Anti-science--a misunderstanding

The modern revolt against science has been spurred by a misunderstanding of the nature of science, argues J. A. Passmore, professor of philosophy at the Australian National University, Canberra. Passmore believes that some of the misunderstanding rests with critics of science such as Theodore Roszak (see Science, 1 December 1972) and somne with the way that scientists have presented their affairs to the public. In the excerpts below (taken from the December issue of Search, the journal of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science), Passmore analyzes the revolt against science as one that "condemns science for making itself the instrument of power, looks with dismay on the devastation to which science-based technology has given rise, rejects a world made gray by standardization . . . [and] seeks to reinstate the imagination and direct sensual enjoyment."     

Handler in defense of science

In a lecture titled "In Defense of Science" at a meeting of the American Iron and Steel Institute in New York on 26 May, National Academy of Sciences president Philip Handler presented a wide-ranging analysis of developments which made the public perceive "science and technology as a modern Janus-a two-faced god." The following excerpts are taken from a section on "The Attack on Science" and from a discussion on the environment.     

Correction

The last two sentences of "Chicano and Native American Scientists Meet" (Science, 7 Nov. 1975, p. 546) should have read "Individual members, most of whom are Ph.D.'s in the natural sciences, are all committed ... to improving the scientific training and counseling that is available to Chicano and Native American students. At the meeting ... members ... planned activities for the coming year that will increase the number of Chicanos and Native Americans entering science and the visibility of their accomplishments."     

"三农服务"农业院校图书馆重新定位

农业、农村、农民问题,实质就是解决农民收入问题。“农业问题的根本出路还要靠尖端技术,”“科学技术是第一生产力”。要从根本上解决三农问题,要以科学技术为先导,以推广和普及农业科技成果,提高农业劳动生产率,提高和促进农、林、牧、副、渔全面发展的综合的系统工程。根据图书馆近一年来服务实践,探讨了情报服务的新路子。     

Corrections and clarifications

In note 6 (p. 54), of the Policy Forum "The paradox of critical mass for women in science" by H. Etzkowitz et al. (7 Oct., p. 51), the author of Fair Science: Women in the Scientific Community should have read, "J. Cole."     

Erratum

The recent obituary notice for Ward Evans [Science 349, 126 (23 Aug. 1957)] contains the inaccurate statement that he was the "lone member of the Atomic Energy Commission's special three-man Personal Security Board of 1954 who ruled that J. R. Oppenheimer was a loyal citizen." It is correct that Evans was the only member of the board who recommended that Oppenheimer should retain his security clearance; however, the majority report affirmed emphatically the belief that Oppenheimer was a loyal citizen and pointed out his eminent services to his country.     

Symposia in Utopia

In the editorial "The State Department's opportunity in science" [D. W., Science 123, 205 (10 Feb. 1956)] the word misrepresentation in the last sentence of the third paragraph is a typographical error. The sentence should read: "In sharp contrast with many excellent recommendations of the Hoover Commission, this one seems to us to be completely wrong and probably to arise from a misinterpretation of the attaches' functions."     

基于文献计量学分析2016年环境土壤学研究热点

本文基于文献计量学方法,结合CiteSpace软件,分析了2016年国内外土壤学及环境科学领域中与土壤有关论文的关键词,揭示了2016年环境土壤学的研究热点和方向,其结果在一定程度上也反映了农业环境科学领域关注的一些重点问题.我们以Soil为关键词,在Web of Science上检索到环境科学和土壤科学SCI论文1 1 747篇.关键词的聚类结果显示2016年的研究热点是“重金属污染与生物累积效应”、“土壤有机污染与生物降解”、“土壤管理与元素循环”、“土壤固碳与全球气候变化”.中国、美国发文量名列前两位,国内中国科学院和西北农林科技大学位列发文量前两位.在CNKI数据库中共检索到2936篇核心期刊论文,关键词共现图谱显示“土壤微生物与环境污染”、“土壤理化性质与水盐运移”、“土壤有机碳与环境效应”、“土壤区域环境与空间变异”为国内期刊论文的主要研究热点.     

