AAAS News & Notes

Photographers as Witnesses

In an exhibit at AAAS, remarkable portraits embody the need to preserve the species that humans have threatened toward extinction. Taken by renowned photographers Susan Middleton and David Liittschwager, the black-and-white images use stark backgrounds to keep all attention on the plant or animal.

Harvard's Edward O. Wilson, known as the dean of biodiversity studies, wrote the introduction to the book that supplements the exhibit. He said of the photos, "They speak to the heart. In the end their kind of testimony may count as much toward conserving life as all the data and generalizations of science."

The public may view the exhibit at AAAS's headquarters in Washington, D.C., on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will run until 31 December.

Evolutionary Wisdom or Genetic Roulette?

What if we could decide our children's traits before they are born-or even conceived? That question is more than the plot of the just-released movie GATTACA; it was the basis for a AAAS public forum that provided a unique opportunity to examine the implications of human germline interventions before the first clinical application occurs. Such an approach helps provide a rational alternative to the media frenzy prompted by the announcement that Dolly is a clone.

Gene therapy researchers, theologians, ethicists, and others met at AAAS's headquarters on 24 and 25 September to discuss the potential consequences of manipulating our genes, whether to eliminate a dreaded disease or enhance intelligence. Germline intervention would permanently alter a person's genome with traits that could be inherited by future generations. This could have far more profound effects on human nature than would cloning.

In a scientific overview, Theodore Friedmann, director of the Program in Human Gene Therapy at the University of California, San Diego, related that some germline research has been successful in animals. He said that it is only a matter of time until we can do human germline intervention. The problems that might arise, said Friedmann, "are fiction now, but they aren't going to remain fiction for very long." Estimates of the time frame varied, with the soonest being 10 to 20 years.

During his summation of the potential clinical applications of germline therapy, Malcolm Brenner referred to the remarkable way that identical twins can be different: "Those who believe their children are something that can be made to order are going to have a high level of disappointment." Brenner, who has been appointed director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, reported, "We are more than the sum of our genes. Our genes are not a blueprint, they are a recipe."

Lee Silver, a Princeton professor who specializes in behavioral genetics, focused on the therapeutic potential of allowing parents to have a healthy child: "If we're trying to cure disease, it shouldn't matter what the molecule is, whether it is a protein or DNA." He added, "Genetic modification could have a dramatic effect on who we are," noting that "we're 99% identical to chimpanzees." Later, Silver explained that "if a small number of genetic changes--accumulated through evolution--can do something as dramatic as to turn a chimplike brain into a human brain, then future genetic engineers may indeed gain the power to modify the human mind even further in predetermined ways."

"We're talking serious stuff here," said Ronald Cole-Turner of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary during a discussion on the ethical and theological implications. He echoed several panelists' concerns that such interventions could affect what it means to be human. "We are organic beings. The true self, the person, the soul is very much connected to the organism." He continued, "Some might say, 'Alter the genes and you haven't altered the soul, so don't worry.' That's not our theology."

The panelists discussed a range of issues, including how therapeutic techniques could be used for enhancement. One participant remarked that cosmetic surgery is considered ethical, so why not genetic manipulation? Other questions concerned the principle of distributive justice--who controls what is done, who benefits, and who gets left out? Some panelists suggested that germline interventions, if available to only the wealthy, could further separate the classes. Financial costs of research and implementation could have other detrimental effects. "Putting money into this effort may mean that it will be taken from other important health care initiatives," reported Pilar Ossorio, director of the Genetics Division of the Ethics Institute at the American Medical Association.

Among other topics addressed were discrimination issues, such as how would we regard those who are altered, or who are not? Whose views on health and disease would determine what interventions occur? One panelist reported that some deaf parents would prefer to have a deaf child. Abdulaziz Sachedina, director of the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Virginia, discussed the Muslim perspective, saying, "Suffering is not evil, it's a way of maturity."

The forum was sponsored by AAAS's Program of Dialogue Between Science and Religion as well as AAAS's Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law Program. Both programs are planning a joint 2-year study of the issues raised at the forum, which can recommend whether our society should undertake human germline interventions, and if so, how best to proceed with clinical applications.

