world

February 1968 (21st year) U. K. : 2/-stg - Canada: 40 cents - France: 1.20 F

SCIENCE AS CULTURE

(H MP

TREASURES

OF

WORLD ART ©

Photo © Rapho-Louis Frédéric

Celestial musician

This flute-playing bronze "Bodhisattva", or future Buddha, was sculpturedin the eighth century A.D. on the face of a votive lantern which standsin the avenue leading to the great Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan. Theancient city of Nara, 220 miles southwest of Tokyo was an outstandingcentre of Japanese art. The period of 80 years from when the capital ofJapan was established in Nara in 710 A.D. until its transfer to Kyoto in794, is known as the Golden Age of Japanese sculpture.

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SCIENCE AND THE CULTURE OF OUR TIMES

By Laurence M. Gould

LILACS IN THE COSMOS...

By Lev Kassil

SCIENCE AND FUNDAMENTAL

CONCEPTS OF THINKING

By Paul Couderc

UNESCO CREATES MATHEMATICAL MODEL

TO HARNESS THE MEKONG

By W.J. Ellis

THE NEW MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

Communication satellites

By Wilbur Schramm

THE WORLD WE HOPE FOR

A prize-winning essay from Uruguay

By Maria Cristina Costa Diaz

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

FROM THE UNESCO NEWSROOM

TREASURES OF WORLD ART

Celestial musician (Japan)

Photo CSF - Georges Bru

Cover photo

Formerly, science and culture wereindistinguishable. Today they appear tobe regaining their basic unity. Both areengaged in a pursuit of wisdom thattranscends the gap, even the feud, thathas developed between them (see arti¬cles pp. 4 and 11). Photo shows tinycondensers a basic tool of modern

science that until recently were usedin the manufacture of all electronic appa¬ratus. With increasing miniaturizationthey are being superseded by muchsmaller components.

SCIENCE

AND THE CULTURE

OF OUR TIMESby Laurence Af. Could

W,HILE modern society

seems confident that science and

technology can take care of all humanneeds, I still think not enough peopleappreciate the magnitude and the vio¬lence of the scientific technologicalrevolution in which we are involved.

Today, there is no other influencecomparable with science in changingthe foundations, indeed, the verycharacter of our lives.

Science and its products determineour economy, dominate our industry,affect our health and welfare, alterour relations to all other nations, anddetermine the conditions of war and

peace. Everyone who breathes isaffected, and cannot remain imper¬vious to them.

Our very existence is so completelydependent upon science and techno¬logy that it would be impossible tomaterially alter our present methods.We have no option. We can't stifleman's curiosity. It is only from theknowledge that we gain by askingquestions, no matter how terrible, howdreadful they are; it is only by thesequestions that man achieves finaldignity.

When I was president of the Ameri¬can Association for the Advancement

of Science, I attended the BritishAssociation meetings. I was dumb¬founded and delighted to hearJ.C, Dancy, the great classical scholar,headmaster of Marlborough College,argue "technology and a liberal edu¬cation, far from being antithetical, arenot even complementary; some expe-

4

LAURENCE M. GOULD is former presidentof the American Association far the

Advancement of Science. He is nowchairman of the Committee on Polar Re¬

search, U.S. Academy of Sciences, andhas taken part in several expeditions tothe Arctic and Antarctic. He has written

extensive/y on Antarctica, the InternationalGeophysical Year and international science.Readers will recall his article, "Antarctica,International Land of Science" whichappeared in the January 1962 issue of the"Unesco Courier".

rience in technology is an essentialingredient in a liberal education."

The Greeks did not scorn techno¬

logy. Classical Greek civilization wascharacterized by a unity between art,science, and technology; a unity whichis the hallmark of all great civiliza¬tions; a unity which disappeared thenuntil Leonardo da Vinci. A historian

of science might say that the schismwe now know began then, and yetphilosophy and science were indis¬tinguishable until almost the end of the18th century. You can date withexactness when the split came: whenphilosopher Immanuel Kant said thatscience dealt only with the world ofappearance, and philosophy with theworld of reality. Nonsensel

Nevertheless, a dangerous gap hasdeveloped. It was greatly overstatedby C.P. Snow. I do not subscribe tothe idea of two cultures. The gapexists, but the feud between scienceand the humanities is without substan¬

ce. It is time it be ended. We must

have humanists who comprehend andinclude scientific and technologicalknowledge in their dreams of theworld, else we shall have no worldat all. We must recover the Renais¬

sance. The pursuit of wisdom mustat long last be a single enterprise,or liberal education has no meaning.

I studied geology, therefore, I'm ascientist and not a humanist? Some¬

body studies philosophy or art and,therefore, is a humanist? Nonsense!

It isn't true at all. To major in philo¬sophy does not make you a humanist.Don't you remember the greatest ofall teachers once said, "Not all whocry Lord, Lord, shall enter the King¬dom of Heaven"? A chemist with

an omnivorous intellectual appetitemay be a greater humanist than aphilosopher whose interest is confin¬ed to existentialism.

Part of the problem is semantics.Certain words lose their meaning.I think humanism has. It implies thatall else may be something less thanhuman. I was delighted when JosephWood Krutch wrote in a "SaturdayReview" article, "the trouble is that

Text copyright © Reproduction prohibited

"humanities', narrowly interpreted,ceases to mean much more than the

polite accomplishment analogous tothe needlework and flower paintingwhich (adíes were once supposed todabble in, primarily to demonstratethat they were ladies rather thansomething economically and sociallyinferior."

Let me state a little more seriously:a great disservice has been done tothe truly humanistic tradition by tryingto identify it too closely with particularfields of study. Many supposedconflicts rise from a gross misunder¬standing of what science is all about.

Science is not a form of black magic.A thousand blind alleys must often beexplored before a right road is found;a thousand amateurs must have their

fling before a Darwin or an Einsteincomes along.

Whenever you hear a scientist say,"This is the end of it; this is all of it",that man is no longer a scientist.There is no quest for truth in scientificresearch which does not carry withinitself the possibility, even the proba¬bility, of error. We respect the find¬ings of science because they arealways open to re-examination and toquestion. Scientific truth is dynamicand self-correcting and never final.

When someone asked Einstein how

he discovered the theory of relativity,he replied, "By challenging an axiom."There never was a great scientist who

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Though science has long been changingthe very nature of human life,surprisingly little place is givento the great discoveries of sciencein many history books. Certain do noteven mention such famous names

as Galileo, Kepler, Descartesand Newton. Photo recalls one of Galileo'sstudies on the laws of bodies in motion

his demonstration that bodies of

different weights fall with equalvelocities, said to have been carried

out in 1589 from the Leaning Towerof Pisa (in background).

I>

^^iiBi , a

I

I

» l>

»*

j s f t ' e

i

-' -Photo © Erich Lessing - Maqnum

SCIENCE AS CULTURE (Continued)

Why not an epic poem on Relativity or DNA?

did not make bold guesses, and neverone whose guesses were always right.The scientist looks for order. Hebelieves in a real world and hebelieves that science is a means ofteaching the truths about that world.But still, he's got to make guesses.He must invent concepts to make theworld intelligible.

So the scientific world never reflects

completely the real world, but onlyselected characteristics organized onaccepted assumptions.

The best definition of science is

one by George Boas: "Science isthe art of understanding nature."There is no better definition.

It is oversimplification to talk about"the scientific method." There isn'tone. There are a thousand, all rationalmethods. But human rationality isthe most important realm in whichman can fruitfully live.

To me, pure science has been, alongwith religion and art, one of man'sgreat avenues in his quest for truth.As Jacob Bronowski points out, "1believe the concepts of value in thehumanities are not as different in kind

from those of sciences as many wouldhave us believe. Both seek to expressthe deep relations between the humanmind and the world it matches."

Coleridge, trying to define beauty,always returned to: "Beauty is unityand variety." Well, reverse it scienceis the search to discover unity in thewild variety of nature.

Both the scientist and the poet seekto explore and to understand. It isonly the form of exploration whichis different. You cannot enter anyworld of meaning without makingpostulates. In religion we call themfaith; in ethics we call them normsor ideals; in science we call them

hypotheses or theories; the choice ofthese hypotheses or theories orassumptions is always a matter offaith.

There is a fallacious idea that

science is objective while the human¬istic studies are subjective. This iscomplete nonsense. Science is alwaysthe record of someone's personalexperience. There is no kind ofexperience that can be impersonal.No one can have the same experien¬ces I have had; the best he can do ishave the same kind, and in no casehas science reduced the personal

6

Building has always drawn ontechnological innovations, andarchitecture is as much a science

as an art. From the use of concrete,

steel and glass have come new conceptsof building design and construction.Right, a building in Chandigharh,capital of Panjab (India), built to theplans of Le Corbusier.

equation to zero. Science is subjectivewithin man's nature in the same sense

that the other humanistic studies are.

If what I say is true, why has notscience played a larger role in liberaleducation? And though science is soall-pervasive, why have scientists notbecome a part of the ordinary citizen'sexperience of knowledge. More stran¬gely, poets and playwrights have notdrawn heavily upon science and tech¬nology. Twentieth century art andletters do not have great expressionsconcerning the industrial revolutionand its science and technology.

Shelly, in his defence of poetry,

said that one of the tasks of the

literary artist is to "Absorb the know¬ledge of the sciences and assimilateit to human needs; colour it withhuman passions, transform it with theblood and bone of human nature." In

other words, literature ought to concernitself with the whole of life, includingscience.

Dante and Milton especially amongRenaissance writers were inspired byastronomy and dealt with it in theirown sublime language. When Miltonwas fascinated by the new opticalinstruments of Galileo, and when hewas portraying his Satan tempting

Tr rnn r11inr i r

In the 5th century B.C., Pythagorus, the greatphilosopher and mathematician, demonstratedthe interrelation of music and mathematics,

that music was "the numeral thing parexcellence", as the French musicologist Louis Laloyhas put it, and that musical intervals are determinedby whole numbers. Pythagorus showedthat from a string and the note it produces,all the notes of the scale may be obtained bylengthening the string according to given ratios.In ancient times the Chinese too perceivedthe correlation of music with mathematics.

Right, illustrations from a famous work,"The Theory of Music" (1480), by the Italiancomposer Franchino Gafori, show Pythagorusdemonstrating the mathematical essence of musicwith the aid of a series of strings (on left) andwith tubes of different lengths filled with air.

From "Enciclopedia délie grandi scoperte et dell'era atómica," Tomaselll, Rome

Christ, he displays to Him the Kingdomof this world not in antique fashionthrough the naked eye, but by "opticskill of vision multiplied by air or glassof telescope."

In "Paradise Lost", Milton wroteabout Antarctica: "Beyond this flooda frozen continent lies dark and wild,

beat with perpetual storms, of whirl¬winds and dire hail, which on firm landthaws not but gathers heap, and ruinseems of ancient pile; all else deepsnow and ice." No one is writinglike that about Antarctica today. Yetscience has given some of the greatestepic themes in the history of man¬kind the nuclear atom, the chromo¬somes, and DNA, more beautiful thananything man has contrived.

Oh, I wish Milton could have orbitedthe earth with John Glenn or Gordon

Cooper! It should have been.

The general theory of relativity bywhich Einstein renounced absolute

space and time gave us a picture ofunity and harmony surpassing anythat man had ever dreamed before.

It's probably the finest intellectualachievement of our times, and yet theonly poem that I've ever been able tofind about relativity is this:

There was a young lady[named Bright

Who learned to move faster

[than lightShe set out one day m a

[relative wayAnd came back on the pre¬

vious night.

That isn't enoughl

We need more scientists who are

literate and articulate, but we needmore imaginative literature to interpretour mechanized existence into noble

language to reach and inspire us. InShelley's words "which will trans¬form it with the blood and bone ofhuman nature."

How shall we do that? In medieval

universities, philosophy gave unity tothe whole. We still have that notion

preserved in the fossilized expression,Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy. You know

very well one can have his degree ineconomics, animal husbandry, or evengeology without ever having beenexposed to philosophy. There is nounifying study in our culture today.

But let me suggest that history,broadly conceived, could provide thecultural bridge to bring the disciplinesof our academic world into order.

This idea was said more eloquently byWilliam James: "You can give human¬istic value to almost anything by teach¬ing it historically geology, economics,mechanics are humanities when taughtwith reference to the achievements of

the geniuses to which these sciencesowe their being. Not taught thus,literature remains grammar; art a cata¬logue; history a list of dates; andnatural science a sheet of formulas,

weights and measures. The sifting ofhuman creations is what we ought tomean by the humanities."

What James is saying is that thehumanistic content of any subject liesin its history. Well, history is built-inthe humanities. You can't teach art

or letters without teaching its history.But science can be taught; it is toooften taught, as formulas, weights andmeasures. Yet science is the productof historical development. It is theone truly cumulative aspect of man'shistory. Science makes history, butis largely neglected by historians.

Bacon conceived of the history ofall learning and Bacon insisted thatsuch history would include the scien¬ces and the humanities.