3S技术在城市环境管理中的应用

分析了3S(遥感、地理信息系统、全球定位系统)技术及在城市环境管理中的优越性,对其在城市环境管理过程中,环境信息的采集、环境污染监测、环境评价及治理方面的应用进行了讨论.认为把3S技术应用于城市环境管理过程有利于城市管理和决策的科学化和现代化.     

ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: Taking Responsibility

Joseph Rotblat was born in Warsaw in 1908. He trained in nuclear physics and later specialized in radiation biology. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995, with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and in the longer run to eliminate such arms." In this essay, he reflects on his experiences and recounts how he has applied his ethical principles to his work as a scientist and educator in Poland, the United Kingdom, and the world. He urges other scientists to apply ethical considerations for the survival of humankind above all others.     

Event orientation and objectivity as ethical issues in media coverage of agriculture and the environment

Public perception of agriculture and environmental issues are influenced by mass media reporting. Journalists are concerned about ethics, but typically do not consider the ethical dimensions of their emphases on objectivity and event reporting. These leave the mass media particularly vulnerable to manipulation through staged pseudo events, especially in topic areas such as agriculture and the environment, where reporters are likely to have limited expertise. Objectivity then may be used as a defensive cover. Journalists need to be more wary in reporting staged events designed just for media attention and to recognize the limitations of objectivity in their efforts to present balanced coverage of issues related to agriculture and the environment.Robert G. Hays is associate professor of agricultural communications and journalism at the University of Illinois. His professional background includes both newspaper and magazine journalism, public relations, and an assistant scientist post with the Illinois Board of Natural Resources and Conservation. His books includeState Science in Illinois, a pioneering study of state government support of science, andCountry Editor, a newspaper history. His work developing ethics teaching units in agricultural communications has been supported by a Teaching Enhancement grant from the Karl E. Gardner Endowment.     

Biotech policy draws flood of comments

The federal government's draft plan to regulate the biotechnology industry has elicited dozens of letters from researchers, industry, environmental groups, and others in response to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed role. Many commentators took issue with the EPA's intention to subject the products of genetic engineering to more rigorous scrutiny than conventionally manufactured products, a policy that the agency defends on the premise that genetically manipulated substances may pose more risks. Several respondents also claimed that products produced by genetic techniques not involving recombinant DNA are not "new," and therefore not subject to EPA's authority. Questions were asked as well about the need for the Biotechnology Science Board that the government plans to establish to oversee review committees in federal agencies involved with biotechnology research.     

Should the History of Science Be Rated X?: The way scientists behave (according to historians) might not be a good model for students

I suggest that the teacher who wants to indoctrinate his students in the traditional role of the scientist as a neutral fact finder should not use historical materials of the kind now being prepared by historians of science: they will not serve his purposes. He may wish to follow the advice of philosopher J. C. C. Smart, who recently suggested that it is legitimate to use fictionalized history of science to illustrate one's pronouncements on scientific method (56). On the other hand, those teachers who want to counteract the dogmatism of the textbooks and convey some understanding of science as an activity that cannot be divorced from metaphysical or esthetic considerations may find some stimulation in the new history of science. As historian D. S. L. Cardwell has argued (57, p. 120): . . . [I]f the history of science is to be used as an educational discipline, to inculcate an enlightened and critical mind, then the Whig view . . . cannot do this. For it must emphasize the continuities, the smooth and successive developments from one great achievement to the next and so on; and in doing so it must automatically endow the present state of science with all the immense authority of history. He suggests that the critical mind might be inhibited by seeing the present as the inevitable, triumphant product of the past. The history of science could aid the teaching of science by showing that "such puzzling concepts as force, energy, etc., are man-made and were evolved in an understandable sequence in response to acutely felt and very real problems. They were not handed down by some celestial textbook writer to whom they were immediately self-evident" (57, p. 120). The past may give some hints on how to survive the most recent recurrence of public hostility to science. Rather than blaming historians such as Kuhn for encouraging antiscientific attitudes, as one physicist did in a public address in 1972 (58), one might consider this criticism of the older style of science history, published in 1940 by W. James Lyons (59, p. 381): The historians of science are responsible, it would appear, for the unpopularity of science among those most acutely affected by the depression. In their clamor to enhance the scientific tradition, and hoard for science all credit for the remarkable and unprecedented material advances which studded the century and a quarter preceding 1930, these historians have been more enthusiastic than accurate . . . science emerged [in the popular mind] as the most prominent force responsible for making this modern world so startlingly different from all preceding ages. Thus when, for many people, the modern world, in spite of all its resources, began to slip from its role of "best of all imaginable worlds," science came in for a proportionate share of blame. Had a more accurate picture of the part science has played been presented, science would not now be the object of so much suspicion and resentment. In more recent times, hostility to science has been intensified by the image of the "objective," robot-like scientist lacking emotions and moral values. If the new approach to the history of science really does give a more realistic picture of the behavior of scientists, perhaps it has a "redeeming social significance." Then, rather than limiting the conception of science to the strict pattern allowed by traditional local standards, one might try to change those standards in such a way as to reflect the freedom that the boldest natural philosophers have always exercised.     

