Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society

The Promise of Science

Author(s): Franklin A. Long
Source: American Scientist, Vol. 74, No. 5, Sigma Xi 100: A Century of Scientific Research
(September-October 1986), pp. 510-513
Published by: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
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The Promise of Science

Franklin A. Long

It is a cause for celebration when an international

formation can forecast behavior that spans millions of

years and billions of miles, and that agrees strikingly

professional society, one that has 115,000 members and

that publishes a major scientific journal, attains its hun with the observed characteristics of spiral galaxies; at the
dredth birthday. Sigma Xi has reached this birthday and other end of the scale, a spectacular picture of live
human blood cells can be obtained by a new kind of
is in a mood to celebrate. Cornell University, the site of
computer-assisted "contact" x-ray microscopy.
the Society's founding, was the host on 11-12 April 1986
At one level, Branscomb demonstrated that combin
for the first part of the Centennial celebration. What
ing modeling simulation and image processing effective
follows is a brief, admiring summary of what happened
ly gives an interactive approach to
over a very full twenty-four hours.

The common theme of the presenta- ^

tions described below is also the title

of this article. But because every

speaker was himself a scholar, the

talks went well beyond the promise
of science. They dealt with the pro
gress of science, the impacts of sci
ence, the future of science, and, not
least, the satisfaction of being a scien
tist.

It was fitting that the opening

Two days of Centennial

celebration at Cornell

scientific data, one to which theory

and experiment simultaneously con
tribute. At another level he showed
the immense fruitfulness of collabo
ration between scientists and techni

cal specialists who can get the most

University brought
out of the powerful new instruments
together prize-winning
that are being developed.
The morning session of 12 April
speakers, dazzling slides,
was devoted to coverage of the
and light-hearted history founding and growth of Sigma Xi.
Because the establishment of the So

address was given by Lewis Brans- ?

comb, president of Sigma in 1985-86,

and equally fitting (and a source of great local satisfac
tion) that the final talk was coupled to the award of the

Society's Procter Prize to a Cornell scientist, Thomas

Eisner. Neither of these speakers neglected the main

ciety came in part from feelings that

scientists and engineers needed "their own Phi Beta

Kappa" to redress the perceived emphasis of the older

society on the humanities, it was good to hear from the

current president of Phi Beta Kappa, physicist Norman
Ramsey of Harvard University, who is also a member of
Sigma Xi. Ramsey's brief and light-hearted talk poked
gentle fun at two incongruous aspects of the founders of

theme, and indeed Branscomb focused very directly on

it.
Branscomb's talk was entitled "The Art of Science
the organizations: their addiction to Greek names and
with Computers." His essential argument is that com
mottos, and their practical bent in devising medallions
puters are now so deeply integrated into modern scien
that also served as a key for winding watches. More
tific research that they are becoming a collaborator rather
seriously, he emphasized their common concern for
than just a "device for data reduction." Branscomb made
excellence and their commitment to the advancement of
his case by taking his audience on an international tour
of laboratories wherein IBM scientists, along with many
learning. Ramsey's remarks appear on page 534 of this
collaborators, are producing science in which the com issue.
The remainder of the morning session featured talks
puter is an essential component, and are incidentally
producing scientific pictures that can justly be called by historian Michael Sokal of Worcester Polytechnic
Institute and by Frank Rhodes, president of Cornell.
''beautiful." The science was of many varieties: geologi
Rhodes's talk and Sokal's full historical analysis are
cal, oc?anographie, physical, astronomical, biological,
and medical.
reproduced in this issue on pages 532 and 486, respec
tively. Sokal told his audience of Sigma Xi's beginnings:
The changes in scale and character of the examples
the famous "walk up the hill" in 1886, during which a
that Branscomb discussed were occasionally astounding:
Cornell senior and a young instructor of engineering
computer-based applications of a new theory for galaxy
agreed that a professional society for scientists and
engineers was needed, and the remarkable follow-on
Franklin A. Long is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and of Science and
Society at Cornell University, and is actively involved in science policy
studies and in problems of international security. He is the author of
numerous articles in these fields as well as in chemistry. He has contributed

as editor and author to several books, the most recent being Weapons in

Space {Norton, 1986

activity that saw their youthful vision transformed into

reality. Rhodes, in his eloquent address, spoke on

the key issues of why Cornell was a likely site for

the Society's founding and what Sigma Xi should strive

to be.