In the 1800s, a young Germanscientist, Liebig, detected phosphateand potash in the ashes of burnedplants and found ammonia in thevapours. He tried all three in abarren plot of ground. Shortly Darm¬stadt became a cradle of agriculturalchemistry. Artificial fertilizers werecreated which doubled the food capa¬city of Europe almost overnight. Ihave never found any reference toLiebig in any historical document.

Well, I picked up a text used atCarleton College called "EuropeanHistory, Renaissance to Waterloo,"

752 pages. Science was mentioned ononly 33 pages. Even worse, Toynbee's600-page "Outline of History" did notmention Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo,Descartes, or Newton. What kind ofa history of the world is it that leavesout Newton, the greatest investigatorof all times?

The historians will think I am pick¬ing on them, and yet I'm not. In someways we scientists are worse offen¬ders. Unfortunately for the humanaspects of science the study of thepast isn't necessary. You can becomea first rate research man in physicsand chemistry without knowing thehistory that produced both. So therich humanistic heritage of science isalmost as badly neglected by scientistsas by others.

We as scientists and technologistsare so surfeited with information, sobogged down with the immediate jobthat we have neither the time nor the

patience to inquire into the meaningof what we are doing. T.S. Eliotsummed it up, "Where is the wisdomwe have lost in knowledge, where isthe knowledge we have lost in inform¬ation?"

Yet you can take any product ofscience and technology, trace it to itsultimate origin, and you would see theend result of a long and continuingtradition embodying parts of man'sunending record of failures, stupidities,and genius.

Lynn White, remarkable medievalhistorian, said "To be as concrete aspossible, we shall not have built a newhberal education in democratic terms

until we can give in our colleges acourse on the internal combustion

engine as humanly conceived as thecourse on Shakespeare's plays. Bothare supreme expressions of the mindand should be studied as such." I

agree.

But, dedicated as I am, I couldn't

hold that an internal combustion engine _is comparable with the works of 7Shakespeare. Nothing that man has 'ever done, no split atom, nor anyother achievement is comparable with

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

SCIENCE AS CULTURE (Continued)

The germs of science as old as man

8

his words and phrases. Here is man'screativity at its greatest.

In the 1920s, on a 2,000-mile sledgejourney in Antarctica, five companionsand I mapped mountains and glaciersno one had ever seen. I wrote in my

journal: "No work of art of whichI have stood in awe, no symphonyI have ever heard, ever gave me thethrill that came when I picked up apiece of rock and found it was thesandstone I had come all the way toAntarctica to find." This was true.

It was one of the great spiritual experi¬ences of my life.

But, if I had to change that experi¬ence for the satisfactions of havingread and reread Hamlet, which is

surely one of the half dozen wondersof the world, I would have to chooseHamlet; but, I don't have to choose.Neither do you. Both are part of alarger whole.

In old Europe, scholarship developedunder an all-covering canopy of truthfrom the church, and force from theclassics. Both are largely gone. TheHebrew-Christian tradition has become

so tenuous that many theologicalschools say God is dead, and refer toour times as the post-Christian era.Twenty-four centuries of Hellenicdomination are gone. Now there isno generally accepted view on funda¬ments as in the Renaissance. We are

adrift without an anchor in a world of

shaken beliefs.

That remarkable classical scholar,

the late Sir Richard Livingstone, said:"We are a generation without eitherillusions or a positive faith, kept fromcollapse by dead convictions whichstill influence the conduct but are no

longer anchored in our beliefs."

My thesis is a simple one: we'vegot to find some stronger unifyingelement in our intellectual life than

any now apparent. Science, viewed'historically, is the great untappedreservoir of humanism which can helpfill the void caused by the decay ofthe classical humanism.

We have studied Aristotle as a

great philosopher and metaphysician.Do we realize he was one of the greatfigures of science? Are we taughthe was considered the greatest natu¬ralist, the father of biology, the manwho opened inquiry into physiology,embryology, comparative anatomy, andecology? Darwin didn't know this,Darwin was fairly old before he heardof Aristotle. Then, he wrote: "I hadnot the remotest notion what a won¬

derful man Aristotle was."

My comment on the lost unity ofhumanist education is an expressionof profound regret. All the greatcultures China, Athens, India wereheld together by ideas based uponspiritual unity, and of all the thingsthat are part of our lives, science andtechnology are the most pervasive.

They diffuse more rapidly than anyother. Literature and art remain pro¬vincial. But not science and techno¬

logy. Their product is immediatelyunderstandable to all peoples. Scien¬tific workers have a sense of world

citizenship. Discoveries have signi¬ficance only when communicated toother scientists. Scientific knowledgeis a living, growing thing. Scientificknowledge must be used; it doesn'tkeep any better than fish.

The universal status of science, its

proudest claim, is also its greatestopportunity. In an age characterizedby perfection of means and confusionof ideals, the disciplines of sciencewhich admit no frontiers of race or

creed, provide a basis for effectiveinternational co-operation. Science haslong since made the world one com¬munity; a statement that cannot bemade about any of the other avenuesthat man has followed in his quest foran orderly world. Today the contend¬ing forces which make the strongestappeal are the national and theracialist movements which deny thisprinciple of science.

Science came into being and hasevolved because man is curious; he's

relatively intelligent; to become intel¬lectually enlightened he had to havea desire to better understand his world,and in the broadest sense, science

was the first common enterprise ofmankind.

My fellow scientists know thatit takes two or three thousands of

millions of years to account for me.I have a documentary body, I am amuseum of all life, I am a part of allthat has preceded me; and science,like biology, like life itself, has grownnot by revolution, but by evolution.The germs of science are as old asman.

When we use the word "science"

now, we think of only four centuries.Yet it began when man got up off hisfront feet and began using stones for

tools. Progress was infinitely slow,and then came the discoveries of the

Egyptians, Sumerians, and Babylo¬nians; and upon these the Greeksbuilt their own system of knowledge.The historian who follows a singlepeople finds them dust and forgotten,but their science lives on.

Science and technology have wovenunity into our society and we couldnot escape if we would. Here are twoexamples: the International Geophy¬sical year began July 1, 1957, andended theoretically, December 31,1958. It was the greatest peacetimeactivity in mankind's history, withnearly 70 nations, 40,000 scientists in4,000 stations from pole to poleobserving planet earth. There was analmost magical quality about it. Inter¬national barriers were lowered and

closed doors opened. There wassimplicity, flexibility, freedom frompolitical consideration. At its peak,the whole secretariat consisted of

only eight people.

It was carried out in a period ofworldwide unrest, and yet, we dem¬onstrated that it is possible to engagein rational and reasonable conduct at

the scientific level, and that inter¬national scientific co-operation is thebest model for worldwide organization.

And out of our I.G.Y. co-operativeeffort in Antarctica, the coldest con¬tinent, came the first thaw in the coldwar. For from 12 nations there came

the Antarctic treaty. Hear thesewords: "Recognizing that it is in theinterest of all mankind that Antarcticashall continue forever to be used

exclusively for peaceful purposes andshall not become the scene or objectof international discord."

I believe the Antarctic treaty is abreakthrough of international impor¬tance. It may take its place alongsidethe Magna Carta because for the firsttime a large part of the world isdedicated, for the first time, to peace¬ful purposes. It is a treaty which

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

Photos © Frank J Malina. Paris

Art and science are combined in the work of Frank J. Malina, who is himself both an

artist and a scientist. He has made an original contribution to art with his kinetic paintings,using electric light and real movement. Unesco recently acquired the work, left, "Laddersto the skies III", which now hangs in the reception room of the Director-General. Above,"Planetscape I", impression of extra-terrestial landscape (Will Feijer Collection, Chicago).

9

SCIENCE AS CULTURE (Continued)

prohibits nuclear explosions; a treatywhich provides freedom of scientificinvestigation, a treaty which is a prece¬dent in the field of disarmament, his¬

tory's first test-ban treaty. It is itsfirst disarmament treaty. It is the firsttreaty designed to protect a scientificprogramme and then, by some kind ofmagic, the programme is implementedby the Scientific Committee which isnot a government body at all. Thatmay be one of the reasons it works.

As a result of Antarctica's isolation,

it's the one continent that has neverbeen the home of man, and the floraand fauna of Antarctica represent theonly sizable assemblage of organismsanywhere almost uncontaminated byman. Neither by accident nor bydesign has man introduced new plantsand animals into Antarctica. Perhapsone tiny part of our earth will remainas it was before man started spoil¬ing it.

When I retired as president ofCarleton College in 1962, the studentbody gave my wife and me two roundtrip tickets to Athens. I had over theyears spoken so often of my fascin¬ation of classic Greece, that we did

go to Athens and when we arrived,for some reason, I had a great reluc¬tance to go and see what I had alwayswanted to see.

In the earliest things that I everread, I became fascinated with twopeople one was Abraham Lincolnand the other one was Socrates. I had

read so much about the Acropolis, somuch about the Parthenon that I was

afraid to go see them.

Well, a remarkable Greek, Constan¬tinos Doxiadis a remarkable man

who is doing things about pollutionand many other problems arrangedfor us to go up the Acropolis. We did,and as I stood in the midst of the

columns of the Parthenon looking outover this beautiful city, it was one ofthe most thrilling experiences of mylife, and I realized this was indeedone of the noblest experiences of thehuman spirit.

The next day when I had lunch withDoxiadis and said of the Acropolis,"This is the greatest and noblestexpression of the human spirit I haveever seen", Dr. Doxiadis said, "Yes,but remember this. For its time, itwas also one of the world's greatestengineering feats."

You see, the technology and the artthat produced the Parthenon are partsof a larger whole.

Now, I want to quote from anotherphilosopher, a friend of mine. He hasbeen buried for more than 20 centu¬

ries, but he's more alive than two-

thirds of us. His name is Plato, andhe once said this: "What I'm sayingmay not be true, but something verylike it is."

10Text published by and copyright, World

Book Encyclopedia Science Service, Inc ,Houston, Texas, U.S.A.

LI LACS

IN

THE COSMOS...

Ei VERY day mankind is gain-

in new knowledge. I am thinking firstof the tremendous accumulation of

new scientific data and the Increasingflood of information available to and

enriching modern society. Knowledgeand achievement in all branches of

science have developed to such anextent and become so highly specializ¬ed that no one nowadays can hope tobecome an Encyclopaedist like DiderotMontesquieu or Lomonossov. The ageof the Encyclopaedists is long past.And as one of our great Russianscientists Timinazev, if I am not mis¬

taken has so rightly said, in our daya really cultured man is one who knowseverything about a limited field anda little about everything.

Be that as it may, the power ofworld science has increased tenfold,

penetrating alike into the infinitelygreat and the infinitely small, probingthe depths of the universe, the atomicnucleus and the living cell. And asthe quality of human knowledge hasrisen, so it has increased in volume,if we consider the distribution of know¬

ledge among the inhabitants of ourplanet. Yes, undoubtedly mankind asa whole is growing more learned, morecultured, more civilized.

But can we say that man is the hap¬pier for it? Does knowledge alonemake him more sensitive to the joys

of living?

We know that if we are to be ableto draw freely from all the springsthat nourish human feelings, a know-

fry Lev Kassil

LEV ABRAMOVITCH KASSIL the Soviet

writer and ¡ournahst has a scientific back¬ground (physics and mathematics). Hismany articles and books for young peopleare famous in the U.S.S.R.

ledge of physical laws alone is notenough. We must also be able tosee the world in affective terms.

And here man cannot do without the

arts. Victor Hugo said very rightly:"L'art c'est moi, la science c'est nous."(I am art, all of us are science.) Ob¬viously he did not intend by thisaphorism to lay stress on the specificindividualism of art as opposed to thecollective universality and levellingeffect of science.

No doubt he meant that science is

based on objective laws formulatedafter analysis, experiment and research.Once these laws have been demons¬

trated, confirmed and not contradictedby some new hypothesis or discovery,they are adopted in an identical man¬ner by everyone.

A work of art, on the other hand,however perfect it may be and how¬ever universal its appeal, permits of acertain variety of assessments. More¬over, generalities apart, the artist'screation always expresses somethingof his own personal nature, reflectinghis aspirations, tastes, sympathies andoutlook.

I N any case, these are nogrounds for antagonism betweenscience and art. Nevertheless, from

time to time there are signs of arecrudescence of the sort of debate

carried on recently in the Sovietpress. "Physicist or Poet?" was thetitle of this discussion quite injus-tified in my view which stirred upyoung intellectuals all over the SovietUnion where visitors on their first

trip are often astonished by the tre¬mendous popularity of art and poetry.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

11

LILACS IN THE COSMOS... (Continued)

Supersociety' and the yearning

for beauty

12

It has been argued naively and evensomewhat crudely that today scienceand technology give prestige to anation, the two enabling us to unravelmany of the mysteries of the invisibleworld and to carry man far out intospace.

As for the arts, it has been maintain¬ed that nowadays the human spirithas little chance of expressing itself ;and the advocates of science first

and last have mockingly exclaimed:"Johann Sebastian Bachl... Alexanaer

Blok! . . . Who needs them today?"

I should like to say that this sporadicepisode met with little success exceptperhaps in a few schools where certainstudents ill-prepared for their literat¬ure classes tried to justify their un-preparedness by alleging that it wasno longer necessary to waste their timeon literature and the arts. This did not

save them from failing their course.

