18 April 1975 S C I N.i!Volume 188, No. 4185

LETTERS Fvolution in High School Texts: M. H. Kennedy; Computer Conferencing:J. Vallee et al.; Aging and Cell Division: R. R. Kohn; Cost of Fuel:J. E. Sunderland; Peer Review: Distribution of Reviewers: E. W. Westheaid:Insect Control: P. W. Sherman and R. D. Alexander; C. Djerassi,C. Shih-Coleman, J. Diekman; Weather Modification: Possible Effects:C. J. Rohinove; P. C. Jessiup: Methanol-Gasoline Fuiels: R. K. Mullen; E. L. Wi>g

EDITORIAL Preventive Technology: A Cure for Scientific Ills: R. A4. Davis.................

ARTICLES Empirical Aztec Medicine: B. 0. de Mottell(nt.o..........................

Checkerspot Butterflies: A Historical Perspective: P. R. Ehrlich et al...........

Putting a Face Together: D. Premnack ................................

NEWS AND COMMENT

RESEARCH NEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

BOARDO OF DIRECTORSa ROGI

MATCHIMN ANDSECR-EARR OP TrurAAAS01t SECT:IONSRSQ t::;w

Rich* S F.. i,

Phil

DIVISIONS

S-Cha

Biomedical Leadership: Cooper and Fredrickson Ready to Step In...............

Health Education in California: The Grand Design in Trouble ...................

Rogers Morton: The "Good Soldier" Leaves Interior, a Troubled Agency.........

Suppressor T Cells: Role in ImmuLne Regulation .............................

Astronomers Steer Students Away ....................................

Tradition and Contract, reviewed by M. J. Swartz; The Human Mirror, R. D. Jones;Human Responses to Environmental Odors, D. Tucker; Reproductive Behavior,J. G. Vandenbergh; The Biochemical Mode of Action of Pesticides, R. D. O'Brien;Insect Neurobiology, G. A. Horridge: Foraminifera, M. A. Buzas; Books Received

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ER REVELLE :MARGARET MEA WIWAM D. MC ELROY RICH!ARD MH. BL EMILIO Q.DADDARICritng President, Chairman President PresidentiElect KENNETH SB. CARK EDWARD E. DAVID, Jf

rHEMATICS (A) PHYSICABt C'HEMISTRY ft:: ASTRfONOWMY (DI

ALASKA DIVISION "PACFIC DIVISION SOUNWIERRANRC MUNNTAIN Dll E. Davis irma Duna Georg A t Robert T0 Jo A hfe Mx P. DoriraExecutive Committee ExecutiveISecretry Presden Secetry-raurr Pesdn xeuieafie

SCIENCE is published wefky, except thelast week In Dmer but withb an extr issue on the fourt Tueday In November,, by the American Assocition for the Advancement i$Scne 1515 Massachustts Av. NW Washington, D.C. 20005. #40 aeml it Scientific lenhb6 Seond-class postges paid at Washington, D.C. Copyright . 1975 1the M erican Association for the Avcent of Science. Member rates en t. Annual subscription $40; foreign postage: Americas $6, oveseas $8, air lift to Europe $2'Sigl copies $1 (back issues $exet flulde to Scientifi Ins00t sich is s$4.School year subscription: 9 months $30;10 months $33.50. Prim fo subcriptions receiviafte I My 1975 will be $50; foreign pota8ge: Americas $7, overseas $8, ar lift to Europe $30. These pric are now in effect for renls of subscriptios exirin on or aft

-unde

REPORTS Interspecific Competition: A New Approach to the Classical Theory:J. H. Vandermeer .......................................... 253

Alaskan Thermokarst Terrain and Possible Martian Analog:L. W. Gatto and D. M. Anderson ................................255

Nitrogen Fixation in a Coral Reef Community: W. J. Wiebe,R. E. Johannes, K. L. Webb ...................................257

Thyroid Allograft Immunogenicity Is Reduced after a Period in Organ Culture:K. J. LaJferty et al.. .......................................... 259

Lactate Dehydrogenase X: Effects of Antibody on Mouse Gametes but Noton Early Development: R. P. Erickson et al .......................... 261

Arsenic Tolerance in a Population of the Grass Andropogon scoparius Michx.:S. E. Rocovich and D. A. West .................................263

Insulin Receptor: Role in the Resistance of Human Obesity to Insulin:J. M. Amatruda, J. N. Livingston, D. H. Lockwood ....................264

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of Rotational Mobility of Mouse HemoglobinLabeled with [2-13C]Histidine: R. E. London, C. T. Gregg,N. A. MatwiyoJ. ............................................266

Inhibition of Immune Responses in vitro by Specific Antiserums to TaAntigens: J. A. Frelinger, J. E. Niederhuber, D. C. Shreffler ................... 268