Ph.D. Scholarships Awarded

Scientific panels convened by AAAS have selected four doctoral students for the Canon National Parks Science Scholars program. Each of the Ph.D. candidates will receive $25,000 per year for 3 years to conduct research to benefit U.S. national parks. The scholarship program is underwritten by Canon U.S.A., Inc.; collaborating partners include the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation, and AAAS.

A dinner at AAAS on 22 October honored the scholarship winners; among the speakers was Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. Said Haruo Murase, president and CEO of Canon U.S.A., "Our hopes ride on the intelligence and dedication of these four students, and those who come after them." Canon U.S.A. announced plans to double its funding: beginning in 1999, eight scholarships will be given annually. Canon .S.A. has committed $2.5 million in scholarships over the next 5 years.

The 1997 winnners are as follows: Ilene Grossman-Bailey of Temple University, who will investigate the contributions of prehistoric peoples to the management of New Jersey coastal resources; Tom Meixner of the University of Arizona, whose research is on the sensitivity of alpine catchments to changes in climate and atmospheric deposition; Andrew Suarez of the University of California, San Diego, who will measure the impact of exotic species in natural systems; and Dave Smyth of Michigan State University, who plans to measure the impact of national parks on local and regional economies.

AAAS Members Elected as Fellows

In September the AAAS Council elected 270 members as Fellows of AAAS. These individuals will be recognized for their contributions to science at the Fellows Forum to be held on 14 February 1998 during the AAAS Meeting in Philadelphia. The new Fellows will receive a certificate and a blue-and-gold rosette pin as a symbol of their distinguished accomplishments. Presented by section affiliation, they are as follows:

Agriculture, Food, and Renewable Resources

C. Eugene Allen, Univ. of Minnesota

Byron L. Burson, USDA-ARS, Texas A&M Univ.

C. Lee Campbell, North Carolina State Univ.

Cleora J. D'Arcy, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana

Brian A. Federici, Univ. of California, Riverside

Keith J. Karnok, Univ. of Georgia

Donald D. Kasarda, USDA-ARS, Western Regional Research Ctr.

Jaacov Katan, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem

Thomas Jack Morris, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln

Archie R. Portis Jr., USDA-ARS, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana

D. William Rains, Univ. of California, Davis

Max F. Rothschild, Iowa State Univ.

Theron S. Rumsey, USDA-ARS-LPSI, Growth Biology Lab., Beltsville, MD

Donald L. Sparks, Univ. of Delaware

Jeffrey J. Volenec, Purdue Univ.

George R. Wiggans, USDA-ARS, Animal Improvement Programs Lab., Beltsville, MD

Anthropology

Virginia Abernethy, Vanderbilt Medical School

Cynthia Beall, Case Western Reserve Univ.

Michael Kearney, Univ. of California, Riverside

Bruce D. Smith, National Museum of Natural History

R. Brooke Thomas, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst

Astronomy

Torrence V. Johnson, Jet Propulsion Lab.

John C. Raymond, Ctr. for Astrophysics

Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences

Roger Atkinson, Univ. of California, Riverside

Alan K. Betts, Pittsford, VT

Kristina B. Katsaros, Univ. of Washington

Jennifer A. Logan, Harvard Univ.

Syukuro Manabe, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab./NOAA, Princeton Univ.

Biological Sciences

Christopher Jeffrey Bayne, Oregon State Univ.

C. William Birky Jr., Univ. of Arizona

Gary J. Blomquist, Univ. of Nevada

Walter F. Boron, Yale Univ.

Arthur S. Brooks, Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Bob B. Buchanan, Univ. of California, Berkeley

Roy L. Caldwell, Univ. of California, Berkeley

Ring T. Carde, Univ. of California, Riverside

J. William Costerton, Montana State Univ.

Michael J. Donoghue, Harvard Univ.

Michael F. Dunn, Univ. of California, Riverside

Henry L. Ehrlich, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Susan G. Ernst, Tufts Univ.

