P. K. Whelpton (Scripps Founda- tion), with Arthur Campbell and Ron- ald Freedman, reported on a national probability sample of married white women, aged 18 to 39, in terms of their fecundity, sterility, use of contraceptives, and expected family size. The study was undertaken in part to provide needed understanding of the extent to which the higher postwar fertility in the United States reflects an increase in family size as opposed to a mere change in the tim- ing of marriages and births. The latter appears to be the more important; nev- ertheless, family size, as measured by completed fertility, may be rising by nearly one child over prewar levels. VINCENT H. WHITNEY, Program Chairman American Statistical Association (K5) During the morning session of the American Statistical Association there were 25 people present. The room had very adequate facilities-in fact, two chalkboards were made available for this session. The program was very stimulat- ing. P. E Irick presented the material on "A statistically designed highway ex- periment" in an excellent manner, and the audience participated actively. The paper was 1 hour in length; the formal discussion and the audience discussion took another hour and three quarters. The whole problem of highway experi- mentation by means of statistical designs and techniques should be of interest to every citizen when one considers the size of the highway projects in the United States. Just this relatively small project is costing over $15 million. The afternoon session, on "Applica- tion of a mathematical model in plastic tooling research," was poorly attended; this was disappointing because the In- diana Chapter of the ASA, as well as the ASQC, had indicated an interest in this subject. I suspect that the schedul- ing of sessions on a Saturday afternoon is not conducive to attendance, especially if people are not paid by their companies to attend sessions during this time. This conclusion is a bit disturbing but, I be- lieve, realistic. Anyway, the session was modified a bit because only professional people were present and the paper had been written primarily for engineers, who could apply the statistical techniques to their problems. VIRGIL L. ANDERSON, Program Chairman History and Philosophy of Science (Section L) In 1957 Section L was greatly handi- capped by the illness of its secretary, Jane Oppenheimer, who broke her hip. 21 FEBRUARY 1958 send for the most widely used ELECTRONIC SUPPLY GUIDE ALLIED'S 404-PAGE 1o0s_ CATALOG World's Largest Stocks of Electronic Supplies for Science & Industry Order from the ALLIED Catalog for fast shipment from the world's largest stocks of electron tubes (all types), transistors, test and lab instruments, Hi-Fi audio equipment, electronic parts and specialized industrial electronic equipment. See our own exclusive KNIGHT-KITS, quality electronic equipment in money-saving kit form. Send today for your FREE 1958 ALLIED Electronic Supply Catalog. our 37th your ALLIED RADIO, Dept. 53-E8S 100 N. Western Ave., Chicago 80, III. 0 Send FREE 1958 ALLIED Catalog Name Addresste City Zone.....State___ H m - ---- --- - 419 Optical Crystals CELL WINDOWS LENS ELEMENTS PRISMS Cell Windows available for all commercial infrared spectrometers Write for Technical Bulletin 157A Scintillation Crystals NaI(Tl), KI(T1), LiI(Eu), 6LiI (Eu), CsI (T1), Anthracene, Stilbene, Plastic scintillators. Available unmounted or mounted and hermetically sealed. Write for Technical Bulletin 257A ISOMET CORPORATION P.O. Box 34 Palisades Park, N.J. - 1 o n A p ril 5 , 2 0 2 1 h ttp ://scie n ce .scie n ce m a g .o rg / D o w n lo a d e d fro m http://science.sciencemag.org/ NALGENE Automatic Pipet Washing New classic design lends greater stability and efficiency. Pipets are flushed clean thoroughly and rapidly. Complete syphon cycle of fresh water surges through pipets every minute, washing away all clinging particles. Pipet Basket A Nalgene screen recessed 3%" into the case allows complete drainage. Metal carrying handle is sealed in POLYETHYLENE. Four sizes available to fit corre- sponding jars. Pipet Jars Excellent for washing and soaking pipets and other glassware. Breakage is sharply reduced by resilien- cy of NALGENE POLYETHYLENE. Ask your dealer for catalog F-957 World's largest producer of Plastic Laboratory Ware! 420 However, good friends of the section in the AAAS headquarters and in other sections lent suppport, and at the annual meeting Section L held two sessions on Sunday, cosponsored by Section Np (Pharmacy) and the Philosophy of Sci- ence Association, and one session on Monday, cosponsored by the Philosophy of Science Association. The Sunday morning symposium, "Can Science Provide an Ethical Code?", presided over by Hermann J. Muller, was exceptionally well attended. Because Henry Margenau was ill, his paper was read by Lewis K. Zerby. The answer to the symposium question is "yes," as was ably argued by the speak- ers, who included Chauncey D. Leake and Richard Rudner. The prepared papers were followed by general discus- sion. Each of the three very different pa- pers of Sunday afternoon-on Albertus Magnus' scientific method by Father William H. Kane, on pharmaceutical manufacturing by K. K. Chen, and on the thermometric scale by D. J. Lovell- was followed by questions which served to bring further elucidation from the speakers. Norwood