Science/Technology

Guide discusses values, conduct of scientists How much confidence must a re­searcher have in the results of a particular experiment before pub­lishing a scientific paper? How much of a contribution should a researcher or a faculty adviser make to a project before being listed as a coauthor on the project's report? How can scientists avoid self-delu­sion in making scientific observa­tions? How should errors in scien­tific papers be corrected? What should a researcher do who sus­pects a colleague of scientific mis­conduct?

These are the types of questions faced daily by scientists. But the National Academy of Sciences be­lieves that many graduate students have little if any preparation for dealing with them. To provide these students with guidance, the govern­ing council of the academy has now published a booklet called "On Being a Scientist."

In its 22 pages—short enough to be read in a single sitting—the book­let doesn't take a rule-setting ap­proach but instead puts science in a cultural and historical context. "It's not a book of recipes about how

you go about doing things," says Francisco J. Ayala, Donald Bren Pro­fessor of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, and chairman of the NAS council com­mittee that prepared the booklet.

The booklet, NAS president Frank Press points out, is not a response to any feeling that the system is breaking down. Rather, he says, it reflects the success of the scientific enterprise. Traditionally, notes Press, young scientists have learned about the methods and values of scientif­ic research from personal contact with more experienced scientists. But the world of science is chang­ing, and the forces at work have led in many areas to a decline in the traditional mentor-apprentice rela­tionship. With the increase in large research teams, with the faster pace of research, and with the time-consuming competition for grants, Press notes, "informal transmission of values is not always enough."

NAS plans to distribute the new booklet initially to more than 120,000 graduate students, faculty members, professional associations, and oth­ers. Its aim is to stimulate discus­sion of the booklet's topics—perhaps in seminars based on the contents.

"Our hope," says Ayala, "is that this document will instill in future

scientists a sense of the importance and values of science, as well as the social responsibility that goes with it."

An underlying theme of the book­let is that science is a process that is "intensely human, a process marked by its full share of human virtues and limitations." Numerous histor­ical and more recent examples are presented that illustrate the full range of human fallibility in sci­ence such as unconscious errone­ous observations, lack of adequate controls, both appropriate and in­appropriate deletion of data, and outright fraud. But the booklet at the same time points out that even carefully conducted science doesn't necessarily produce accurate re­sults—experimental tools can intro­duce errors and, in addition, all sci­entific work involves some level of uncertainty. Throughout, the book­let offers practical advice to begin­ning researchers to help them en­sure that their work will be as accu­rate as possible, properly credited, and respected by their peers.

"On Being a Scientist" is avail­able for $5.00 (discounts for multi­ple copies) from National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20418.

James Krieger

This year's Antarctic ozone hole matches record depletion of October 1987

The National Aeronautics & Space Administration's total ozone mapping spectrometer aboard the Nimbus 7 satel­lite is again recording severe ozone depletion over Ant­arctica. The destruction to date is as bad as that in 1987, when on Oct. 5 the ozone concentration dropped to a record low of 109 Dobson units. (A "normal" October abundance would be around 300 Dobson units.) Antarctic ozone depletion cannot get significantly worse than in 1987, because that year virtually all of the ozone in the lower stratosphere was destroyed within the circular windstream known as the polar vortex. The spectrum of colors on this computer-generated map of the southern hemisphere represents the varying amounts of ozone recorded on Oct. 5, 1989. The South Pole is at the center of the polar projection and the rim of the map represents the equator. The lowest ozone concentration at the center is less than 125 Dobson units. Purple shades represent ozone concentrations of less than 200 Dobson units, whereas royal blue stands for about 250 Dobson units. The amount of ozone over Antarctica bottomed out on Oct. 7 and is now slowly increasing.

Pamela Zurer

24 October 30, 1989 C&EN