Daphne G. Fautin, Univ. of Kansas

Susan E. Feinman, Potomac, MD

Stanley Fields, Univ. of Washington

Joachim Frank, New York State Dept. of Health, Albany

Marc E. Freeman, Florida State Univ.

Wayne Marcus Getz, Univ. of California, Berkeley

Scott F. Gilbert, Swarthmore College

Susan Gottesman, National Cancer Institute

Meredith C. Gould, Univ. Autonoma de Baja California, Ensenada

Louis J. Guillette Jr., Univ. of Florida

James Hanken, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder

Lawrence E. Hightower, Univ. of Connecticut

Theodore L. Hullar, Univ. of California, Davis

Graham A. Jamieson, American Red Cross, Rockville, MD

Ned K. Johnson, Univ. of California, Berkeley

George W. Kling, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Nancy Knowlton, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Richard K. Koehn, Univ. of Utah

Allen I. Laskin, Laskin/Lawrence Associates, Somerset, NJ

Pamela A. Matson, Univ. of California, Berkeley

Steven Miller, Univ. of North Carolina National Undersea Research Ctr., Key Largo, FL

David F. Moffett, Washington State Univ.

David William Mount, Univ. of Arizona

Patrick J. Mulholland, Oak Ridge National Lab.

Juliana C. Mulroy, Denison Univ.

Peter M. Narins, Univ. of California, Los Angeles

John C. Ogden, Florida Institute of Oceanography, St. Petersburg

John Steven Olson, Rice Univ.

George Perry, Case Western Reserve Univ.

Malcolm Potts, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ.

Jeffrey R. Powell, Yale Univ.

Greg H. Rau, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz

Bruce H. Robison, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA

Parke A. Rublee, Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro

Frederick B. Rudolph, Rice Univ.

Gerald Schatten, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

Howard H. Seliger, Johns Hopkins Univ.

Patricia M. Shaffer, Univ. of San Diego

Michael J. Simmons, Univ. of Minnesota

Kenneth B. Storey, Carleton Univ., Ottawa

Alan Robert Templeton, Washington Univ.

Joseph J. Torres, Univ. of South Florida

Gunter P. Wagner, Yale Univ.

Peter C. Wainwright, Florida State Univ.

David M. Ward, Montana State Univ.

Marvin Wasserman, Queens College, Flushing, NY

Bruce S. Weir, North Carolina State Univ.

Michael A. Wells, Univ. of Arizona

John Haynes Werren, Univ. of Rochester

James R. Wild, Texas A&M Univ.

Judith H. Willis, Univ. of Georgia

Chemistry

Paul Bohn, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana

Steven G. Boxer, Stanford Univ.

Stephen L. Buchwald, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Alison Butler, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara

James A. Cowan, Ohio State Univ.

David R. Crosley, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA

Timothy A. Cross, Florida State Univ.

John G. Dorsey, Florida State Univ.

Robert C. Fahey, Univ. of California, San Diego

Gideon Fraenkel, Ohio State Univ.

Harold L. Friedman, State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook

Eliezer Gileadi, Tel Aviv Univ.

Eric M. Gordon, Versicor, Inc., South San Francisco

Frederick Peter Guengerich, Vanderbilt Univ.

Boyd A. Hardesty, Univ. of Texas, Austin

Tapio A. Hase, Univ. of Helsinki

William L. Hase, Wayne State Univ.

Eric M. Jacobsen, Harvard Univ.

Joseph M. Jasinski, IBM Research Div., Yorktown Heights, NY

Roger A. Jones, Rutgers Univ.

Marsha I. Lester, Univ. of Pennsylvania

Ronald M. Levy, Rutgers Univ.

John C. Light, Univ. of Chicago

Linda J. Magid, Univ. of Tennessee

Grant Mauk, Univ. of British Columbia

James Andrew McCammon, Univ. of California, San Diego

Robert E. Mesmer, Oak Ridge National Lab.

Eckard Munck, Carnegie Mellon Univ.