I might add that the very theme ofthe debate Physicist or Poet was

hardly original. In the years followingthe October Revolution, when part ofthe country's youth was tempted tojoin the hordes bent on destroyingeverything connected with the past,there were even some who denied anyvalue whatever not only to classicalart but to every form of art. I evenrecall the flippant motto: "Art is theopium of the people" and "Peace tothe chemists, war on the creativeartistsl" (the latter deriving from thefamous revolutionary slogan: "Peace tothe huts, war on the palaces!")

VERY quickly, however,

Lenin explained to the young that thepeople who had undertaken to builda new life could never attain this

objective except by absorbing all themost precious products of human cul¬ture and in particular by making useof the countless treasures created bythe arts throughout the course ofhuman history.

But the final defeat of these scien¬

tific Savonarolas who proposed toestablish the primacy of practicalscience over all other human interests

was completed when the cosmonautsthemselves those who we might wellexpect to be the most forthrightspokesmen of the avant garde trendsof our age acknowledged the helpthey had found in the great writersof prose and poetry, as they preparedtheir flights into space, and when theworld learned that during their mosttrying moments, they found encoura¬gement in music and song.

And so was born the lovely motto:"In the cosmos, too, there is a placefor a spray of lilac." After all, sciencegives man knowledge, art gives himfeeling. If there is a place in lifefor knowledge, there is also a placefor feeling.

And here I might do well to recallthe words of Anton Chekhov: "I wish

people wouldn't see conflict where infact there is none. Knowledge is

.min i

The level and scope ofscientific knowledge isgreater today than atany time in history. Yetthe attraction of art and

all forms of beauty hasin no way been sup¬planted, and aestheticeducation which enri¬

ches the human perso¬nality flourishes asnever before. Here,

happy children hurryto their music lesson.

Photo © Keystone

always present in the world Ana¬tomy and literature are equally noble inorigin. They have common aims anda common enemy the Devil; thereare therefore absolutely no groundsfor conflict between them."

"There is no struggle for existencebetween them. If a man knows about

the theory of the circulation of theblood, he is rich; if he adds to that astudy of the history of religion and thesong 'I remember a wonderful mom¬ent' (1), he becomes not poorer, butricher, and this again is wholly to hisadvantage. Men of genius have neverwarred with each other and, in theperson of Goethe, we find side by sidethe naturalist and the poet."

It may seem scarcely worthwhileto have brought up all this at a timewhen the question, theoretically atleast, seems to be settled once andfor all. It is not without value, how-

(1) Well-known melody by Glinka.

ever, to recall the efforts to divorceknowledge from feeling because inpractice the answer is still a long wayoff. Can we in fact honestly maintaintoday that the human race, as it gainsin knowledge, is deepening and refin¬ing its appreciation of the beautiful?

In this connexion I am reminded of

two conversations which I had with

people of sharply diverging spiritualviews. One of them, a devout Christ¬ian representing a religious brother¬hood, said to me during one of myvisits to the United States: "Beauty isGod. If from youth you teach a per¬son to see the hand of God and the

will of God in everything around him,he will finally understand the harmonyof all things, that is, perfect beauty."

The other, a Communist with whomI was talking at home some time ago,it is true, after one of my lectures onthe aesthetic education of youngpeople criticized me in the followingwords:

"Why clutter up their heads withthat! The important thing is to fostera revolutionary conscience in people, aproper understanding of the laws ofsocial development, to teach them thepractical elements of social behaviour.The rest, including the sense of beauty,can come later."

I T is not my intention toenter into a discussion of the factors

that have led to the great ethical andspiritual flowering of the human per¬sonality. I will simply say that in myview the purpose of all education is togive the individual the wherewithalto find happiness suited to his natureand to make his fellows happy.

As for the notion that our con¬

temporaries can be completely happy,in the fullest sense of the term, that is

to say, appreciating all the wholesomejoys of life, without having had instill¬ed in them a feeling for beauty thatis quite simply impossible. We arespeaking here of the education of ahuman being completely and harmo¬niously developed, able not only tomaster knowledge but also to enjoybeauty and to share it with others.

For this reason, when we seek toachieve perfection as regards socialorganization and the distribution ofmaterial wealth, we must take greatcare, earnestly and in good time, tosee that the future, does not merelyhold out the prospect of a high mat¬erial standard of living and a fairsharing of everything indispensablefor material comfort. We must see to

it that all society can participate in theworld of beauty, the aesthetic world,the world of art. And this world mustbe accessible to all. We must en¬

courage, foster and strengthen in eachof us the desire to seek and find real

beauty. And this cannot be achievedwith mediocre products or worthlesssubstitutes.

Why deny it: the man who lives inmaterial comfort but disdains the

world of art exhibitions, museums andart galleries leads the life of blindmen. Little does he realize the joysand beauty he is missing.

The man who is interested only inthe popular songs of the day, themusic of which, though catchy andeasily remembered, is neverthelessextremely limited, is in fact half deaf.For he has not learned to listen to and

appreciate really great music.

Again, the man who has never readthe great authors, the books whichhave moved the hearts and minds of

millions of readers, if he has notlearnt by heart a dozen or so linesof his favourite poet if indeed he hasone that man is condemned to

spiritual poverty, to live half-hearted¬ly and to deprive himself of the greaterpart of those joys which spring fromcontact with beauty.

These contacts with beauty invite usto improve our personality and to takean active part in creating a life offeringjoy, satisfaction and consolation. Theman who knows the meaning of beautycan reap the reward that dreams affordto help him to enjoy today and to facetomorrow with serenity.

This is a far cry from the narrowmaterialistic search for individual com¬

fort. It is a romantic quest, inviting usto perfect our lives in all their pleni¬tude. For the romantic approach isthe centrifugal force which propelsideas and feelings beyond the horizonsof everyday existence; it is the dynamicforce which translates dreams into

reality.

During my visits to the United Statesand Western Europe, I have beenconfronted with most varied manifes¬

tations of modern art. These, I mustconfess, have at times somewhat dis¬concerted me. Perhaps because it isan attempt to protect itself from theinvading cybernetics of our time, withits yes-no and plus-minus responses,that art sometimes seeks refuge inthe obscure realms of the subconscious

and even illogical artificiality.

BUT years ago Tolstoy

wrote that the beautiful cannot be

devoid of meaning. Now that theelectronic computer is capable oftranslating a book and even of writingsimple poetry, the artist, if he is atrue artist, cannot stand by with hisarms crossed and watch the human

factor disappear from the arts. Onthe contrary, today more than ever,art must reveal itself as in completepossession of all potentialities of thehuman spirit. The artist is the lastbastion of those great gifts of manwhich can never be reproduced evenby the most complicated electronic

equipment. "I QAt the same time it would be stupid **

to pit the power of modern scienceand technology against sensational and

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

LILACS IN THE COSMOS... (Continued)

14

exaggerated notions of a "superman"which a certain press has popularized.True art, inspired by truth and beauty,exalts the splendours of the humanpersonality, and seeks to help manto find his place in life and society,rejecting both the myth of the "super¬man" and of the "supersociety" whichtoo often crushes the individual underimplacable and inhuman laws.

Aesthetic education, of course, is

inseparable from ethical education.Aesthetics and ethics should go handin hand, both in the private world ofthe individual and in his relations withothers. This unity must be created ininfancy and must be talked about athome in the family circle. The har¬mony between the sense of the beauti¬ful and the sense of right should bereaffirmed, strengthened and develop¬ed at school.

Unfortunately the time allotted toteachers in the school curriculum forinitiating pupils in the realm of aesthe¬tics above all in literatureisnot being used to best advantage.

More often than not the greatauthors included in the Soviet curri¬culum are not properly studied; theyare given only cursory examination.The children in class simply reel offin haphazard fashion the plots of clas¬sical masterpieces or of the best-known modern works.

IT is all too rare to find

a schoolmaster, himself an enthusiastfor his subject, who is able to commu¬nicate his personal admiration andattachment to his pupils so as toawaken in them a genuine love of thebeautiful. Far more often the class

repeats with indifference conventionalviews with no attempt to penetratethe reaí deeper sense or truth of thework. They make no attempt to findpleasure in a new experience so thatunder the spell of the author, theyrealize that what they were beingtaught was not boring and beingforced upon them. Yet there canbe no true education without educa¬

tion in ethics.

The Soviet Union has already achiev¬ed a great deal in the field of aestheticeducation. We feel, however, thatthere is still much urgent work to bedone. We have an Institute of Aesthe¬tic Education attached to the Soviet

Academy of the Science of Teachingwhere many aspects of the problemsI have mentioned are being studiedboth scientifically and pedagogically.

Moscow has a Publishing House ofChildren's Books specially created tostudy the requirements of youngreaders, to guide and develop thetastes of children, and to assess andset aesthetic standards for children'sbooks. We endeavour to ensure that

radio and television should be not

the rivals but the allies and sup¬porters of literature, in a word, theauxiliaries of all who are concerned

with the aesthetic development of therising generations.

The Soviet Union comprises a largenetwork of amateur artist groups towhich millions of children and adults

belong. There are popular theatres,literary circles, and art studios. Evenso, we must admit that the generallevel of artistic taste and aesthetic

appreciation lags far behind that ofgeneral technical education in theSoviet Union. In this field we still

have a long way to go.

Painters, scientists, writers, musi¬cians and teachers should combine

their efforts to enable society not onlyto expand the scope of its knowledge,but also to make it possible for every¬one to take the bold step of explor¬ing the world of aesthetics and theworld of the beautiful.

From the infinitely great to the infinitelytiny, science is enlarging the boundsof the universe and those of life itself.

Simultanously it probes the mysteries ofspace and those of the living cell andin the process uncovers hithertoimperceptible forms of beauty. Below, asymbolic model of the molecule of DNA(desoxyribonucleic acid). Science hasshown that these molecules are the

fundamental building blocks of heredity.

©

SCIENCE AND FUNDAMENTAL

CONCEPTS OF THINKING

by Paul Couderc

Winner of the 15th Kalinga Prize for the Popula¬rization of Science, awarded by an internationaljury appointed by Unesco, the French astronomerand science writer Paul Couderc outlines, below,

his views on the need for impartiality in science,and for regular science information to be avail¬able to everyone.

O

«i

THE triumph of science

must ultimately engender peace byendowing all mankind with bettermeans of livelihood, more leisure,more culture and reasoning powers.Progress put an end to the age ofthe cave-dwellers; why should it notput an end and the sooner the

better to the age of the barrack-dwellers?

The time is not long past whenscience was regarded as suspect andfrightening. Opprobrium was pouredon its ruthlessness, on the "cold-hearted scientist" and his materialism,which was equated, unfairly, with thenegation of any ideal (instead of beingcontrasted with professions of so-called idealism, as it properly shouldbe).

The "cold-hearted scientist" is one

of the myths most widely propagatedby the enemies of science and

PAUL COUDERC, astronomer at the PansObservatory and lecturer in astronomy atthe Ecole Polytechnique (Paris), has writtenwidely on cosmography and the structureof the universe. Many of his books haveappeared in the "Que sais-je V collectionpublished by Presses Universitaires deFrance (Paris), among them: "La Relativité"(1966); "Les Eclipses" (1961); "L'Univers"(published by Arrow Books, London, as"The Wider Universe", 1960); "Le Calen¬drier" (1961); "Histoire de l'Astronomie"(1961) and "L'Astrologie" (1957).

especially by the zealots of spuriousscience and occultism. It is obviouslyeasier to deceive the multitude when

one is dealing with those who "respectthe mystery at the heart of things",who can be fobbed off with pureverbalism and who confuse irrational

belief with reasonable knowledge.

This bane of scientific illiteracy mayperhaps have lost its hold; peoplenowadays seem increasingly consciousof the handicap of insufficientscientific knowledge in the modernage. Henceforth, science is a factorof vital social importance. It offersman the only chance of building abetter future and breaking his fetters;it is the only means of assuring mana longer, easier and happier life.

In our vindication of science, weare not confusing material comfortwith happiness. The individual rarelyowes his happiness directly to thepursuit of research. Moreover, theseat of happiness is in the emotionsrather than the intellect the joys ofthe family, moral satisfaction, deep-felt emotions aroused by music,poetry, literature, films or the theatre.Scientists are no more beyond thereach of feeling than other men, nordo they wish to be.

But obviously, art and enjoymentdemand freedom and leisure. When

prehistoric man spent all his wakinghours protecting himself and findingfood, he hardly had time for meditationor amusement: this explains theextreme slowness of early progress,

contrasted with its remarkable speedtoday.

Those who belittle scientific achieve¬

ments have forgotten the advancesmade in medicine and surgery, thealleviation of pain and sleeplessness.The expectation of life has doubled infifty years, and life has become lessarduous.

Science moves so fast and hasbecome so vast and complex that theman in the street can no longer fullyparticipate in the life of his timewithout some intelligent popularizationof knowledge. Even the scientistneeds popularization in fields otherthan his own.

