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Should "Commercial Value" Figure in Scientific Report?
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DEAR SIR:
First I wish to commend most highly the excellent coverage and forthright out spokenness that have characterized your handling of the Astin case and the various matters connected with it in C&EN. It is a great forward step that the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY officially through its
publications is willing to take a strong position on matters of public interest. I t is certainly of importance that scientists should be free to report the results of their investigations both as to findings of fact and conclusions without consideration of "the play of the market place" or political pressure. However, another point arises which it seems to me as a consulting chemist, has not been discussed as fully as its im portance warrants. There appears i n this case a report under the head of one of t h e most honored names in American teclinical education. This report, in the words of the vice president of the institution at which it was prepared, is characterized as follows: " . . . there are no recommenda tions included in the report nor did any of our group arrive at any definitive con clusions with respect to the commercial value of the product." In the course of my professional career I have constant occasion to prepare reports. So does every other consulting chemist and so, in fact, does every practitioner of the profession of chemistry. Furthermore, I have been active for most of my adult life through the American Institute of Chemists and in other ways in maintaining the highest standards of professional prac tice. I am therefore greatly concerned over the existence of the report referred to and so I think should every one who has the welfare of the profession at heart be concerned. Is it not a matter of concern to every technically trained professional man that professional reports should be unequivocal? What will be the public impression of the value of reports which are not related to the practical points at issue and d o not contain the conclusions of t h e judgment of the investigator on his factual findings? Am I wrong in feeling that this facet of the case may in the long run b e of greater professional significance than any other? KARL M.
HERSTEIN
New York, Ν. Υ. Calvert City Surveyor
[The writer of the following communi cation is general industrial agdht for Illinois Central Railroad.] DEAR Sm:
surveys of the district made over a period of 15 years. However, the story's inherent excellence would justify compliments even from anybody not familiar with the situa tion. ANDERSON
PACE
Chicago, III. The Scientist as a Servant o f Society DEAR S I R :
My letter in C&EN of March 23 con cerning D r . Pigman's article, "Science at: Bay" ( F e b . 16) has occasioned comment by H. O. Aibrecht in C&EN for April 13.1 I should lilce to clarify my position in terms' which Mr. Aibrecht suggests by demon^ strating t h e social responsibilities my asso ciates and I have shouldered as members of the staff of the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory. First, m y thesis is not that which Mr.j Aibrecht suggests: that the application of] science bodes more evil than good. Mv thesis is that when science depends for its financial support upon the nonscientific! public, t h e laymen who support that science may jusdy expect a suitable return for their investment. The evil enters when! the scientist willfully utilizes funds for projects which have no bearing upon the application the layman expects. In this light the Jackson laboratory de-! pends for its financial support upon many: organizations, including the American Cancer Society and its own lay-memberedj National Jackson Laboratory Association. Many of us are engaged in cancer reA search a n d it is only for this purpose that we can honestly use the funds granted us in good faith. W e certainly could not maintain our integrity if w e were, among ourselves, to agree that our function as scientists was primarily to expand the area of science over Dr. Pigman's plain of systematic knowledge. Our function is to give t h e public as soon as possible—and it is b e i n ^ very generous, patient, andfl understanding—an answer to the cancer problem, and that is what the public jusdy expects and deserves when it con-l tributes t o the cancer drive every spring. We are, in fact, "applied" scientists, but! in a sense different from Dr. Pigman's "applied** scientist. Our investigations have taken us into the basic scientific realms usually assigned the "pure" scienn tist. But unlike the pure scientist w e are obliged t o emerge some day from these realms with a suitable return for oui] public's investment. EUGENE D. DA\)
Bar Harbor, Me. A Good Word f o r the Crossword
I greatly enjoyed your writeup of Cal DEAR S m : I should like to congratulate you on the! vert City and have passed it around to the various members of our management, who crossword puzzle which you published i reacted as favorably as I did. The story the April 13 issue of C&EN. Please giv. has a distinctly personal meaning for me us some more. A. G. L i P s c o M i because I developed all of t h e industrial prospects for this area after studies and Halifax, England C H E M I C A L
AND
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