EDITOR'S OUTLOOK N OPEN LETTER T O THE HONORABLE HAROLD L. ICKES, SECRETARY OF THE ADEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. The sums of money appropriated by Congress for loan or expenditure in effecting national economic reconstruction are so vast as to transcend the average citizen's powers of conception. It implies no lack of confidence in the wisdom of the administrators to whom these funds have been entrusted to suggest that the problem of effective allotment may be difficult to solve in full. The magnitude of the task which confronts you and your aides makes it seem a public duty rather than an act of unwarranted presumption to offer for consideration any contribution, however small, which the proponent sincerely believes to be worthy. In this spirit, therefore, we respectfully invite your attention to the need for a program of relief specifically adapted to the aid of a numerically negligible but socially very significant group of the unemployed-the welltrained, capable, and enthusiastic, hut involuntarily idle scientific research workers. It is far from exaggeration to say that the mere maintenance of physical life in the individual by no means guarantees the survivai of the scientist. The impending tragedy is not merely that of the oblivion of an unorganized and inarticulate minority. The nation is on the point of sustaining an irrecoverable loss of human and material values. These men already represent a considerable public investment in the form ;f ex~cnsi\.esubsidiwd rducation. l~nlcssthat investment is 'immediately protected it will deteriorate rapidly through loss of technic, lack of contact with scientific work and thought, and destruction of morale. Although some of this damage may eventually be repaired in part, there will be no possibility of restoring the years of potential productivity lost through enforced idleness by men a t &e height df their working owers. A competent research worker is too expensive, oo valuable, and too short-lived a piece of human machinery to be neglected even temporarily. theconservative aspects of a relief program for research workers are not those of paramount importance. If any significant number of carefully selected men could be employed under competent leadership in intensive research upon problems of fundamental national significance f& a deriod of two years the results obtained would almost inevitably make the expenditure involved seem trivial. To indi&te but two iliustrative nroiects, it is necessarv onlv to a t e recent scientific. prox. iess in the study of cince; and pneumonia. The present state of our knowledge of both these diseases is such as to support great hopes for conclusive results when a sufficient amount of additional work has been done.
f
ow ever,
Some estimate of the material value of control of either or both of these scourges may be formed upon the basis of life insurance statistics; the human values would be inestimable. The machinery for such a project is ready a t hand and can he put into immediate operation. It is to be found in the icientific graduate schiols of our stronger universities and in our research institutes. Many of these institutions have already extended themselves to the limit in their attempts to salvage some portion of the waste that we deplore. It is safe to say that none of them can domore with the resources now a t their command. Some of them, however, could do much more with additional assistance. Competent leadership exists, space can be found, most of the necessary equipment is available, if workers can be given a decent subsistence wage and if the institutions can be .. given some assistance in supply in^ them the rn:itdriel of their work. S o elaborate administrati\.e organization is necessary; building prono costly and time-consuming gram is required. Governmental agencies need only invite the administrative heads of appropriate institutions to apply for subsistence and mat6riel allotments for the number of competent research workers they are willing and able to sponsor, house, and direct. Without central control of the research program some slight duplication of effort might occur but it would be v&y sligl;t. Our great research institutions already conduct tht,ir own more' or less clearly defined programs of research with surprisingly little overlapping; Certainly no conceivable duplication that might occur could be commensurate with the delay and stifling bureaucracy entailed by centralized direction. It is seldom that so satisfactory and advantageous a solution to a vexatious problem lies ready at hand; it is seldom that a fiat would be so nearly synonymous with the actual execution of the deed. We respectfully urge that you examine in detail the feasibility of the proposal herewith briefly outlined. "Cold light," the secret of the
firefly end the glomornz, has long
been an inlerestin~buzzle to the chemist and the phi&st. I n an article beginning on page 142 of this number. Dr. Ernest H. Huntress and two of his asmciales at the Massachusetts Inrtitute of Technology tell something of laboratory studies of this fascinating subject and discuss i n detail a singdarly illuminating example. Photo by C. M . Wareham.