Popularization aims to make themarch of science intelligible to thelayman, in simple, clear, direct andif possible vivid, but above all accurateterms. The attempt can never becompletely successful, for over¬simplification always entails somedeformation; especially as the pro-foundest scientific truths, in nuclearphysics or cosmology, for example,are now becoming so abstruse thatthere is great danger in deviating fromthem even slightly. In any event, thepopular science writer must take carenot to slip into sensationalism ortriviality. The reader must be pre¬pared to make an intellectual effort:he must want to understand.

Furthermore, the new ideas andimages of the universe must infiltrateeducation as soon as possible andbecome part of every schoolboy's

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

15

CONCEPTS OF THINKING (Continued)

The star in the suburbs

16

stock in trade, to ensure that the gulfis not too wide between ordinarythinking and the mental processes ofthe research scientist. We call the

properties or relationships we learntat an early age "self-evident".

If steps were taken to keepeducation up-to-date, everyone wouldstart on the same intellectual footingin each country, or very nearly so;and some inter-communication would

be possible between the privileged fewwho wrest from nature her secrets andthe multitude who can now do no more

than benefit from the applications ofscience.

The people will become an in¬exhaustible store of new research

workers, provided they are informedand instructed in a scientific spirit, notone of mystery, and are shown thehallmarks of real scientific proof,instead of the vain pretensions ofspurious science. From the ranks ofthose still barred from the high schoolsand universities by a selective socialsystem that is deplorable, many menof science might emerge, and once ina while a genius.

Think of the cases (only too rare)where a brilliant mind has been

rescued, by some lucky chance, froman occupation with no future. Think,for example, of Faraday, the book¬binder's workman, who fathered theprodigy of the present day electricalindustry; think of Alexander Fleming,the son of poor Scottish moorlandcrofters, who worked for five years asa clerk in a shipping company, untila small legacy enabled him to takeup medicine; but for that legacy, weshould probably still be withoutpenicillin and the other antibiotics.

1 should like to illustrate bythe example of astronomy how theevolution of science can change thelaws of human reasoning.

For primitive tribes the world is afrightening place. They have anaffective conception of the universe:they people heaven and earth withhigher powers, capricious and menac¬ing, whom they must endeavour toplacate. Meteorology is confusedwith astronomy, and there is no inklingof natural law.

This was undoubtedly the world ofprehistoric man. But little by little,the alternation of day and night, theunvarying sequence of the phases ofthe moon, the succession of theseasons, provided the primitive peo¬ples with time units, and led to thenotion of regular cycles in theuniverse.

In the sixth century before our era,in the Eastern Mediterranean, the earthwas identified as a celestial body,spherical and surrounded by space,

from the observation of its shadow

on the moon in eclipse and from theprogressive change in the field ofstars visible to the traveller.

The idea of a single verticaldimension, and the notion of up anddown, were gradually superseded bythe concept of an infinite number ofvertical dimensions converging towardsthe centre of the earth, and the possi¬bility of being able to stand uprightat the antipodes. What a revolutionin thought!

Similarly, the concrete reality ofdarkness, with the antithesis of lightand dark, was superseded by thenotion of shadow. Only light is real;darkness is merely the absence oflight. This vital step forward wasalso due to an understanding of theeclipses and the phases of the moon.

NEXT, the attempts of the

Greeks to account for the movements

of the planets geometrically mark thefinal advent of scientific rationalism:

from then on, it is assumed that anynatural phenomenon can be explained;the concept of natural law carries allbefore it, ousting the supernatural andfantastic. Mystical needs still havetheir place, but as a thing apart, hardlyimpinging on science.

Fifteen centuries later, Copernicusand Galileo supplied the proof thatthe earth is not the centre of the

universe. This changed the wholeface of philosophy; the inhabitant of amodest planet revolving round the suncannot think along the same lines asa privileged denizen of the centre ofthe universe. A study of our galaxynow shows the sun to be a star in

the suburbs of a multitude of hundreds

of thousands of millions of other stars

like it: and the giant telescopesreveal that the universe is filled with

thousands of millions of galaxiessimilar to our own.

Lastly, these galaxies are runningaway from each other in an expandinguniverse, where space itself is notonly curved but dilating. What, then,is space? Matter? Gravitation? Atthis very time, these questions aremoving from the metaphysical to thescientific plane. Thus, science againappears as the "power behind thethrone" in our philosophy, returningthe fundamental concepts of ourthinking to the melting-pot.

Astronomy is still in the forefrontof the natural sciences, and the mostabstract ideas are invoked in contenr-

porary cosmology. At the same time,allying as it does the beauty of thestars and the poetry of the heavensto infinite scales of time and space,it remains a particularly apt mediumfor bringing the conquests of modernscience within the grasp of the generalpublic.

CHINA SEA

Photo USIS

Unesco mathematical model

to harness the Mekong

by W. J. Ellis

The Mekong Project, an historic internationalenterprise in river development, seeks tomake full use of the waters of the lower

Mekong in terms of hydro-electric power,irrigation, flood control, drainage, navigationimprovement, water management and watersupply. Map left, shows location of someof the Mekong projects in Thailand, Laos,Cambodia and the Republic of Viet-Nam.Unesco has produced a Mathematical Model ofthe Mekong Delta which has already playeda major role in proving the feasibility ofbuilding a barrage across the Tonle SapRiver (Cambodia) and will be used to studyother projects. Above, a boat race alongthe broad waters of the Mekong at Vientiane(Laos). The occasion is the annual regattamarking a Buddhist festival in October.

T,HE 2,600-mile-long Me¬

kong, one of the great rivers of theworld, rises at an altitude of over

16,000 feet in the mountains of per¬

petual snow of the Tibetan plateau.

It is perennial and flows unrestricted

through Yunnan Province in China andBurma before it enters the Lower

Mekong Basin, where, in Laos, Thai¬land, Cambodia and the Republic of

W. J. ELLIS, of Australia, was formerly direc¬tor of Unesco's Science Co-operation Officesin South East Asia (Manila) and South Asia(Delhi). He is now with the Unesco Secre¬tariat in Pans. Before joining Unesco he wasa biochemist on the staff of the Commonwealth

Scientific and Industrial Research Organizationin Melbourne, Australia.

Viet-Nam, it is influenced by the mon¬soon rains collected mainly from theenormous catchment of the Annamese

Cordillera. Only 14 per cent of theriver's water has its origin in Tibetand China.

From the Burmese border, the riverfollows a tortuous course for sixteen

hundred miles before it is lost throughthe great delta into the South ChinaSea.

It is estimated that the total drainagearea is 307,000 square miles (800,000sq. kms.) and of this, 236,000 squaremiles (600,000 sq. kms.), an area largerthan France, lies within the four coun¬tries of the Lower Basin.

Nowhere in its long journey has

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

17

Photos Ö Raymond Cauchetier, Paris

LIFE ALONG

THE MEKONG RIVERRice eaten with salted fish or

a fish sauce rich in proteinis the staple diet of thepopulation in the lower basinof the Mekong. River fishermenmake their largest catches asthe annual flood waters recede

along the Tonle Sap, a tributaryof the Mekong, in Cambodia.Improvised markets are set upon the river banks to which

the rice farmers, travellingfrom far afield, bring theirgrain to exchange for fish.Opposite, airview of theCambodian countryside revealsa mosaic of flooded ricefields.

The proposed barrage on theTonle Sap would help to controlflooding, extend the fishingseason and improve soil fertility.Below, countless numbers of

fish await processing at riversidecompounds. Left, rice farmersencamped by the Mekongprepare piles of fish for salting.

t&t&gdi

r<"/

"+ê*Èi

Photos USIS

MEKONG (Continued)

A 2,600-miles river

without a bridgethe river ever been crossed by a bridgeand at no time until recently has any¬

thing been done to derive greaterbenefit from the river or to control

its many and unpredictable idiosyncra¬sies, though these cause great lossesto the already over-taxed economy ofthis area.

The Mekong has an annual cycle,with a dry season from November toJune and then a regular flood whichusually reaches a single peak.

When the floods come, over 15,000

square miles (38,000 sq. kms.) in Cam¬bodia and the Republic of Viet-Namare inundated. Herein lies the major

problem, that of introducing somecontrol over this yearly phenomenon.One of the special features of the

flooding is that by the time theenormous volume of water reaches

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia,

sometimes reaching a height of thirtyfeet, the head developed by the

Mekong is sufficient to reverse theflow of one of its principal tributaries,the Tonle Sap. This river flows back¬wards into the Great Lake of Cam¬

bodia.

T.

20

HUS it may be seen thatthe daily life of the inhabitants of theMekong basin has always revolvedaround the vicissitudes of the mon¬

soon and the river. Over the centu¬

ries they have learned after a fashionto adapt their way of life and theirlivelihood to these difficult conditions.

It has therefore been necessary tobear well in mind that any develop¬

ment plans call for careful co-ordi

nation of all factors concerned and to

ensure that what is planned will notdisrupt the present economy and thewhole ecology of the region. Sincerice and fish constitute the daily diet

of such a large proportion of thepopulation, even a brief interruption ofsupplies could have serious conse¬quences.

Of all the projects considered orplanned for the Mekong the most pro¬mising and most complicated one isthe Tonle Sap project. Here, it isproposed to build a great barrage, andplanning for it has called for the deve¬lopment by Unesco of a mathematicalmodel.

Over the past seven years Unescoand the United Nations Development

Programme (UNDP) have been engag¬ed on this highly sophisticated researchproject the creation of a theoreticalmodel in the form of a computer and

programme of the Mekong River Delta,as distinct from a physical modelwhich is built to scale and which is

usually used for the study of hydro-logical problems of this sort. In thepresent instance the term Mathema¬tical Model is used by the specialistsand it has been made possible by theuse of an electronic computer.

While this model has made a specialcontribution to basic studies of a

number of development projects beingundertaken in the Mekong Flood Plain,it has also led to fundamental scientific

advances in the field of hydrology andhydraulics.

This project is an example of Inter¬national scientific collaboration at its

best. Born out of a spirit of co-opera¬tion between the United Nations and

the four countries, Cambodia, Laos,Thailand and the Republic of Viet-Nam, which are most closely concern¬

ed with the Mekong, the new techni¬ques developed will serve other statesfar distant from South-East Asia. For

example, the study of many of theflood problems of Italy may well beassisted by the application of the

scientific knowledge resulting fromthe Mekong studies, and thus a re¬currence of the enormous damagecaused by the devastating floods of1966 may be prevented.

D URING recent years theexperience of many has been soughtout to see how the Mekong as a vastnatural resource might be turned togreater use and thus contribute to an

improvement in the economic situation

of the population of the great floodplain.

The Lower Basin of the MekongRiver comprises approximately onethird of the total territory of Cambo¬dia, Laos, Thailand and the Repub¬lic of Viet-Nam, and within it live

20 million people. Eighty per cent ofthem are farmers and fishermen and

all are dependent on the river.

Less than 3 per cent of the basin isirrigated; much more of it could be

and will be under the developmentplans. Only 86 per cent of the culti¬vated land is under rice, and only onecrop a year is grown, but this couldbe increased to three. With electric

power becoming available it will bepossible to produce nitrogenous ferti¬lizer. Furthermore, large abandonedareas like the Plaine des Joncs could

One of four U.N. Special Fund projects on tributaries of the Mekongprovides for the construction of a dam on the Nam Ngum River inLaos. Far left, site chosen for the dam as it looks today. Left, artist'simpression of the future dam, 200 feet (66 metres) high and nearly1,200 ft. (360 metres) long. The jungle spreading to the hills in thebackground will be engulfed by a vast artificial lake covering140 square miles (370 sq. kms.). The project should bring irrigationto about 100,000 acres and generate 520 million kilowatt hours ofelectricity a year. Right, lowering a current meter into the Mekongduring preparatory studies for the River Basin project.

Photo © SOGREAH. Grenoble

well be brought under cultivation ifthey were desalinated.

The advent of power could alsomake it possible to work the iron ore,bauxite, copper, tungsten and zincwhich are found in the area, and to set

up new industries. These will callfor increased educational and exten¬

sion programmes for the people toenable them to understand the new

development, to acquire new skillsand to adapt the existing social andcommercial structures.

The fishing industry, about 90 percent of it fresh-water, is extensive and

important, with the Great Lake pro¬

ducing about 50,000 tons per year.But this production is very variableand it is foreseen that if the proposed

barrage on the Tonle Sap could beregulated the fish production might bemore balanced.

Whatever might be the sum totalof benefits from a barrage on theTonle Sap it is clear that there wouldresult a tremendous reduction in the

loss of lives and property. For exam¬ple, in the 1961 flood, 164 lives werelost and a population of over 300,000affected; untold damage was done tobuildings, roads and bridges.

The problems of the Lower MekongBasin can only be solved as a whole:there is need for a joint effort, butnot even the four countries involved

could assemble anything like the ne¬cessary technical and material resour¬ces required to carry through a pro¬ject of this magnitude. This then wasa real project for study and assistanceby the United Nations.

In 1951, the Economic Commission

for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE)

established by the United Nations Eco¬nomic and Social Council in 1947 took

up the study of the Lower Mekong.The technical work was undertaken

by the Bureau of Flood Control andWater Resources Development, a sub¬

sidiary body of ECAFE which is em¬powered, among other things, to adviseand assist governments on flood con¬trol and related river problems. Thefirst study, published early in 1952,aroused keen interest and broughtforth favourable response.