Iwao Ojima, State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook

James H. Prestegard, Yale Univ.

Peter W. Rabideau, Louisiana State Univ.

Elsa Reichmanis, Bell Labs., Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ

Robert W. Shaw Jr., U.S. Army Research Office, Research Triangle Park, NC

Jay S. Siegel, Univ. of California, San Diego

Carlyle B. Storm, Gordon Research Conferences, W. Kingston, RI

Marion C. Thurnauer, Argonne National Lab.

Steven C. Zimmerman, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana

Dentistry

Lawrence A. Tabak, Univ. of Rochester

Education

Barry J. Fraser, Curtin Univ. of Technology, Perth, Australia

Alan J. Friedman, New York Hall of Science, Corona Park, NY

Richard Shavelson, Stanford Univ.

James H. Stith, Ohio State Univ.

Engineering

Stuart L. Cooper, Univ. of Delaware

E. James Davis, Univ. of Washington

George Emanuel, Univ. of Oklahoma

Woodie Claude Flowers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Norman L. Fortenberry, National Science Foundation

Arnold G. Fredrickson, Univ. of Minnesota

Martin E. Glicksman, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Alan R. Greenberg, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder

D. Lynn Johnson, Northwestern Univ.

Jerome S. Schultz, Univ. of Pittsburgh

Dharmendra K. Sharma, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Washington, DC

Martin Sichel, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Soroosh Sorooshian, Univ. of Arizona

General Interest in Science and Engineering

Robert D. Crangle, Rose & Crangle, Ltd., Lincoln, KS

Charles H. Dickens, Asheville, NC

Sung-Mo Kang, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana

Jogender Singh, Pennsylvania State Univ.

Geology and Geography

Thure E. Cerling, Univ. of Utah

Robert L. Christiansen, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA

Garniss H. Curtis, Orinda, CA

Thomas Dunne, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara

Raymond Herrmann, U.S. Geological Survey, Colorado State Univ.

Devendra Lal, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Gregory John Retallack, Univ. of Oregon

Dwight L. Schmidt, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver

History and Philosophy of Science

John Beatty, Univ. of Minnesota

Paul Forman, Smithsonian Institution

Industrial Science and Technology

Brian W. Burrows, USG Corp., Libertyville, IL

Information, Computing, and Communication

Bir Bhanu, Univ. of California, Riverside

Samuel H. Fuller, Digital Equipment Corp., Maynard, MA

Elaine Kant, SciComp Inc., Austin, TX

Russell A. Kirsch, Clarksburg, MD

Erich Meyerhoff, New York City

Mark J. Stefik, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center

Satish K. Tripathi, Univ. of California, Riverside

Jeffrey J.P. Tsai, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago

Linguistics and Language Science

Paul G. Chapin, National Science Foundation

William Labov, Univ. of Pennsylvania

Mathematics

William H. Jaco, Oklahoma State Univ.

Cora Sadosky, Howard Univ.

David A. Smith, Duke Univ.

Wilhelm Stoll, Univ. of Notre Dame

Medical Sciences

Ruth G. Abramson, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Bernard W. Agranoff, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Seth L. Alper, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Ctr., Boston

Joseph H. Antin, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston

Karen Antman, Columbia Univ.

James O. Armitage, Univ. of Nebraska, Omaha

Melissa A. Austin, Univ. of Washington

Ellis D. Avner, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland

Carl George Becker, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Merton Bernfield, Children's Hospital, Boston

Laurence A. Boxer, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

L. Maximilian Buja, Univ. of Texas, Houston

Martin J. Cline, Stinson Beach, CA

Jordon J. Cohen, Assn. of American Medical Colleges, Washington, DC

Jay N. Cohn, Univ. of Minnesota

Adolfo J. de Bold, Univ. of Ottawa

Paula Diehr, Univ. of Washington

Joshua Fierer, VA Medical Ctr. and Univ. of California, San Diego

Harvey V. Fineberg, Harvard School of Public Health

Vincent A. Fulginiti, Univ. of Colorado Health Sciences Ctr.