510 American Scientist, Volume 74

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a century of scientific research

A final recognition of Cornell's

special role in Sigma Xi took place
later, when the Society presented to
Rhodes a beautiful window engraved

with Sigma Xi's insignia. The win

dow has now been mounted in Cor

nell's Mann Library.
The afternoon program, chaired
by M. Patricia Faber, past president
of Sigma Xi, was all on science, or,
more properly, was all presentations
by scientists: Charles Hess, dean of
the University of California at Davis,

Robert Barker, provost of Cornell,

and Nobel laureate Sheldon Glashow
of Harvard.
As Hess noted in his talk, "Agri
cultural Research: Past Accomplish

ments?Future Directions," it is
characteristic of science that growth

in knowledge comes by bursts of

productivity, first in one field and
then in another. New paradigms and
theories are usually involved in these

bursts, but so is new instrumenta

Sigma Xi's Centennial gift to Cornell, an engraved memorial window, now hangs in the
University's Mann Library.

tion. For the past two or three decades biology has been
in an especially vigorous state of ferment and growth, in

which biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, cell

biology, and genetic manipulation have all participated.

Medicine and agriculture have especially benefited from
the new knowledge. There has evolved a new field of
applied science, biotechnology, in which the characteris
tics of living cells are manipulated in ways that lead to
more efficient plants, to biological alternatives to pesti
cides, and to production of important medicines. The
modified living cell becomes a central element in a new
kind of technology.
Barker, who spoke on "Biotechnology: Principles,
Promise, and Problems," undertook to explain the ele
ments of the new biology that have led to these applica
tions. The living cell can be thought of as a miniature
factory that can produce complex molecules, such as
proteins, from simple substances which it has ingested.
Proteins are central to life in many ways. Enzymes, the
essential catalysts for life, are one kind of protein, and
genes for the production of specific enzymes can be
inserted into the dna of appropriate hosts, which in turn
can synthesize the enzymes. This is only one element of
the burgeoning field of biotechnology.
The field is very young and the commercial success
es are still modest, but the eventual promise of biotech
nology is immense. However, along with the growth of
potential benefits from biotechnology have arisen fears

about the negative effects. A major concern is that

serious inadvertent harm may come from the new
products?some of them modified life forms?that may
be produced by biotechnology, and, it must be added,
by basic research itself. This apprehension was widely
felt in the scientific community during the early days of

studies on recombinant dna. A number of restrictions

were adopted to minimize possible difficulties, and some

of these concerns have diminished. However, genetic

manipulation remains a very powerful tool, as well as a

very new one. The history of the introduction into the

world of new synthetic chemicals and other modifica

tions of nature has demonstrated many cases in which
initial euphoria, whether scientific or commercial, has
been displaced over time by the recognition of serious
adverse effects. Caution in new introductions is clearly
indicated, as is very intensive analysis of possible delete
rious effects.
The title of Sheldon Glashow's talk, "From Alchemy
to Quarks," accurately identified his ambitious objective.
He promised to take the audience from the first under
standing of atoms to the latest theoretical proposal of

mathematical physicists. As an important prelude, he

warned of the serious drop in the quality of education in

science and mathematics in the United States, and

explained why we should all be concerned.

Glashow said that a simple and useful way of

thinking about the range of activities in the sciences is in

terms of the distances involved. One centimeter is an

Biotechnology is a very young field and

commercial successes are still few, but its
eventual promise is immense
appropriate starting point. A major portion of science
concerns the distances that range from about a million
times larger (the height of a mountain) to a million times

smaller (the dimensions of a single molecule), but two

scientific fields enormously expand this dimensional
range. Astronomers think large, up to dimensions of
10 cm; elementary particle physicists think small, down

to interaction distances of 10 cm. The stunning possi

bility that some scientists now take seriously is that, as

mathematical physicists develop a more complete theory

of elementary particles and as physicists and astrono

1986 September-October 511

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SIGMA XI

superstring theory appears to be a promising approach

toward this fundamentality.
In the evolution of our understanding of the forces
that determine the physical world, Glashow noted, the

seems again to be leading to chaos.

A serious problem for the field is that this immense
progress has created the need for increasingly energetic
collisions among particles in order to test the theories.
This has led in turn to the need for increasingly costly
machines for accelerating particles up to the very high
collision energies required. Currently under study is a
design for the largest machine yet proposed, the Super
conducting Super Collider, whose cost may be in the

order and on to structure by way of elementary particles,

from this remarkable interplay of theory and experiment

appears and another loop is needed. The first of these

discover the "final" theory of the elementary forces of

nature is itself a grand objective. Perhaps also to discover

mers obtain more insight into the origin of the universe,

these two areas of inquiry may combine into one.

Perhaps the grand unified theory, which is the goal of

theoretical physicists, will be the ultimate means of

bringing this about. A very new concept called the

search for elementarily has gone through a series of

"loops," in which scientists move from chaos through

only to find that at a more basic level chaos again

loops led from discovery and proliferation of the chemi

cal elements to MendeleyeVs periodic table, and eventu
ally to the Bohr theory for the atom. Chaos reentered

when the supposedly unique chemical elements were

found instead to be mixtures of isotopes, with the
isotopes of each element having almost identical chemi

cal properties but differing masses. The chaos then

broadened when radioactive isotopes were discovered.

At last, discovery of the elementary building blocks of

atoms?protons and neutrons in the nucleus, and orbit

ing electrons outside?restored order and elucidated the
atomic structures.

