unwashed." The mathematicians do not even enjoy teaching experimental scientists; they want pure mathematicians in their classes. In justification of their unhappiness about teaching nonscientists, scientists frequently state that it is not possible to teach anyone who does not want to learn. That is true. But the great colleges and universities of America have a choice of students and, if they wished, could select those who are eager to learn science. Quite possibly, among the brilliant students now in our-universities, we would find that many could learn science if that was what was expected of them.... if universities and liberal arts colleges would demand as many courses in science as MIT and CalTech require in the humanities, we could lead our students up a gentle slope to a considerable level of learning. —F.H. Westheimer "Policy Forum: Are Our Universities Rotten at the 'Core'?" Science, p. 1166 June 5, 1987 Travelers' Checks for Earth Scientists? The choice of the Earth sciences by the University Grants Committee as the guinea pig for the alleged "rationalization" of university science departments. . . is singularly inappropriate. No science subject is less dependent on so-called "well-found" laboratories. Of course there are branches of the subject, notably geochemistry, which require expensive ironmongery. Most of us, in fact, do not need much more than a microscope in the way of equipment. What we do need, and our students need, at all levels is the money to travel to study our rocks. But nothing is more difficult to obtain, either from universities or from research councils, and most of us are sick and tired of trying to explain the need to a deaf world. —Derek Ager Letter to the Editor New Scientist, p. 67 May 28, 1987 Losing Out to The Lawyers One reason for the general decline in the quality of our elementary schools and high schools, and particularly in the quantity and quality of science there, is a shortage of qualified teachers. People who used to choose teaching as a profession can find less harrowing, more satisfying, and more lucrative careers elsewhere. People with mathematical and scientific training are in tremendous demand in technology-based industries. it is vital for the country that the investment be made—however it has to be made—to get good teachers back into the schools. As academic fundraisers always say: If you think education is expensive, consider the cost of ignorance. What is so unfortunate about the poverty of good science instruction is that so many of the potential Lawrences, Alvarezes, Panofskys, Einsteins, and Fermis never get turned on and never try to become scientists. What a loss; many of them become lawyers! —Marvin L. Goldberger "What's Right, What's Wrong With U.S. Science" Engineering & Science, p. 10 June 1987 No Room for Tinkering In an age when the price of accelerators runs into billions of dollars, when even a modest experiment can cost more than a million, there is no longer any room in modern physics for tinkering. Physics, like so much of modern America, has become the domain of the three-piece suit and cost accounting. Never mind that "crazy" experiments sometimes open whole new fields of science, never mind that playing it safe is unlikely to lead to new and exciting discoveries. Modern science has succumbed to the dreary triumph of the bottom line. —James Trefil Review of "Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist" (Basic Books, 1987) The New York Times Book Review, p. 14 June 7, 1987 Averting the Wars of Science Though few medical practitioners, academicians, or research scientists are aware of the growing use of academic sanctions for political purposes, this recent development on the world scene is worthy of close attention. Academic sanctions are expedient, arbitrary political decisions by scientific institutions to deny international scholarly exchange with, and to blacklist, particular scientists be cause of their nationality. That abuses of human rights, including apartheid, internal exile, imprisonment, torture, and murder occur in countries around the world is a terrible fact. However, for medical scientists to ostracize all scientists from an offending country indicates poor judgment, since it stigmatizes and jeopardizes scientists who are working for human rights in the offending country. More important, academic sanctions, which include the refusal to publish scientific papers from an offending country, regardless of merit, are abuses of science that set a precedent for possible nationalistic, retaliatory "wars of science." The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has a distinguished record of identifying, sustaining, and in many cases freeing scientists suffering under political oppression. Certainly, as part of the growing general awareness of this abuse of science, the National Academy can study academic sanctions in detail and can work to develop a response that will incorporate all elements of an open science, leading to an open world in which human rights are respected and observed. —Ralph Crawshaw Letter to the Editor The New England Journal of Medicine, p. 1221 May 7, 1987 Build-Up In Brazil, Build-Down In Britain The run-down of Brazilian science caused several of our best scientists to leave the country so that they could continue their research programmes abroad. Some scientific research areas almost completely disappeared and, decades later, some fields have not recovered. Now, in more enlightened times, we are rebuilding our institutes and universities, but only very slowly, with great difficulty and at a very high cost. This should not be allowed to happen in Britain. Other countries will take a dim view of its imposed decline. They will think that Britain has lost faith in its own abilities, and the reneging on scientific responsibility will be a poor example for the developing nations. Economic problems will not be solved by dismissing scientists who have spent many years training and gaining the experience to undertake their exacting work. The cost in low morale cannot be counted. —F.A.R. Barbosa Letter to the Editor Nature, p. 182 May 21, 1987 Easy Reading In Moscow After the feat of the intrepid pilot who flew to Moscow comes news of a magazine that has made it through the Iron Curtain. A copy of Reed Business Publishing's Hair is now in the hands of the Institute of Scientific Information of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The academy publishes a series of the Abstracts Journal, dealing with major fields of science and technology. Hair is to be studied for possible review in the journal. —"Diary" UK Press Gazette, p. 17 June 15, 1987 Iffy Investments In venture capital circles, where major scientific advances pump up investment activity the way adrenalin sets the human pulse racing, recent breakthroughs in the esoteric field of superconductivity are sparking visions of new riches. "Supercondutivity is extremely exciting," said Benjamin Rosen, chairman of the Sevin Rosen Management Company, one of the nation's most successful venture capital firms in the field of electronics. "It's one of those things we have been dreaming about." Other venture capitalists say they have already seen enough to begin gearing up to lead what is likely to be a multibillion-dollar wave of investment, even though there is more money available than places to put it. "The plus of the new superconductivity is that the applications potential is mind-boggling," said Bob Day, a partner at Boston-based TA Associates, a leading venture capital firm that said it was striving to get to know leading researchers in the field. "The minus is that the weekly announcements of new developments are making it hard to figure out where to invest." —Barnaby J. Feder "Business Technology: The Rich Promise of Superconductors" The New York Times, p. D6 June 17, 1987

So They Say

The Scientist Staff

The Mystique of Modern Science

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