Dec 26 1970
From The Space Library
December 26-31; AAAS held 137th Annual Meeting in Chicago. Thirteenth Annual Meeting of Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) was held Dec. 26-30 in conjunction with AAAS meeting. Dr. Edward H. Teller, physicist and atomic scientist of Univ. of California, advocated abolition of secrecy surrounding U.S. scientific research "so we can clearly understand what we are talking about " in growing debate over impact of science and technology on society. "Secrecy in science should be abolished so that the democratic process can be better able to work in making the decisions on how science is applied." (Wilford, NYT, 12/28/70, 1)
Dr. Bentley Glass, retiring AAAS president and Academic Vice President of Univ. of New York at Stoney Brook, said number of scientists and technologists in U.S. had doubled in decade to form 20% of professional labor force. Growth rate was much faster than that of population and could not surpass limit of about 25% of professional force. Dr. Glass believed that the greater the volume of research, the less likely any one project would produce truly original results. "It is in fact becoming more and more difficult, as scientific knowledge grows, to make a totally new and unexpected discovery or to break through the dogmas of established scientific views." SHOT session on Perspectives of Apollo History, chaired by Dr. James Lee Cate of Univ. of Chicago with Dr. John M. Logsdon of George Washington Univ. as commentator, presented sample narratives': "Space Science and Automatic Spacecraft Behind Apollo" by R. Cargill Hall, JPL Historian; "The Saturn Family of Rockets" by Dr. John S. Beltz of Univ. of Alabama at Huntsville; and "The Apollo Command Spaceship" by Dr. Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., of Univ. of Houston. Narratives directed attention to problems of contemporary scholarship and to basic elements of Apollo. (Program; NASA Hist Off)
Jeffrey V. Odom, manager of National Bureau of Standards metric study, told AAAS seminar that report on metrication would be submitted to Congress in August 1971. Report was expected to include recommendations for gradual conversion to metric system in U.S., possibly over 10 yrs. New York Times, noting metric system proponents, emphasized that 90% of nations in world already used system and that U.K. expected to be almost completely converted by 1975, said NASA was first U.S. Government agency to convert to system in its scientific and technical publications. (Wilford, NYT, 12/29/70,17)
Stewart L. Udall, former Secretary of the Interior, in AAAS speech accused science establishment, particularly NAS, of failing to exert moral and political leadership on issues of technology impact on man. He proposed that consumer advocate Ralph Nader organize team of young scientists to make "dispassionate and intensive study of the National Academy and the whole scientific enterprise in this country." (Wilford, NYT, 12/31/70, 3:6)
Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, AEC Chairman and AAAS President-elect, left AAAS meeting before radical young scientists assumed podium to accuse him of "crime of science against the people." (Auerbach, W Post, 12/31/70, A4)
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