Erratum

In the 18 May issue of Science (p. 719, Don Paarlberg was identified as "former director of Agricultural Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture." The attribution should have read: "Don Paarlberg, 1968, Purdue University, now Director of Agricultural Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture."     

Complexity and the nervous system

Advances in the neurosciences have revealed the staggering complexity of even "simple" nervous systems. This is reflected in their function, their evolutionary history, their structure, and the coding schemes they use to represent information. These four viewpoints need all play a role in any future science of "brain complexity."     

Using materials science

The science of the solid state has joined nuclear science and molecular biology as a field of major importance in the latter half of the 20th century. It took particular shape during the genesis of solid-state electronics and the post-transistor era of integrated circuits for telecommunications, computers, and digital signal machines. However, these developments were soon joined by techniques from the ancient fields of metallurgy and ceramics and contributions from the more current fields of synthetic polymers, rubbers, plastics, and modified bioorganic substances. This vast realm was characterized by a National Academy of Sciences study of the 1970's as "materials science and engineering." The public, as well as the scientific and engineering community, are currently concerned about the uses of research and development and the applications of knowledge for national progress. Consideration is given here to how well we are using the science of materials for industrial strength and such governmental objectives as national security and energy economy.     

Erratum

In the News & Comment article "Court rejects Rifkin in biotech cases" by Mark Crawford (9 Jan., p. 159), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was incorrectly portrayed as having abandoned biotechnology guidelines issued by the Biotechnology Science Coordinating Committee. The agency continues to endorse the guidelines, but notes they "do not have specific regulatory significance for FDA."     

Correction

29 April (p.734) and 13 May (p. 911) issues of Science The talk being given by Dr. Harold Varmus at the Science/HUGO Human Genome 1994 meeting on Monday, 3 October, in Washington, D.C., is entitled "Manipulating Cancer Genes in the Mouse."     

农类高职院校教师指导学生社会实践的新模式探索——探索温州科技职业学院教师指导学生社会实践活动新模式

温州科技职业学院学生社会实践在20 a的发展历史中,秉承"受教育、长才干、作贡献"的宗旨,在指导学生社会实践活动中,积极参与,创新思路,创造性地开展了一系列学生暑期社会实践活动,如"和谐社会环保先行"、"扫盲与科技服务"等,积累了丰富的"服务三农"的实践经验。作者对此进行了大量调研、问卷,形成教师指导学生社会实践的"选、育、导、评"新模式。抛砖引玉,以飨同行者。     

Errata

In the paper "The Effect of Choline-Deficiency on Uterine Activity of Rats," by Kraatz and Gruber (Science, March 25), the tenth line from the end, p. 312, ". . . choline every second" should be amended to read "...choline every second day."