I N 1957, a United Nationsmission planned a five-year program¬me of surveys with a budget of $9 mil¬lion. The first recommendation, which

received early approval of the UnitedNations, was the creation of a local

authority to draw up a master planand to ensure proper co-ordination ofresources.

Thus was established the Committee

for Co-ordination of Investigations ofthe Lower Mekong Basin, which iscomposed of plenipotentiaries fromthe four riparian states of Cambodia,Laos, "Thailand and the Republic of

Viet-Nam. It is empowered to control

supervise and co-ordinate develop¬ment projects. To handle the vital dayto day work between sessions of thecommittee an executive agent was

appointed and, to assist him, a three-member consultative committee. This

small operational body puts into effectdecisions taken by the Committee forCo-ordination.

Pilot projects have been started,and are well under way in each ofthe four states. These are the four

Mekong United Nations Special Fundtributary projects:

The Battambang Project in Cambo¬dia envisages a diversion dam. But,since the river is almost dry duringApril and May, round-the-year irriga¬tion cannot be ensured simply by pro¬viding such a diversion dam. It is

proposed to solve this problem bybuilding an upstream storage dam andreservoir, which should provide gra¬vity irrigation for 150,000 acres. In

addition it is planned to generate110 million KWh of electricity per year.

The Nam Ngum Project in Laos isto provide irrigation for farming onabout 100,000 acres and will produceabout 520 million KWh of electricityper year.

In Thailand the Nam Pong projectlocated in the north makes provisionfor pumping and irrigation to about95,000 acres and provides for thedrainage of soil which is sandy andoften very salty. It will also producesome 90 million KWh. of electricity.

Finally, the Upper Se San Projectlocated in the plateau area of theRepublic of Viet-Nam is designed todevelop a large area for resettlement.

The project will provide gravity irriga¬tion for some 25,000 acres down¬

stream and, by pumping and upstreamdiversion, for an additional 35,000acres. The production of 220 million

KWh. of electricity is planned.

These then constitute the four

UNDP Special Fund Component pro¬jects which aim to irrigate slightly more n-ithan 400,000 acres; and additional tri- / Ibutary projects will doubtless be built.

A number of mainstream projects

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

MEKONG (Continued)

The delta in the computer

are under way and are being assistedunder bilateral aid and the Colombo

Plan. (The British Commonwealth'sscheme for aiding its member coun¬tries in South-East Asia.) Five of these

projects envisage providing irrigationto an area of nearly 6 million acresand an annual electricity output ofabout 25,000 million KWh.

The Tonle Sap and Delta project isone of especial interest to Unesco asthe organization entrusted by UNDPwith the making of the mathematicalmodel of the Delta.

Quite apart from these large-scaleland and water development projects

other work is in progress undertakenby the four riparian governmentswhich are receiving bilateral assis¬tance as well as aid from the United

Nations and other international agen¬cies.

F

22

OR example the U.N. is

carrying out a survey of minerals andthe mineral processing industries in

the Mekong Basin. In agriculture, theFood and Agriculture Organization(FAO) is helping with the developmentof a 740-acre experimental irrigationand demonstration farm in the Vietiane

Plain, under the Special Fund Compo¬nent Tributaries Project. FAO is also

assisting by directing the design ofa number of agriculture stations.

Because of great losses from forestand grassland fires caused by shiftingcultivation, FAO is investigating ways

which may be used to restrain thispractice. Schistosomiasis (a diseasecaused when the bloodstream is in¬

vaded by tiny parasites) and malariasurveys have been carried out by theWorld Health Organization, and pre¬ventive measures suggested.

At the request of the Co-ordinationCommittee, the International LabourOrganization has completed a prelimi¬nary manpower survey of the MekongBasin.

The change of flow of the Tonle Sapcaused by the swelling of the Mekongat flood time has already been men¬tioned. This constitutes a major hy-

drological and hydraulic problem, anda detailed scientific study was consi¬dered to be fundamental to any plan

for building a barrage on the TonleSap and indeed basic to most of theprojects envisaged for the wholeLower Mekong Basin.

Having in mind the need for athorough basic study, Unesco consti

tuted a three-man mission to visit the

area and to look into the idea of

constructing a suitable hydrologicalmodel.

Studies of hydraulic problems areusually carried out by using a physicalscale model, but in this case the rela¬tions between surface distances and

gradients were of an order that madeit almost impossible to reproduce suchsmall slopes in a model.

Such a model would have requir¬ed an area of almost one hectare

(2è acres) with levels accurate to1/10 mm. This important considera¬tion, among others, led the UnescoMission to propose the developmentof a mathematical model, to be pre¬

pared by using an electronic com¬puter.

Accordingly, the Committee for Co¬ordination, on behalf of the Govern¬ments of Cambodia and the Repub¬lic of Viet-Nam asked the UNDP

Special Fund Component for help inbuilding up a mathematical model ofthe Delta. The project was approvedand in May 1961 the Governing Councilof the Special Fund entrusted Unesco

with the responsibility for building themodel.

The mission contemplated the build¬

ing of a model for two major reasons.Firstly, they considered it necessary to

resolve the controversy existing be¬tween experts about the total effect

of building the dam and also to preparea design that would provide the mostefficient control. Secondly they feltit was vital to demonstrate clearly thata dam built in Cambodia would not

in any circumstances adversely affectthe lower part of the Delta in the

Republic of Viet-Nam.

A T the time of the mission's

work a physical model had alreadybeen ruled out. A new approach was

being made and new developmentswere taking place which eventuallymade it clear that a mathematical

model was more suited to the investi¬

gation. That the decision to use amathematical model was taken at a

time when the technique had not yetbeen fully developed can be consi¬dered as an important contribution to

fundamental hydraulic studies.

Very careful planning was requiredin preparation for the model. First apanel of consultants was appointedthree hydraulics experts and twomathematicians who contributed the

expert knowledge and experience of

the four different countries from which

they came. Then a suitable laboratoryhad to be found to undertake the

construction of the model. The one

selected, SOGREAHthe Société Gre¬

nobloise d'Etudes et d'Applications

Hydrauliques in Grenoble, France,had had years of experience ofresearch in this field.

T HE model project was

planned to cover four phases:

The collection of all existing docu¬mentation and data on the hydraulics

of the region;

The designing and programmingof a preliminary model on the basisof these results which could determine

the possible deficiencies of theeventual model;

A measurement campaign plan¬ned on the basis of the preliminarymodel, which would check the cri¬

tical data needed for improving theaccuracy of this model in preparationfor the final stage;

The construction of the eventual

model, in the form of a computer

programme accurately representingthe seasonal variations in water levels

and discharge rates.

In phase two, trial runs were made

to determine how faithfully the pre¬liminary model reflected the natural

phenomena. The main purpose wasto determine which factors (dischargerates and levels at particular pointsfor instance), were critical for theoperation of the model, adjustmentsbeing possible to make it moreaccurate.

Essentially the computer programmeconstituting the Mathematical Modelinvolves the introduction of detailed

hydraulic data (topographic features,water levels and discharge volumesetc.) into an electronic computer in

the form of formulae embodying wellknown physical laws. The computerthen determines the water levels and

their rates of variation at the points

and times of special interest in theDelta plain.

The test area concerning the TonleSap was divided up into more than260 meshes covering dry land,water or marsh from which the

natural phenomena could be faithfullyreproduced by definition of theexchanges between them and theaverage water levels in each of them.Each mesh entailed a great number ofaccurate and painstaking measure-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

Photo © Raymond Cauchetier, Paris

FISHING VILLAGE AFLOAT on the Great Lake that feeds the Tonle Sap River. In the rainy t\t\

season the rising waters of the Mekong reverse the current of the Tonle Sap and cause it £0to flow back into the Great Lake, raising its level by some 30 feet. The fishermen andtheir families live permanently on their boats and at high water periods cast their linesand nets almost at tree-top level.

On June 25, 1967, satellites wereused to relay a live programmesimultaneously to televisionaudiences in Japan, Australia,North America, Europe andNorth Africa. Photo shows an

opening shot from this programme,"Our World," presented via theB.B.C. Television Centre in London.

Communication satellites

The new music

of the spheres

by Wilbur Schramm

24

With the latest advances in technology it

is foreseen that in the next 10 years ourTV screens will be able to receive world-wide

programmes via satellite relays. The real

problem today is not so much the need for

more perfected satellites as better plans forusing them for a vast exchange of educa¬

tional, scientific and cultural programmes.

Professor W. Schramm, a world authority onmass media development, here looks at a

few of the major problems that call for

solution before the intercontinental exchangeof news and cultural programmes can become

a day-to-day occurence.

THE opportunity now exists

to share data over long distances asnever before in the history of mankind.The development of computers of greatcapacity has made it possible to storeenormous quantities of information indigital form, and to search efficientlyfor and retrieve any part of what isstored. The development of relatedarts and sciences of indexing, abstract¬ing and programming has brought intobeing a new force in human affairs

information science.

Fortunately for us, these develop¬ments come at a time when many ofthe natural sciences are experiencing

WILBUR SCHRAMM is director of the Insti¬tute for Joint Communication Research at

Stanford University, U.S A. and the authorof many books on mass communication. Anumber of his studies have been publishedby Unesco "Communication Satellites forEducation, Science and Culture", 1967 ($1.00,6/-), on which his present article is based;"The Effects of Television on Children andAdolescents", 1964 ($0 75; A\-), "Mass Mediaand National Development (The Role of Infor¬mation in the Developing Countries) 1964($6 00, 30J-) Professor Schramm is now direct¬ing publication of a series of studies on theuse of modern teaching techniques in thedeveloping countries, based on surveys madeby the International Institute for EducationalPlanning.

Photo European Broadcasting Union

a glut of research information, wheninformation of great importance toscientists is being produced at manyand distant places on earth, and whenrising educational levels and expandingscholarships are creating new needsfor information world wide.

In this race between information

needs and new information capabilities,communication satellites will play afacilitating role, and probably an impor¬tant one.

Indeed, some space scientists havepredicted that communication satellitesmay be used more for data than fortelephone transmission. Their functionwill be to extend the connexion bet¬

ween data sources and user.

Already computers have been con¬nected to other computers or to dataconsoles, over thousands of miles, bymeans of land lines. They can alsobe connected by satellite.

Weather data have been exchanged,' by words, numbers and pictures, overalmost all the world, by satellite. Tele¬metry and even television from satel¬lites have been received on earth

from many hundreds of thousands ofmiles away in space. Can we now

adapt these proved capabilities to theneeds of scientific and educationalinformation?

Men have dreamed of a new age ofinformation. Great data banks, estab¬lished centrally, would be availableto the most distant users. Scientists

in developing countries or at isolatedlocations would have as ready accessto scientific research as would their

colleagues in the great centres. Asick man in a distant location could

count on the help of a great medicalcentre. There would no longer be astultifying lag between new knowledgeand its dissemination. New findings inmedicine, for example, would bepromptly available to clinics and hos¬pitals and medical schools everywhere.

The resources of a small town or

school library would no longer be afew hundred or a few thousand volu¬

mes; there would be available by quickdata transmission, when needed, the

enormous resources of such greatinformation centres as the Library ofCongress, the British Museum, or theLenin Library.

National, and ultimately international,information systems would come to berealities, and computerized indexing

and cataloguing would take much ofthe drudgery out of working with them.

Let us not mistake the dream for

present reality: we are far from beingable to make that kind of dream come

true. But we can already do remark¬able things in using computers forinformation storage and retrieval, andit is safe to say that whatever we canstore on a computer we can transmitand retrieve at the end of a satellite

circuit.

Present needs, as we move towardfull use of satellites for scientific and

educational data transmission, are toestablish the demand for such data,the locations where it exists, the formsin which it must be packaged in orderto be useful, and the institutions and

organizations which must come intobeing in order to collect and dissemi¬nate it. This is planning of a high orderwhich must involve many sectors ofthe academic community and the infor¬mation professions.

International data exchange willrequire building up national capabi¬lities for information exchange.

How can an organization like Unescobest contribute to this growth towardinternational data exchange, in which

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

25

NEW MUSIC OF THE SPHERES (Continued)

Libraries

in the sky

Photo © Keystone

26

A talk on Greek poetry in thetelevision series, "The Sense ofPoetry," produced by theeducational TV station in Boston

(U.S.A.). With the use ofcommunication satellites, completelynew possibilities are open toeducational radio and television in

every country and notably in thevast areas covered by thedeveloping countries.

communication satellites will play aconsiderable part?

It seems that the greatest contri¬butions might come: (a) by helping toshare with the smaller and newer

countries what is being found out aboutinformation technology and dissemi¬nation, and (b) by facilitating in everyway possible the planning for trulyinternational data systems. The jointInternational Council of Scientific

Unions (ICSU)-Unesco Project on theCommunication of Scientific Informa¬

tion and the Feasibility of a WorldScience Information System is animportant step toward meeting theseobjectives.

The central committee designed tosupervise the ICSU-Unesco Projectcould serve as the nucleus of a com¬

mission or advisory group on infor¬mation exchange.