Russell Hanson pre- sided. On Monday morning, a view of man- machine systems, presented by George 0. Wright, was followed by a survey by Dorrit Hoffleit of astronomy's develop- ment in the 20th century and by a talk by Karel Hujer describing the emphasis on dialectical materialism in the treat- ment of the physical sciences behind the iron curtain. I. Bernard Cohen's vice- presidential addtess on "The history of science and the problems of understand- ing the science of today" concluded the series of papers. C. Doris Hellman pre- sided. At a business meeting immediately following the papers, regret at Jane Oppenheimer's illness was expressed, and the names of the new section chair- man, Carl B. Boyer, and the new com- mittee-member-at-large, Adolf Grin- baum, were announced. It was reported that a national committee for the history and philosophy of science was being formed under the auspices of the Na- tional Academy of Sciences-National Research Council and that this commit- tee would become the adhering body for the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science. C. DoRis HELLMAN, Acting Secretary General Systems Research (L2) Two of the contributions to the sym- posium, "Organization for Humans, Cells, and Artifacts," were basically mathematical. A paper by C. Foster, A. Rapoport, and E. Trucco (presented by A. Rapoport) was concerned with the conditions under which Prigogine's the- orem of minimum entropy production could be applied to nonisolated systems of known internal structure. It was shown that, if a minimum exists, certain con- straints upon the topological arrange- ment of the feedback loops are implied. M. Kochen presented a procedure for treating an organized system with dis- crete, synchronized information transfer between its parts, formalizing certain aspects of cooperative group behavior so that it is possible to describe how sub- units can be selected and interconnected so as to produce a system with specified behavior. K. E. Boulding took up the implica- tions of such efforts in his presidential address. He suggested that four levels of systematic knowledge could already be discerned, including (i) purely empiri- cal systems based upon constant inter- action; (ii) maps, and blueprints, and plans; (iii) systems used for the design of artifacts; and (iv) theoretical models which explain and predict the "inner workings" of the other systems. General systems research aims at a fifth level- systems of theoretical systems. As these are found, it is expected that marked economies would result in work directed at the first four levels. This should have important consequences in the conduct of the affairs of national states. As long as the possessors of scarce knowledge were restricted to physical and -biological systems, the skills for operating the state could be purely em- pirical (for example, politics, business, and law) and scientists would perform as specialized experts. But with progress in operations research, administrative science, and other general systems ap- proaches, a conflict may be foreseen be- tween the "folk" culture and the scien- tific subculture embedded in it. How do "the people" control the spe- cialists? Democratic theory is based upon the assumption that the kind of knowl- edge required for government is not scarce or difficult. Are we doomed to an- other Middle Ages, with Science as the Church and the Military as the King? A growing self-consciousness of science itself as a social system may offer means for resolving such conflicts and prevent- ing such eventualities. RICHARD L. MEIER, Secretary-Treasurer Medical Sciences (Section N) This program was the first symposium on the human integument that had been arranged before an AAAS meeting. The title was "The Human Integument- Normal and Abnormal." The program was organized as a symposium with four half-day sessions, jointly with the AMA SCIENCE, VOL. 127 RINSER for pipets up to 16' long Size D $28.50 1240 for pipets up to 24' long Size E 34.50 for pipets up to 33U long Size F 38.50 BASKET for pipets up to 16' long Size D 16.50 1241 for pipets up to 24' long Size E 22.50 for pipets up to 33 long Size F 26.50 JARS for pipets up to 16' long Size D 13.50 1242 for pipets up to 24' long Size E 17.50 for pipets up to 33 long Size F 20.50 1 o n A p ril 5 , 2 0 2 1 h ttp ://scie n ce .scie n ce m a g .o rg / D o w n lo a d e d fro m http://science.sciencemag.org/ History and Philosophy of Science (Section L) C. DORIS HELLMAN DOI: 10.1126/science.127.3295.419-a (3295), 419-420.127Science ARTICLE TOOLS http://science.sciencemag.org/content/127/3295/419.2.citation PERMISSIONS http://www.sciencemag.org/help/reprints-and-permissions Terms of ServiceUse of this article is subject to the trademark of AAAS. is a registeredScienceAdvancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005. The title (print ISSN 0036-8075; online ISSN 1095-9203) is published by the American Association for theScience of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Copyright © 1958 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement o n A p ril 5 , 2 0 2 1 h ttp ://scie n ce .scie n ce m a g .o rg / D o w n lo a d e d fro m http://science.sciencemag.org/content/127/3295/419.2.citation http://www.sciencemag.org/help/reprints-and-permissions http://www.sciencemag.org/about/terms-service http://science.sciencemag.org/