Myron Genel, Yale Univ.

Ellen B. Gold, Univ. of California, Davis

Phil Gold, Montreal General Hospital

Bernard D. Goldstein, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Piscataway, NJ

Martin E. Gordon, Yale Univ.

David P. Hajjar, Cornell Univ. Medical College

Richard J. Hodes, National Institute on Aging

Kathryn V. Holmes, Univ. of Colorado Health Sciences Ctr.

H. David Humes, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Karl Insogna, Yale Univ.

Donald F. Klein, Columbia Univ. and New York State Psychiatric Institute

Margaret L. Kripke, Univ. of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Ctr., Houston

Walter A. Kukull, Univ. of Washington

Neil A. Kurtzman, Texas Tech Univ. Health Sciences Ctr.

Gerald L. Mandell, Univ. of Virginia Health Sciences Ctr.

Donald R. Mattison, Univ. of Pittsburgh

Linda C. McPhail, Wake Forest Univ.

Sherie L. Morrison, Univ. of California, Los Angeles

Zoltan Ovary, New York Univ.

Peter Palese, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Alice Prince, Columbia Univ.

Jesse Roth, Johns Hopkins Univ.

Morton N. Swartz, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

Ira Bruce Tager, Univ. of California, Berkeley

Haragopal Thadepalli, Charles R. Drew Univ., Los Angeles

Jan T. Vilcek, New York Univ.

Sharon Marie Wahl, National Institute of Dental Research

Clayton A. Wiley, Univ. of Pittsburgh

Mary Woolley, Research!America, Alexandria, VA

Tadataka Yamada, SmithKline Beecham, Philadelphia

Neuroscience

Apostolos P. Georgopoulos, VA Medical Ctr., Minneapolis

Stephen H. Koslow, National Institute of Mental Health

Stanley B. Prusiner, Univ. of California, San Francisco

Eric M. Shooter, Stanford Univ.

Pharmaceutical Sciences

Thomas J. Colatsky, Wyeth-Ayerst Research, Princeton, NJ

Steven J. Gould, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ

Raymond W. Houde, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Ctr.

John S. Lazo, Univ. of Pittsburgh

John T. Slattery, Univ. of Washington

Physics

Neal B. Abraham, Bryn Mawr College

Thomas B. Cochran, Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, DC

Marvin L. Cohen, Univ. of California, Berkeley

Carol Jo Crannell, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr.

Ruth Howes, Ball State Univ.

Robert H. Kraichnan, Robert H. Kraichnan, Inc., Sante Fe, NM

William Low, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem

Douglas E. MacLaughlin, Univ. of California, Riverside

M. Brian Maple, Univ. of California, San Diego

Michael M. May, Stanford Univ.

Cherry Ann Murray, Bell Labs., Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ

Cyrus R. Safinya, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara

Myriam R. Sarachik, City College of the City Univ. of New York

Rainer Weiss, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Psychology

Robert B. Cairns, Univ. of North Carolina

Norman Cliff, Albuquerque, NM

Paul E. Gold, Univ. of Virginia

Judith H. Langlois, Univ. of Texas, Austin

Ross D. Parke, Univ. of California, Riverside

Rae Silver, Columbia Univ.

Mark Edwards Stanton, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC

Social, Economic, and Political Sciences

Andrew Abbott, Univ. of Chicago

Wendy Baldwin, National Institutes of Health

Edna Bonacich, Univ. of California, Riverside

William R. Freudenburg, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

Keith Broadwell Griffin, Univ. of California, Riverside

Arne L. Kalleberg, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

John D. Kasarda, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Jonathan H. Turner, Univ. of California, Riverside

Societal Impacts of Science and Engineering

Anthony D. Cortese, Second Nature, Boston

Roberta Balstad Miller, Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network, University Center, MI

Glenn Edwin Schweitzer, National Academy of Sciences

Statistics

Gutti Jogesh Babu, Pennsylvania State Univ.

Ron Brookmeyer, Johns Hopkins Univ.

Shelby Joel Haberman, Northwestern Univ.