International information exchangewill become a very large activity. Itmay be that a new United NationsSpecialized Agency or bureau will haveto be organized to handle it.

Communication satellites offer an

opportunity to increase and even outthe flow of news in the world. It has

been amply demonstrated that newsflow falls off markedly with distance(geographical or psychological) andthat the flow is overwhelmingly fromthe more developed countries to theless developed ones.

Experience has shown that whenevercables have been extended to a

country there has been a notableimprovement in both the speed andquantity of news available to readersand listeners in that country. There¬fore, there is reason to believe that

satellites can potentially make a realdifference in news availability through¬out the world.

In theory at least, this should occurat each stage of satellite development.In the relatively distant years of directbroadcasting we may be able to lookforward to facsimile newspapers broad¬cast directly into the home, andperhaps even to some choice as towhat part of the news one wants tohave printed on his facsimile machine.

That stage of development shouldalso make a difference m the kinds

of news organizations that servethe home. For example, internationalnewspapers could become a reality,and in very large countries nationalnewspapers could circulate much moreeasily than now.

There might be a merger of somenewspapers and broadcasting newsunits into a broader kind of news ser¬

vice, combining the sense of receiving"instant news" that television offers

with the greater depth possible in printand facsimile

Much of the effect on news trans¬

mission may be felt even at the earlystages when most satellite communi¬cation is point-to-point.

One of the characteristics of satel¬lite communication is that the use of

the space link should cost about thesame regardless of the distance themessage travels, providing that it iswithin the satellite's effective coveragearea. This area can be as large as40 per cent of the earth's surface.

This suggests the attractive idea thatperhaps something like a flat rate (oran almost flat rate) for news, regard¬less of distance, might be establishedworld wide thanks to the peculiar eco¬nomic qualities of satellite transmis¬sion. If this were possible, it wouldhelp to even out the flow, and thushelp to equalize the chance for one partof the world to know about others.

Similarly, satellites will sooner orlater offer a chance to develop reliableteletype news service by radio to partsof the world where radio reception isnot now reliable. They also offer aninvitation to experiment with facsimile,a method which has been improvedand used for the transmission of

numerous kinds of pictural material,including newspaper pages for offsetreproduction. Satellites extend thesecapabilities farther and invite the newsmedia to review the question of whatnews functions might in the future becarried on by facsimile.

F OR television news, point-to-point satellites offer an opportunityto transmit news films and sound

tracks more quickly and probably morecheaply. One major American net¬work has announced that it plansto establish "self-contained news

bureaux. . . complete with equipmentand production crews for transmittingfully prepared stories" around the"main gateways for satellite commu¬nication" meaning chiefly the countrywith ground stations.

The international news agencies andmany national press associations arewell aware of the potential of satel¬lites for news transmissions, and tenof these organizations have formed ajoint committee, with a secretariat, inLondon.

One of the keenest observers of

the press has suggested that a jointadvisory board should be formed, in¬cluding the committee just mentioned,the International Telecommunications

Union, the Communications SatelliteCorporation, other organizations thatmay be responsible for launching com¬munication satellites, and Unesco.

This board, he suggests, should beresponsible for examining all meansby which the world flow of news couldbe improved through developments inspace communication.

The contribution of Unesco to bring¬ing satellites into use to assist theflow of world news might take the formof calling together such a group asthis, representing as broad as pos¬sible a spectrum of news media, newsagencies, and space communication,at first on a one-time basis, later ona continuing basis if that proveddesirable.

It is reasonable to assume that most

cultural exchange via satellites will bein the form of television, and that aslong as we have only point-to-pointsatellites there will not be much of

it. Most programmes, except spotnews, sporting events of wide in¬terest, or great historical events canbe exchanged just as appropriately onfilms or videotape carried by jet aero¬plane, as by satellite.

In fact many cultural programmes,such as opera, ballet and drama, arerelatively timeless, and can be trans¬mitted by almost any means. A com¬plicating factor, however, is that if itproves impossible to negotiate forother than live transmission of certain

art and entertainment events (forexample some music festivals), an ex¬change by films or videotape mightnot be feasible.

Yet the televising 'of great eventsby satellite, the occasional live pro¬gramme (for example, the "Our World"programme seen in Europe, NorthAmerica, Mexico, Tunisia, Australiaand Japan on June 25, 1967, and thesporadic "Town Meeting of the Air"programmes of discussion betweenEurope and America), along with theincreasing amount of travel in theworld, are building appetites forforeign television, and if satellitecharges continue to decrease we mayexpect to see more foreign televisionvia satellite.

There may be still more of it whendistribution satellites come in, andoffer the opportunity to use eveninghours on an educational satellite for

general programming. But the realimpact of satellite culture exchangewill come, if at all, when direct broad¬casting satellites are operative.

We can only speculate now as towhat these will do to television ser¬

vices. The opportunity will be therefor international television, if the bar¬riers and objections to it can be over¬come. It is not beyond belief that,twenty years from now, television fromseveral continents, along with a fac¬simile newspaper, might be readilyavailable in any home where there isa receiver..

Satellite programmers will know lessand less about their audiences and

may be forced into more and moreinnocuous programming in order tomeet a wide variety of tastes andavoid offending a wide variety of sen¬sitivities.

Furthermore, satellite broadcastingover a very wide range is certain tocome up against the problems of na¬tional sovereignty and national culturalsensitivity. What is a documentary toone country may be propaganda toanother country. What is great lite¬rature to one country may be offensiveto another. What is history to onecountry may be provocative to another.

Even what is education to one

country may be contrary to the normsand beliefs of another. In any wide-area satellite broadcasting there is

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

FIRST OPEN-HEART OPERATION

SEEN VIA SPACE

On a television screen in the University of Geneva (Switzerland),below, doctors and students follow stages of an -open-heart operationbeing performed at the same moment by U.S. surgeons in a hospitalat Houston (Texas) over 3,000 miles away. This first experiment inMondovision was made possible in 1965 by "Early Bird", a satelliteplaced in orbit some 22,000 miles above the Atlantic. Above, televisioncamera records surgical techniques for transmission by closedcircuit to a medical congress.

NEW MUSIC OF THE SPHERES (Continued)

Performer s rights in the era of satellites

likelihood of unintentional overlap ofcoverage areas, as well as opportuni¬ties for intentional propaganda to othercountries.

Along with this, consider the pecu¬liar vulnerability of a satellite to hos¬tile action. It is relatively easy to jamthe communication link to the instru¬

ment, and in some cases even to takeit over at times for one's own mes¬

sages. It is also within easy possi¬bility to break the signal code by whichthe satellite is turned on or off, orby which the jets are operated to keepit in position.

Therefore, it is conceivable that anation offended by a satellite's trans¬mission might simply turn on the jetsto move the satellite out of orbit and

destroy it. It is clear that the worldcan hardly enter into this direct broad¬cast stage of cultural exchange untilthe institutions and patterns of co¬operation, the mutually agreeablecodes" of programme conduct, and thearrangements for control of programmecontent and redress of grievances, areall carefully prepared.

Every public communication systemrequires controlling patterns and ins¬titutions so that its uses and contentwill be consonant with the norms of

the society it serves. It is preciselybecause different nations of the world

have different norms regarding free¬dom of information that satellite com¬

munication represents a difficult con¬trol problem.

I

28

HE more international com¬

munication the satellites carry, the morenecessary it will become to surroundthe satellite system with a pattern oflaw and orderliness and some institu¬

tional arrangements to manage thecontrol problems. If these arrange¬ments are not in working order by thetime we are ready to begin directbroadcasting from satellites, then weshall face a very dangerous situation.

Point-to-point communication by sat¬ellite is unlikely to challenge nationalsovereignty, and domestic legislationwill provide recourse for individuals ororganizations who consider themselvesto be injured by satellite transmissions.

Some problems may arise from dif¬fering national legislation on libel andbreach of privacy, and the rights ofperformers may have to be redefinedor reconsidered on an international

basis if their performances are madepublic in a number of distant countries.

At present these international arran¬gements are typically made by thebroadcasting organizations of the na¬tions involved. The more countries

involved, however, the more attractivesome broad, general arrangements willcome to seem'. Copyright, too, maypresent some problems.

The closer we move toward direct

broadcasting, the more imperative itwill become to approach on an inter¬national basis the problem of prevent¬ing abuses of the new capability forinternational communication, h is pre¬dictable that efforts to establish an

international legal system for infor¬mation will be resumed, at or near thepoint where they were carried by the1948 Geneva Conference. Some ins¬

titutional arrangements to carry outcontrol agreements will doubtless berequired.

Space law seems to be evolvingwithin long-accepted outlines of inter¬national law. At the time of the Inter¬

national Geophysical Year, all nationsagreed by common consent to an evo¬lutionary step of such importance thatit might be considered a part of the"common law of mankind": that outer

space may be used for peaceful andscientific purposes without restrictionsbased on terrestrial sovereignty.

A second principle, the basic rightof a nation to defend itself from attack,whether from the ground or from outerspace, is embodied in Article 51 of theCharter of the United Nations. It

points to the obvious need of defin¬ing what in the field of informationconstitutes an "attack", and providingcontrols and opportunity for redress.

A third principle is that of order¬liness in space, illustrated by the in¬ternational agreements already arrivedat for use of the radio spectrum which,like space itself, is conceived as thecommon property of mankind. It isdesirable now to devote major atten¬tion to defining these developing normsin practical terms.

But a professional code typicallyrequires a professional body to admi¬nister it. A set of rules or regulations,or a body of law, is of little value with¬out enforcement and administration.

Therefore, it is necessary to considerthe kinds of international institutions

and arrangements that would be re¬quired to maintain a rule of law and

order in space broadcasting.

The developing situation being whatit is, this institution should be designednot only to administer an existing code,but also to meet a series of unfore¬

seen problems and challenges as hu¬man experience in space unfolds.

How can we begin to move towardthe goal of very wide exchange, evenwhere the pattern does not now exist?The European Broadcasting Union hasits own exchange organization, Euro-vision, and the nations of East Europehave a parallel to it, Intervision.

One reason why the prospect of adistribution satellite is so attractive in

Europe is that a firm basis alreadyexists 'there for the exchange of pro¬grammes. There is also provision inthe Far East. No such regional ex¬change organizations exist, however,in Africa or the Americas.

In this problem, as in others we havetalked about, there is much to be done

on the ground before we leap intospace. Perhaps, the first step shouldbe to encourage mtercultural co-opera¬tion among broadcasters, as it hasbeen encouraged in Europe, quite apartfrom any consideration of space linksfor this exchange.

A T the same time it would be

useful to try to understand some of theproblems involved in such co-operation,and how they may be overcome.Unesco has begun to collect someof the experiences of regionalorganizations with exchange ofprogrammes. This is a sound andpractical step and should furnish someguidance both for new regionalorganizations, and for co-operativeefforts on a world-wide scale.

The Chairman of the Board of the

National Broadcasting Company (Uni¬ted States) has advocated a world-wideassociation of broadcasters. Nothingless than that, he says, "can providea wholly effective nerve centre toserve emerging needs rising from tele¬vision's rapid global growth. Theseinclude the need, not only for a cen¬tral file of programmes available forpurchase or exchange, but for a clear¬ing house to deal with such factors astime differentials, copyrights, unionarrangements, scheduling clearancesand simultaneous translation."

It is apparent that much internationalexchange of cultural programmes canand will take place without the useof satellites, and therefore if regionaland then world-wide exchange can befacihted in general a certain part ofthe practice will merge into exchangeby satellite.

This would then be a step towardmeeting the problems of direct broad¬casting by satellite. At least, the habitof co-operation would be set up, andvarious forms of it for example, thejoint planning and production of aprogramme would be tried out. Suchdifficult problems as performer's rightsand copyright would be aired.

Problems like these might be the

Just published

COMMUNICATION

IN THE SPACE AGE

(the use of satellites bythe mass media)Unesco, 1968. Price $4.00;20/-stg.

Based on a score of studies sub¬

mitted by specialists in the deve¬lopment of space communication toa meeting convened by Unesco, ioDecember 7965, to consider the useof communication satellites for

education, science and culture.

As the Winter OlympicGames take place inGrenoble (France) fromFebruary 6 to 18,transmissions via

communication satellites

enable millions of

televiewers as far awayas Japan and the UnitedStates to watch the events

Photo shows Olympicbobsleigh trackilluminated for nightrace. Two satellites,

"Early Bird" and "LanlBird", are retransmitting27 hours of sportingevents during the Games.During the last OlympicWinter Games, heldfour years ago in Austria,each relay by "Telstar"satellite was limited to

11 minutes duration.

Photo Photopress, Grenoble

next areas where Unesco or other

appropriate organizations could helppave the way toward direct broad¬casting of cultural programmes by sat¬ellite. The question of copyright, asaffected by satellite transmission,needs to be studied.

The Buenos Aires round table of

1964 on Legal Systems Governing Sat¬ellite Communications, as reported byArmando Cocea, concluded that anextension of the present copyrightconvention would provide adequateprotection.