Next, chaos returned a third time with the discovery

of numerous other particles that could be formed by

highly energetic collisions of atoms or electrons. A new

category of particles was enunciated, the hadrons, and
the number of hadrons multiplied steadily. Order was

again obtained by a new theory and a new set of

fundamental particles, the quarks?along with the dis

covery of a new class of particle, the leptons, which now

billions of dollars if and when it is built.

However, the vision of what may ultimately come

is extraordinarily appealing as well as tantalizing. To

the relation of these forces to the origin of our universe is

an even grander prospect.

The final session of a celebration should always
represent a climax, and to Cornellians and many others
in the large audience, the Saturday evening session that

followed the banquet was a very happy climax. First, the

1986 Procter Prize for outstanding research was awarded
to Thomas Eisner, professor of neurobiology and behav
ior at Cornell. Eisner is one of the most admired mem

bers of Cornell's faculty, a superb teacher and a produc

tive research scientist, as this award recognizes. His

exceptional character shone through in his acceptance of

the award and in the talk that followed. This final

lecture, entitled "Natural History: Trivial Pursuit or
Science?" was simultaneously a lecture on science, a

segment of a scientist's autobiography, and a spectacular

slide show.

Eisner's field of study is insects. His central interests

are in their evolutionary adaptations and their ecological
relationships. He and his students go

where the insects are, be it upstate

New York or a desert in Arizona, and

they use photography to record be

havior.

The first topic of the lecture was

the birth of certain insects known as
assassin bugs (Apiomerus flaviventris)

from eggs laid on a plant in the

Arizona desert. Soon after birth, the

new insects start painfully to scrape a
sticky material from the outside sur

face of the eggshell and then to go

through several steps that end with

the application of this sticky material

("glue" was Eisner's name for it) to

their forelegs, where it will ultimately

be useful for the capture of prey. But
this is only the finish of the story.

Eisner found that there is in the

desert a particular composite plant,

the camphor weed, that for its own
defense secretes this glue from a se
ries of small stalks on its leaves. The
adult female assassin bug harvests
the glue from the camphor weed,
This computer-generated model of galaxy formation, which closely resembles the observed
characteristics of spiral galaxies, was one example Lewis Branscomb used to demonstrate that
in many fields the computer is now a collaborator rather than a device for handling data.

transferring it from the plant to her

abdomen. Then as she lays eggs they

become coated with the glue, which

512 American Scientist, Volume 74

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A CENTURY OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

serves to repel possible predators. All

these steps constitute an elaborate

and engaging illustration of evolu
tionary adaptation in response to

both defense and offense.

In the life-and-death interplay

between plants and insects, both

species evolve mechanisms by which

the plants can (sometimes) repel in
sects, or by which insects can (some
times) successfully attack and harvest

plants. Focusing on the problem

from the insect's point of view,

Eisner mentioned four strategies that

it can utilize. One is to avoid the

plant?that is, to forgo attacking it

altogether; in this case the plant is the

clear winner. A second response is

chemically to detoxify whatever re
pellent the plant produces. A third

strategy is to circumvent the defense

without deactivating it biochemical

ly, and a fourth is for the insect to use

for itself the same repellent weapons

that the plant devises, as is done by

the assassin bug. The point that

emerged from numerous examples

of these strategies at work was the
complex interplay between evolution
in plants for their defense and evolu

tion in insects to overcome the

plants' defenses. Similar interactions

occur between birds and ants or be
tween spiders and moths. The explic
itness of Eisner's slides and the com A highlight of Sheldon Glashow's talk was this illustration of the possible unity of science.

plexities of the interplay kept the

audience engrossed.

Eisner's final message was a

heartfelt plea for environmental pro

tection. He noted that plants have

been an immensely important source
of chemicals useful to humanity, pro

ducing scores of alkaloids, among

other products. He is especially con
cerned that environmental destruc
tion in many areas of the world is
causing the extinction of thousands
of plants, so that the opportunity to
examine them for utility or for scien
tific interest is now vanishing. Given
that there now exist roughly 250,000

species of plants in the world, of

which only 2% have been seriously
studied, how many of the 250,000
will probably be extinct before hu

manity gets around to studying

them? In the end Eisner fully per
suaded his audience that studies of

The assassin bug and the camphor weed, with their complex ecological interdependency,
were featured characters of Thomas Eisner's Procter Prize address. (Photo by Thomas Eisner.)

insect ecology are clearly science, and are also an extraor

dinarily satisfying pursuit.

How to summarize these absorbing and wide-rang

ing discussions? Clearly the promise of science remains

high, and important and intellectually exciting advances

continue to be made. The attentive Sigma Xi audience

was obviously pleased by this message, and perhaps
took additional pleasure in knowing that through its
journal and its support of research Sigma Xi is itself an
active participant, jig

1986 September-October 513

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