ANALYTICAL EDITORIAL
August 1966, Vol. 38, NO.9 Editor: HERBERT A. LAITINEN EDITORIAL HEADQUARTERS Washegton, D. C. 20036 1155 Suteenth S t N.W. Phone: 202-737-3437Teletype WA 23
Citizenship in Science
Associate Editor: John K. Crum Assistant Editors: Josephine Pechan, V u ~ m E. Stewart Editorial Assistants: Martha B. Wood
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Contributing Editor: R. H . Muller Production Staff-Washington: Art Director: Joseph Jacobs Art and Layout: Kuttner
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to draw some parallels between citizenship in its social and political meanings, and citizenship in the scientific community. One aspect of citizenship is loyalty. A good citizen shows loyalty to his family, his neighborhood, his town, his county, his state, and his country in an ever widening set of spheres depending upon the breadth of the issue under discussion. While he may take a strong position of support for one locality against another in discussing a municipal issue, these differences are properly forgotten when discussing interstate or international issues. I n a parallel manner, a scientist properly shows loyalty to his own specialty in discussions within his own branch of science. But the dimensions of his loyalty expand as the boundaries of the discussion become broader. Analytical chemists, for example, might engage in a lively dispute about the relative merits of polarography or gas chromatography in the solution of a particular problem; but their differences rapidly disappear when the discussion involves the validity of the analytical approach, as compared to some other approach to the problem. What is more important, however, analytical chemists as well as other specialists should demonstrate their loyalty for chemistry as a whole, and not just to one branch of it, when discussing problems of interest to the whole chemical science; for example, undergraduate curricula in chemistry, or government support for chemistry in relation to biology or physics. Another aspect of citizenship is voluntary service. Just as a good citizen on the political scene not only exercises his privilege of the ballot, but also contributes his time and efforts to causes he believes in, so does a scientist have obligations of voluntary service. Particularly in the postwar era, the scientific community in the United States has evolved a remarkably successful method of administering the greatly enlarged level of government support of science. The success of this procedure is vitally dependent upon voluntary services such as reviewing research proposals and serving on advisory panels. But even long before the present era of substantial federal support, the traditional scientific activities such as local section and national meetings of professional societies and the review and publication of research papers required many types of voluntary services from individual scientists. It is particularly important that younger scientists be encouraged to grow gradually into a fuller participation at the various levels of voluntary service. Not only are more services needed than ever before, but the new ideas and new influences of the younger scientists are needed to shape the directions of science in the years to come. IT MAY BE USEFUL
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