The rights of performers will presentmore complex and difficult problemsin the satellite age, and the Berne

Convention, as revised at Rome in

1961 and at Stockholm in 1967, clearlyneeds re-examination. When it is

decided what modifications, extensions,or replacements of these agreementsare desirable, then new instruments,

if needed, might be drafted by theappropriate parties and brought to theattention of governments.

Studies and possible agreements ofthese kinds would be easier than the

ultimate problems of control and orga¬nization which must be met before

direct broadcasting becomes a reality.Yet at the appropriate time these toocan be faced. Whether the problemof freedom and control, as applied

to space broadcasting, is taken up asan extension of the 1948 United Na¬

tions sessions, or otherwise, it wouldbe desirable to stimulate preparatorydialogue.

Practising broadcasters and inter¬national legal scholars believe that ahigh degree of co-operation, toleranceand restraint, along with suitable agree¬ments and administrative machinery,will be required if direct broadcastingfrom satellites is ever to be anythingother than a piece of science fictionor a non-fictional fiasco. The reason

for approaching these problems todayis that they will certainly be far worsetomorrow.

29

A prize-winning essay from Uruguay

THE WORLD

WE HOPE FORby Maria Cristina Costa Diaz

B

30

Y "The world we hope for"I mean the world hoped for not onlyby the present generation to which Ibelong, but by future generations.Aspirations to a better world cannotbe fulfilled in a single life-span, whichis but a moment in the immensity oftime.

The world we hope for, then, shouldbring:

Lasting peace: no more wars bet¬ween nations or groups of nations; noexpansionist countries using their su¬perior material, military or economicstrength to abuse or violate the rightsof weaker countries; an end to thecauses of strife within nations; no

endless class struggles; internationalrelations governed by clear, just prin¬ciples which always respect the peo¬ple's rights; a lasting peace, free fromfear and oppression.

Concord and solidarity among allmen: no infuriating disparity betweenthose who make millions and those

who have not even enough to feedtheir families properly. The sight forever banished of the destitute beggingfor charity in the streets, when whatthey need, as our equals in rights, iswork, a chance to improve their lot andto restore their confidence and faith in

themselves. To be spared the sight ofragged children selling band-aids, tran¬quilizers and matches in public buses,when their parents should be the onesto work; and to be rid of the selfishand miserly whose very existencemeans that many of their fellow-beingsgo hungry. The benefits would beuniversal if men acted upon feelingsof friendship and mutual respect,instead of merely paying lip-service tothem!

The spread of education and know¬ledge throughout every continent sothat the light of learning may dispersethe shadows of illiteracy. Educationmade available to all an education

no longer theoretical and largely di¬vorced from life; all the cultural

resources of society at the service ofof the whole community.

The aim of teaching and educationto be a training for life, providinginstruction rooted in life itself and in

the fundamental problems of the day.To this end, industrial and agriculturaleducation should be developed andintensified, as should scientific andtechnological research. In otherwords, the aim should not be tomake (or rather deform) to measurepersons whose professional skillsserve merely to plead the cause ofprivilege and to uphold the privileged;on the contrary, professional trainingshould be dedicated to the service of

society as a whole.

The printed word is the most power¬ful instrument of man's development:it satisfies the infinite thirst for know¬

ledge and is unmatched as a mediumof intellectual communication; it main¬

tains the continuity of history andculture, the common heritage, animat¬ing force and living essence of apeople, which it behoves us all,as cells of the social organism, toconserve, defend and cherish. Bookstrain and cultivate the mind. All men

must be educated and taught theircivic rights and duties so as to enjoya real freedom of decision, without the

risk of being cheated or defrauded intheir aspirations.

Study as a corner-stone of life, sothat when literacy becomes universal,everyone may find opportunities ofapplying, in their community andespecially in their work, all they havelearned.

The promotion of science and tech¬nology, symbolic of the present andthe future, to enable man to exploreinfinite space, and allow human intelli¬gence to penetrate far and deep inits insatiable thirst for knowledge.

The Uruguayan scientist, ClementeEstable, addressing the Uruguayan

Chamber of Representatives, whichheld a session in his honour on Octo¬

ber 3, 1960, declared : "In our time,when even astronomy has become,amazingly, an experimental science,with artificial satellites and planetoids,scientific research is an absolute and

imperative necessity, and any invest¬ment in such research is of greatsignificance for democracy."

The paths of science and technologylead to the realm of energy, light andspeed. A stimulus must be given toall speculative pure or applied thought(in philosophy or the sciences) and toevery concrete expression of theconcept of beauty (in the realm of thearts, whether sculpture or painting,music or literature.) The essentialaim is to enhance the meaning of lifethrough art, and thus hallow thetriumph of spiritual over materialthings.

Increased production, and the abun¬dance that will result from compulsorywork, whose effects will be chieflyfelt in the productive sectors; byplanning and rationalization of produc¬tion; by the contribution of techno¬logy; by economic development. Allthis should make for abundance;

enough food for all, an end to malnu¬trition; lower death rates; preventionand eradication of sickness; the gua¬rantee of a better life for future gen¬erations; a fair distribution of thenational income.

The concept of work as a law oflife, in accordance with the followingprinciples: compulsion to work for allthe mentally and physically fit; a nor¬mal work day to satisfy not only theneeds but the reasonable and legiti¬mate desires of all; elimination ofsocial parasites so that each can andmust live by his own resources, not bythe effort and sacrifice of others.

Freedom from crime. The . minds

of men purged of criminal thoughtsby vigorous campaigns of education

A regular programme on Uruguayan television,"The Questions of Man", is entirely devoted to

themes from the "Unesco Courier". Last year,the programme's director. Señor Eduardo Adrian,

and the Losada Publishing House in Montevideo

organizeda nation-wide essay contest for Uruguay'shigh school students on "The World We HopeFor". We are pleased to publish here the text of

the winning composition written by 16-year-oldMaría Cristina Costa Diaz, a student of the Sacred

Heart Institute, in Montevideo, whose prize was

a collection of 30 books and a three-year subscrip¬tion to the "Unesco Courier". Photo shows Señorita

Costa Diaz with (on her left) Salvador Valle (second

prize), and Juan Carlos Mondragón (third prize).

and re-education from the social, psy¬chological, moral, individual and pro¬fessional viewpoints. Creation of eco¬nomic and social conditions which will

do away with the socio-economic rootsof crime. Penal laws with humane and

social aims that concord with the

most progressive recommendationsadopted by specialists at internationalcongresses, always bearing in mindthat a prison should not be a place oftorment and retribution, but of re-edu¬cation, rehabilitation and work. Andmeasures should be taken to preventcriminals from buying immunity fromthe law through influence.

Proper housing for all. The "rightto a roof" is a primary, elementary andessentiel right which must be guaran¬teed by the State. It is one wayof giving self-respect to the citizenand promoting a better standard ofliving.

An end to man's exploitation by man,that appalling evil which still persistsin various hidden forms: all men to be

of equal standing, with neither exploi¬ters nor exploited; work as a socialforce used to further the general in¬terest, creating wealth for all; thefashioning of a new mentality, takingfor granted that man should be thebrother and friend of man, not his

plunderer, and that everyone shouldsupport and help his neighbour.

Strong feelings of solidarity, dead¬ened under the present competitivesystem, would be aroused, and "allfor each and each for all" would

acquire real meaning as a principleof work, with a full, human, fraternalrelationship uniting all mankind asartisans of progress.

Full development of "fundamentalrights". I will refer to only one ofthese: freedom. This implies, in insti¬tutional and material terms, the rightof everyone to fulfil a vocation andto develop his personality; and in theexpression and communication ofideas, the right to meet together and

to form associations, freedom toexpress political, philosophical, moraland religious ideas of any kind andthe right to exercise any professionor occupation, as well as to developany manual, scientific or cultural skill.

Freedom of work, certainly, but alsofor everyone the right to work, todo an honest job without being exploit¬ed; and for the State, the duty toprovide it. In short, freedom unimped¬ed by economic, social or politicalbarriers.

Ethical principles put into practice,shaping man's thoughts and acts.Fulfilment of moral precepts estab¬lished by general consensus; man'sthinking and actions guided by pureand worthy motives.

Justice for all, giving to eachaccording to his needs, encouragingeach to give according to his abilities,wiping out oppression and the exis¬tence of privileged groups which placethemselves above the law.

Achievement of real equality, as allwill have the same rights and duties,and the same economic, social, poli¬tical, cultural and vocational opportu¬nities.

The reign of truth and sincerity withmen speaking from the heart, in purityof intent and action, and an end tolying, hypocrisy and dissimulation.

Governments worthy of civicallymature peoples: upright, loyal, honestdefenders of the general interest;neither corrupt nor corrupting, norvenal; neither enriching themselves inoffice, nor betraying the people. Poli¬tics practised with a moral sense ofcivil guidance and conduct, withoutsuborning or purchasing the cons¬cience of men with money or favours;in other words, politics based on matu¬rity and enlightenment, instead ofignorance.

The disappearance of existing colo¬nies and the incorporation of their

peoples in the concert of free nations.In our century of satellites and spacerockets, in this atomic and thermo¬

nuclear age, colonies are a blot to bewiped from the face of the planet onceand for all. We Uruguayans finallythrew off all foreign yokes in 1828.Shame on the human race that colo¬nies should still exist in our world

today.

The world we Uruguayans hope forfits into the pattern already outlined(conceived not as a vision of tomor¬row but of a future time), yet hassome special features of its own.

In the reality we expect for Uruguayand the other Latin American countries,the following aims should be achieved:land must be put to better use, redis¬tributed to serve the whole community,exploited rationally and with the helpof modern technology; sources ofemployment must be created, as theonly effective weapon to attack enforc¬ed idleness; commerce and industrymust be planned to take account ofnational needs; the various branches

of national legislation must be reno¬vated and adjusted to current waysof life and to the pace and demandsof our time.

Education and instruction must be

available to all, with priority for thoseliving in the countryside; a vast literacycampaign should be promoted, andschool-building accelerated. Higheragricultural, industrial and technicaleducation must also be developed.

All public services must bereorganized, to prevent the irrationaldistribution of specialists, technicians,office staff and manual workers.

Their knowledge and ability should beused to the best advantage, withagricultural engineers and specialistsworking in rural agricultural schools,

not in offices in the capital; and in Q1general, all professional men, doctors, J |lawyers, architects and others shoulddevote their efforts to the work for

which they were trained.

HOMES ON STILTS

are those of fishermen

who live in parts ofthe Great Lake of the

Tonle Sap where theleast annual floodingoccurs. The projectedTonle Sap barrage willcontrol the maximum

water level of the lake

and increase its depthin dry weather, therebyregulating fish productionwhich today fluctuatesaccording to the extentand duration of floods.

^i-

Unesco mathematical model

tO harness the Mekong (Continued from page 22)

i/V^'jJF»*»/!Photo © Raymond Cauchetier

32

ments and a certain co-operation on

the part of nature.

With this special Model hydraulicand hydrological conditions in theDelta, fromi Chlong to the South ChinaSea and the Gulf of Thailand were

simulated, first without and later witha dam: the data collected in the field

and those already available weresubjected to computer analysis takingthe two sets of conditions, without and

with the dam All these materials

will be carefully kept because, withmodifications appropriate to differentconditions, they can be used in futureinvestigations, perhaps for the studyof different problems.

At the SOGREAH laboratories,

where the computer work was done,six specialists two from Cambodiaand four from the Republic of Viet-

Nam were given UNDP fellow¬ships to be trained in the use ofthe Model. Though unexpected va¬

garies of the monsoon caused delaysin the measurement campaign, thefirst three phases of the project

were almost finished by the end of1965. With all the essential data

collected at this time, it was thus

possible to complete the final modelby early 1966.

Coming to the end of thisprogramme after seven years, and

with a joint expenditure of slightlymore than $1,250,000 by the govern¬ments concerned and UNDP, it is

logical to ask: has the project beensuccessful and has it been worth

while?

The completed .project demonstratesa number of special achievements.

In the final plan the MathematicalModel has enabled the technicians to

find answers to many questions

relating to the effect of the Tonle Sapdam. It can now be demonstrated that

the control of the flood-water will be

effective, although less so than wasexpected, but that great care will beneeded to avoid aggravating the floodeffect, mainly in Cambodia.

Taking the results of the programmeas a whole mention can be made of

three notable conclusions:

; There is now agreement betweenthe specialists on what could beexpected of the Tonle Sap dam;

The Mathematical Model is an

essential tool for effecting the bestcontrol of the flood. It may also be

used for studies yet to be made onpossible dam sites in the upper partof the Mekong Basin and may permitthe study of the effects on the Deltaof upper basin regulation;

In order to adjust the model, a

survey has been carried out which

has added to the knowledge of theDelta. For example, the curve definingthe capacity of the lake as a function

of the water level is now accuratelyknown.

In the broader sense, the carryingthrough of this project has contributednew scientific techniques which can

and will be used in other parts of theworld.

The project has also an importanteducational factor in that competentsenior personnel from countries of the

region have received high level trainingin specialized laboratories in fields

such as programming, hydraulics,computer mathematics, engineeringtechnology and administration.

Finally some comment is due on thespirit of international technical co¬

operation which prevailed throughoutthe project.