Synaptic Organization of the Amine-Containing Interplexiform Cells of theGoldfish and Cebus Monkey Retinas: J. E. Dowling and B. Ehinger ............... 270

Mechanism of Axonal Transport: A Proposed Role for Calcium Ions:R. Hamm3rschlag, A. R. Dravid, A. Y. Chiu .........................273

Development of Specific Sensory-Evoked Synaptic Networks in Fetal MouseCord-Brainstem Cultures: S. M. Crain and E. R. Peterson ...............275

Technical Comments: Big Horn Medicine Wheel: Why Was It Built?:J. E. Reyman; J. A. Eddy; Irrigation Increases Rainfall?: C. K. Stidd;W. B. Fowler and J. D. Helvey ..................................278

MEETINoS Biological Membrane Structure and Function: A. D. Keith, D. Deamor, J. K. Raison 282

0ANTIIIPOOY H

MEICL CINES(NARCII.UR ()INUSRILSCENE P COVERRo. r A trnPalEWagnr$4an,D ei

Goddess Tlazolteotl, the goddess ofSTAISTCS U)ATMSPHRI AN)*YRS0 EI EEA childbirth, midwives, and medicine.

Era eEeDrawing was taken from the CodexStenlexA. ifwm, ;; Borbonicus, a pre-Columbian Aztec

codex, Folio 13. See page 215. [GaryStroebel, University of Utah]

18 April 1975, Volume 188, Number 418

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FORTHE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

Science serves its readers as a forum for thepresentation and discussion of important issuesrelated to the advancement of science, includingthe presentation of minority or conflicting pointsof view, rather than by publishing only materialon which a consensus has been reached. Accord-ingly, all articles published in Science-includingeditorials, news and comment, and book reviews-are signed and reflect the individual views of theauthors and not official points of view adopted bythe AAAS or the institutions with which the authorsare affiliated.

Editorial Board1975

H. S. GUTOWSKYN. BRUCE HANNAYDONALD KENNEDYDANIEL E. KOSHLAND, JR.

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5 SCI:ENCE:

Preventive Technology: A Cure for Scientific Ills

Scientists want very much to spend more of their time on science andless on its defense. They are making it apparent that they want to talkmore and listen more to science at scientific meetings. At -the annualAAAS meeting in January 1975, sessions on specific scientific topicswere more popular than sessions devoted -to policies, effects, and otherthemes peripheral to traditional science.

At the same time, there is no lessening of concern over unanticipated,unwanted fallouts from scientific advances. The public has associatednuclear physics with the hydrogen bomb and damaging radiations fromnuclear power plants, computer science with an undesirable "data bank"society, and the development of synthetic plastics with environmentalpollution. The public is correctly concerned. But public and scientificintelligence both do poorly in deciding which is worse-the disease orthe cure, the problem or the solution.The generic problem is simple. Scientists should advance science. Tech-

nologists should continue to apply scientific advances to change theproducts, services, and processes that support society. All harmful effectsshould be prevented through combined public, governmental, and scien-tific agreement. And above all, scientific advances should not take thepublic by surprise.

The solution to the problem is not in successive cures to successivescience-caused problems; it is in their prevention. Unfortunately, curesfor scientific ills are generally more interesting to scientists than is theprevention of those ills. We have the unhappy history of the medicalcommunity to show us the difficulties associated with trying to establishpreventive medicine as a specialty.

Scientists probably had more fun developing scientific defenses againstnuclear weapons (that is, cures) than they would have had practicingpreventive nuclear science during the development of the atomic bomb.Computer scientists find it more attractive to develop technological safe-guards, after the fact, to prevent invasions of privacy associated withcomputer data banks than to develop good information practices alongwith the computer systems.

However, it now seems quite clear that public patience with the curealways following after the ill has worn thin. The public wants to seesome preventive measures taken. Indeed, individuals have taken whatcan be called preventive technology into their own hands. We have seenthe public in action in this way in its handling of the supersonic trans-port issue and its reaction toward siting of nuclear power plants. This isthe reactive mode of practicing preventive technology, and it hinges onpublic recognition that technology is fallible. But it is important in prac-ticing preventive technology to also recognize that science has been theprimary cause of beneficial change throughout man's history.

It is now time for the formalization of preventive technology as ascientific specialty. This new field must be populated with economists,lawyers, technologists, and scientists. It will be practiced during the entirecycle of research, innovation, application, diffusion, and impact of tech-nology. It will make possible both more science and more public peaceof mind and may already have more focus than technology assessmentor science policy. It is safe to predict that delays in setting up preventivetechnology as a scientific specialty bode ill both for science and forfuture beneficial changes for society.-RUTH M. DAVIS, Director, Institutefor Computer Sciences and Technology, National Bureau of Standards,U.S. Department of Coinmerce, Washington, D.C. 20234