26 November 2004
Edited by Edward W. Lempinen

Arts and Sciences

Herman and Victor Wouk: A Brotherhood of Discovery

One of the brothers is a visionary scientist and engineer, a pioneer in the development of hybrid and electric cars. The other is a popular novelist, once hailed by the New York Times as "a modern Charles Dickens." On a recent Thursday, both were featured in an engaging event at AAAS in Washington, D.C., "An Evening Conversation with Victor and Herman Wouk."

Novelist Herman Wouk (left), AAAS CEO Alan I. Leshner, and scientist/engineer Victor Wouk engaged in a 90-minute discussion of the brothers' work and inspiration.

The conversation, moderated by Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of AAAS and executive publisher of the journal Science, explored the different ways that two accomplished brothers have channeled their interest in discovery. And though each has had a career of remarkable achievement, the scientist made clear that he was deeply influenced by his brother's art, and the novelist agreed that his brother's guidance on matters of science has been crucial to his success.

That cross-pollination is nowhere more evident than in Herman Wouk's new novel, A Hole in Texas. The book stars fictional NASA scientist Guy Carpenter, a settled man of middle age and apparently stable family life, who years earlier had been involved in the search for the elusive Higgs boson particle. But the search had ended prematurely when the federal government shut down the Superconducting Super Collider. When it is reported that the Chinese have, in fact, discovered the particle, Carpenter is propelled into the center of a politics-science-and-media storm.

The book is dedicated to Victor, and at the AAAS event on 21 October, the 89-year-old novelist credited his brother with the idea for the story. But that influence is nothing new, he said. From explaining the theory of relativity to steering him to some of the nation's leading scientists, "Victor has helped me on science all the way down the line," he said. "I'm a hopeless humanist."

In an interview before the public conversation, Victor Wouk described growing up in the South Bronx under the influence of Herman, who was 4 years older. "I'm going to reveal a secret," he said. "My interest in the technical fields came as a result of Herman's encouragement when I was still in elementary school. He was encouraging me to read, read, read--read anything."

Moved by that advice, Victor Wouk became a regular reader of Amazing Stories, a science-fiction magazine, and found himself fascinated by the technical aspects of those stories.

In the years before World War II, Herman wrote comedy for the Fred Allen radio show; during the war, he served in the U.S. Navy. And it was that experience that inspired many of his most famous novels--The Caine Mutiny (1951), which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and the two-volume historical novel, The Winds of War in 1971 and War and Remembrance in 1978.

"As I watched Herman progress, I felt that I should, as much as I could, achieve in my field what he had achieved in his," Victor Wouk said.

After earning his doctorate in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1942, he was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, which produced the first U.S. nuclear bomb. Later, he devoted himself to developing hybrid motor vehicles and using semiconductors in electric vehicles.

Today, the fruit of his research can be seen in an emerging line of vehicles powered by both electricity and gasoline: the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, and Ford Escape Hybrid. The hybrid is believed to be the only vehicle in the foreseeable future that can meet industry and government goals: a fuel efficiency rating of 80 miles per gallon, ultra-low emissions, excellent performance, and cost competitiveness.

Fielding a question from the audience, Victor Wouk was skeptical about the near-term future of hydrogen-fueled vehicles. "It seems like an easy job to get hydrogen, but it's a difficult job," he said. "You can do it, but how much energy do you spend to get that energy?"

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Communication

Making News: Dinosaurs, Moldy Tea Bags, and Mice

National Public Radio needs a strong national news hook and "scientists who can talk as well as think," said Alison Richards of NPR's Science Desk. Yet, Richards said during EurekAlert!'s latest communications conference, even incremental findings may earn airtime if, for example, the discovery involves serendipity and "a gray mold on an old, old teabag."

Richards was one of a half-dozen top-flight science and medical journalists who appeared 5 November at EurekAlert!'s second professional development seminar for public information officers (PIOs). Throughout the day, the journalists discussed their needs, their pet peeves, and how scientists can keep their stories from ending up in the reject file that NPR calls "Great News for Mice."

The good news, said Tim Radford of The Guardian in London, is that "we have in a democracy an obligation to explain what scientists do." The bad news is that "nobody has a corresponding responsibility to read it."

Appearing on a wall-sized videoconference screen at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Radford reminded PIOs and scientists that they're up against fierce competition. "You've got about 12 seconds to get my attention before the eyes will glaze over and the hand will reach aimlessly toward the keyboard to check for news on EurekAlert!," Radford quipped, referring to the science-news Web site for reporters, a global service of AAAS (see www.eurekalert.org).

Relentless pitching of marginal "experts" and scientists who force reporters to check in with a gatekeeper are annoying, said Nell Boyce of U.S. News & World Report. Peter Calamai of The Toronto Star said he needs unfettered access to scientists and "killer quotes." (And please don't telephone to ask if he received your e-mail.)

Time reporter Alice Park said weekly magazines are looking for trend stories, not spot news. But at the Reuters wire service, Maggie Fox often writes a story or more every day.  "If you spoon-feed us, we're going to eat you up," Fox said. Dinosaur stories sell themselves, she added, but for more complex tales, "give me a simple quote in lay language, with no acronyms and no Greek letters."

The event, co-sponsored by Spectrum Science Public Relations, drew nearly 200 people, said EurekAlert! Director Catherine O'Malley. For additional details, see www.eurekalert.org/seminar. -- Ginger Pinholster

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Education

Spreading the Word: "Science. It's Everywhere"

Three years ago, a series of focus groups and polls gave staff at AAAS's Project 2061 a surprising insight into parents' attitudes about science education. The parents, many of them African-American and Latino, knew their children loved science classes but believed that reading and math were far more important to their children's future success.

The findings presented both a challenge and an opportunity--and led to the creation of the Partnership for Science Literacy, a program designed to get parents more involved in encouraging their kids' interest in science. Today, under the slogan "Science. It's Everywhere," the program is making inroads in cities across the United States.

The Partnership's public service announcements have appeared in National
Geographic and Parents magazine, and broadcasts have aired on WRDZ-AM in Chicago. AAAS and Partnership museums in five cites have distributed thousands of the guidebooks and brought hundreds of parents and their children to informal science-education events this year.

In September, the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Public Relations Society of America awarded a certificate of excellence to AAAS and the Element Agency for crafting the program's message, its multilingual Web site (www.tryscience.org/parents/parent.html), and its outreach campaign.

"This outreach campaign has given Project 2061 a great opportunity to focus on parents and their role in their children's science learning," said Jo Ellen Roseman, director of the project. "It's clear that parents want to be involved--whether at school, in their neighborhoods, or online--and there are great resources available for them to do that. Bringing all of these elements together in ways that truly support children's science literacy is an exciting challenge for us."

The Partnership for Science Literacy was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. After laying the groundwork for the program, Roseman's staff and their AAAS colleagues in Education and Human Resources signed on science centers in five cites as the chief partners: the Austin (Texas) Children's Museum; the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Florida; the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; the Discovery Center of Science and Technology in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

The zoo was one of several Chicago science centers and museums--including the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Chicago Park District and the Museum of Science & Industry--involved in early planning for the Partnership, said Bert Davis, a veterinarian and the zoo's vice president of education.

"We get over 3 million visitors a year at the zoo, and you see in them a broad-brush illustration of what America is," Davis said. "But there are still millions of people who we don't reachÿ There's a tremendous opportunity for learning, and it's all right here in our own backyard."

To promote the Partnership program, the zoo and other partner organizations held an outdoor science celebration last spring. The organizers reached into Chicago's African-American, Latino, and Asian communities through churches, political leadership, local YMCAs, and boys and girls clubs. The result: Despite rainy weather, an estimated 600 people came to Jackson Park behind the city's famed Museum of Science and Industry for the Partnership for Science Literacy celebration.

A similar event was held at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. National parks officials, the Aquarium of the Pacific, and California State University professors held workshops for an audience drawn from adults who are in English as a Second Language programs and their families.

"This is an audience that's really important here, in our neighborhood in particular and in Southern California as a whole," said Megan Walsh, the museum's director of education. "This is just a good opportunity for us to further develop that relationship." And, she added, the mission of the Partnership "is similar to our mission at the museum--helping to inspire wonder, discovery, and responsibility. Science is all around us in our natural and cultural world. Science is everywhere."

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