In an area where there were periodsof major political conflicts and strained

diplomatic relations, at no time was

it necessary to suspend or interruptthe work of the committee. This fact

alone has instilled into the project ahealthy air of confidence which it is

hoped will carry on into the develop¬ment projects that the creation of

the Mathematical Model has made

possible.

Letters to the EditorFARADAY AND THE DYNAMO

Sir,

In "Great Men, Great Events" (Oct.1967) I read that Michael Faradayinvented the dynamo. I believe thisis incorrect. The dynamo the ma¬chine capable of generating a con¬tinuous electric current was invented

by a Belgian, Zénobe Gramme, a con¬temporary of Faraday. I believe Fara¬day, in his experiments, concentratedon alternating current. The firstsuccessful generation of continuouscurrent cannot be attributed to him,

but this in no way detracts from histalents.

Raymond BertrandBrussels, Belgium

Dr. B. N. GOSWAMY

A CORRECTION

Sir,

My contribution to the studies ofIndian and Asian art is far more

modest than is suggested by the bio¬graphical note on me which appearsin the Dec. 1967 issue of the "Unesco

Courier", accompanying my article on"The Epics in the Art of India andSouth Asia". The error in my iden¬tification appears to have arisen frommy surname which I share with otherand learned authors. The principalfield of my work is the History ofIndian Painting and my publicationsdo not include the titles listed in the

biographical note.

Dr. B. N. GoswamyProfessor of Art History

Panjab UniversityChandigarh, India

THE RIGHT VALUES

FOR CULTURAL TOURISM

Sir,

What is Unesco doing for thepreservation of cultural assets notcarved in stone? Your reports onplans for "cultural tourism" in Turkey,Peru and Iran (Dec. 1966) qualifiesas "tourist attractions" such things as"native traditions, customs, nationaldress, folklore, etc."

As a student of folk music, I submit

with all respect that if large-scaletourism is brought to Peru, the youngPeruvian piper whose photo youreproduce will in a few years be athing of the past. This young manwill be driving a taxi or slouchingaround in the streets of the neighbour¬ing town. The "attractions" you men¬tion will be nothing more than artificialsurvivals for exhibition at annual fairs.

Should not economic develop¬ment take more responsible forms?Should it not, among other things,encourage the native crafts instead ofmeddlesome activities from outside

the country? Efforts of that kindshould at least go side by side withthe plans in view, if we are to avoida social convulsion, the effects of

which are hard to foretell. Unesco

should be concerned primarily withthese matters And this, I maypresume, is your general practice,although these articles harp rathertoo much on the scramble for foreignexchange.

The attentive reader might questionyour optimism about internationalunderstanding 'International under¬standing is nothing more than"education" and, in this context, theeducation of both parties. The masstourist, however, does not travel insearch of culture, but, for the mostpart unprepared and without anyinward urge, wants to spend hisholiday in an "interesting" place.The inhabitant of the country visited isthinking solely in terms of "money".The result, I am afraid, is what ethno¬logists would call an "exchangebetween mutes". (Sausages, films,picture postcards and straw hats can besold just as easily by slot machines;and, all the world over, the touristguide is, regrettably, little more thana superior gramophone.) What has sofar been achieved in this branch of

work and what, to judge by yourarticles, is still to be achieved is notthe beginning of understanding, butits lamentable end'

That, of course, is no more yourfault than mine; yet I consider thatit should be your job, in future under¬takings of this kind, to set the rightstandards

If I may be allowed the question,what will become of the "invest¬

ments" spoken of, should the flow oftourists not materialize or graduallydry up? True, a restored temple willretain its incalculable value (scientificor other), but a change in a country'sinfrastructure, brought about artificiallyfrom beyond its borders, is left behind,stripped of all meaning. It can onlybe hoped that the authorities on bothsides are not thinking exclusively offoreign currency, for what ends havehitherto been served by the blessingsof foreign exchange and teemingtourists? Nowhere have they con¬tributed anything worth mentioning tonative studies or to any notableflowering of an indigenous culture.All that they have done is to hastenits decay or, at best, to sap itsvitality in every sphere.

In conclusion, may I thank you foryour informative magazine and assureyou that I follow your projects withlively interest.

Leonard Vohs

Cologne, Fed. Rep. of Germany

UNITED STATES OF EUROPE 7

Sir,

Congratulations on your issue"U.S.SR. Today" (November 1967) Iwonder whether you could publish asimilar issue on the United States,dealing with roughly the same subjectsin equal depth and breadth.

May I also suggest an issue on"The United States of Europe: Mythor Future Reality", which could Include

articles on Christendom in the Middle

Ages; the ideas of France's Henry IV;the Europe of the Emperor Charles V,of Louis XIV, the "Sun King", ofNapoleon and of Hitler; and the am¬bitions of each of these men; also

the efforts being made today in thecontext of the European EconomicCommunity.

I should also welcome an article

comparing the U.S.S.R. and the UnitedStates from an administrative as well

as an economic viewpoint: how, forexample, the American states and theSoviet republics administer their ownaffairs and to what extent they areobliged to comply with federal laws.

Jean Catherineau

Bordeaux, France

WORLD PETITION

FOR PEACE

Sir,

In your Issue on "War or Peace"(August-September 1967) I was struckby the identity of views expressed bymen of such different outlooks as

Pope Paul VI, a Soviet journalist andPhilip Noel-Baker namely that waris anachronistic and absurd and that

all "men of good will" must devotethemselves urgently to building a last¬ing Peace. I believe public opinionwill be awakened to the terrifyingprospect of a nuclear war, a dangerwhich we must strive to eliminate. The

solutions you propose are reasonable,realistic and sound. A call for a

world petition is not a Utopian ideait would certainly disclose the pro¬found longing for peace felt by millionsof human beings.

Elisabeth Coin, aged 16Caen, France

COSTA RICA SETS

AN EXAMPLE

Sir,

As a mathematics teacher in the

oldest high school in Costa Rica andan admirer of your magazine, I decid¬ed in December 1966 to take out ten

one-year subscriptions with moneycollected by my 100 students. Whenthe next academic year began thefollowing March we already had inhand 30 copies of the magazinewith which to establish a circulat¬

ing library. By the end of the yeareach student had been able to borrow

five different issues, each for a two-

week period, and was then present¬ed with a copy to keep. Among your1967 issues "Africa and the African

Genius", with its excellent map, "Expo67" and "The Population Crunch werefavourites with these young readers.

I think such a scheme could be

followed in hundreds of secondaryschools, thus promoting the diffusionof your splendid magazine.

Rafael Llubere ZúñigaSan José, Costa Rica 33

From the Unesco New

34

Australia's weather

data satellite

Australia has become the seventh nation

to place an artificial satellite in orbit aroundthe earth. Named Wresat, the Australian-built satellite was launched on November

29, 1967 from the Woomera Rocket Rangewith a US rocket and with the helpof British technical facilities. Conical in

shape and weighing 100 lbs (45 Kg), itsprimary object is to transmit scientific datafor studies of climate Other nations which

have successfully launched artificial satel¬lites are Canada, France, Italy, USSR,UK. and U.S A.

Cyclone warningsystem for Pakistan

The Swedish Save the Children Organ¬ization has given a modern hurricanewarning system costing about $200,000 toPakistan. Functioning by radar, the systemcan detect hurricanes 250 miles away Itwill protect a region in East Pakistan wherehurricanes occur frequently, causing manydeaths each year.

Medicated salt

against malariaBy impregnating ordinary cooking salt

with chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, theWorld Health Organization may have foundan effective way to combat malaria amongnomadic peoples In a pilot project in Iran,the malaria parasite rate among nomadsusing the medicated salt dropped in oneyear from 18.7 per cent to 3 4 per cent,and to 0 1 1 per cent in the following year.Malaria control among nomads is difficultbecause their way of life makes sprayingof living quarters impractical and regulardrug-taking difficult

Lifting taxes on knowledgeRepresentatives of 68 governments,

meeting in Geneva under Unesco'sauspices, have recommended the elimin¬ation of tariffs and frontier formalities

affecting the international circulation ofaudio-visual equipment, books, news¬papers, magazines, works of art, scientificapparatus and articles for the blind TwoUnesco international agreements aimed ateasing the circulation of educational,scientific and cultural materials alreadyexist; the Geneva meeting urged that theybe given wider application; in particular,that sound recordings for broadcasting andapparatus for fundamental scientificresearch be duty-free

REGULAR PAGESIN FULL COLOUR

We wish to remind our readers that,

as in past years, the UNESCOCOURIER will publish 20 full colourpages grouped in four of five issuesduring 1968.

Motorists, T.V.is watching you

Television cameras placed at busy inter¬sections may give United States roadsafety experts a better idea of whatactually happens in traffic accidents. Tobe used initially on an experimental basis,the cameras will monitor traffic contin¬

uously, erasing the video record automatic¬ally every twenty seconds. However, thesound of an accident will touch off a signaland preserve the preceding images. TheUnited States Department of Transport¬ation is installing the first monitoring unitin Buffalo, New York State, and plans toset up 75 to 100 others if the experimentis successful.

Cheaper drilling for mineralsScientists in Australia are experimenting

with high-pressure water jets as a meansof drilling holes for mineral prospection. Inlaboratory tests with the new method hardgranite has been cut at a rate of aboutone foot (30 cm) a second over a shortperiod, much faster than conventionaldiamond-tipped drills Subjected first tovery high pressure, the water is releasedthrough a fine nozzle, reaching a velocityof 2,000 feet (600 metres) a second. Ifcommercially applicable, this drillingtechnique would be not only faster butalso cheaper than diamond drilling, whichcan cost $20 a foot ($66 a metre).

6,000 U.N. specialistsaid developing countries

During 1967-68 more than 6,000 special¬ists are participating in technical assistanceprojects in 113 countries under the UnitedNations Development Programme (UNDP)These projects are carried out with thehelp of U.N. specialized agencies Theircost during the two-year period will total$140 million, of which $114 million will bespent in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Flashes...

Spam has singled out 1,550 of its historicbuildings and sites for State conservationand restoration

In Brisbane (Australia) technicians haveperfected a typewriter which flashes thewords typed onto a screen, thus enablingdumb persons to communicate rapidly witheach other

Young men drivers with good academicrecords in school or university have feweraccidents than those with poor records,a United States insurance company hasfound.

The first Soviet observatory speciallydesigned to study comets is being builtnear Kiev.

There are now more than 191 million

motor vehicles in 'use in the world, com¬

pared with only 56 million in 1946.

An underground concert auditorium isbeing built in the Jeita Cave near Beirut,Lebanon the largest known cave in Asia.

BOOKSHELF

U.N. BOOKS

International Space Bibliography1966 ($4.00).

Economic Survey of Latin Amer¬ica, 1965

1967 ($5.00).

The Libraries of the United Na¬

tions (A descriptive guide) 1966($1.50).

U.N. publications can be orderedthrough bookstores, through theUnesco Publications Center, NewYork (see page 35) or from U.N. SalesSection New York and Geneva.

MENTOR-UNESCO ART BOOKS

FONTANA UNESCO ART BOOKS

The Art of Central Africa:

sculpture and tribal masksIntroduction by William Fagg.

Renoir

Introduction by Michel Drucker.

Miro

Introduction by Jacques Dupin.

Mentor-Unesco Art Books are pub¬lished by The New American Libra¬ry, New York and Toronto, by arran¬gement with Unesco, 1967 ($1.25).

Fontana Unesco Art Books are pub¬lished by Collins, London, in asso¬ciation with Unesco, 1967 (5/-).

HISTORY AND HISTORY TEACHING

The Middle Age of African HistoryEdited by Roland Oliver.Oxford University Press, London,1967 (13/6).

A Handbook for History TeachersBy R. VajreswariAllied Publishers Private Ltd. Cal¬

cutta, 1966 (Rs. 14.00).

South-East Asia in World History(A course for lower secondaryschools)3: The Modern World (2nd ed.)By P.B. Hilton and D.J. TateOxford University Press, 1967 (13/-).

*

The Story of the EnglishLanguageBy Mario PeiA revised edition of "The Story ofEnglish"J. P. Lippincott Company, Philadel¬phia and New York, 1967 ($6.95).

The Electronic Revolution

By S. HandelA Pelican original, Penguin Books,Harmondsworth, England, 1967 (6/-).

The Novelists' Inheritance inFrench Africa

Writers from Senegal to CameroonBy A. C. Brench(Three Crowns Library)Oxford University Press, London,1967, (10/6).

British Further Education

By A.J. Peters.Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1967(63/-stg.).

World Peace Through World Law(Two Alternative Plans)By Grenville Clark and Louis B.Sohn

Harvard University Press, Cambridge,Massachusetts, 3rd ed. enlarged,1966 ($5.25).

New edition

STUDY ABROAD

including Vacation StudyVol. XVII, 1968-1969, 1969-1970

INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARSHIPS

EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE

Individual awards for study abroad. Informationon some 21 5,000 individual opportunities for subsidizedstudy or educational travel abroad in the form of scho¬larships, fellowships and other types of financial assis¬tance. These awards are for study during the academicyears 1 967/1 968, 1 968/1 969, 1 969/1 970.

Opportunity for travel to virtually every country ofthe world and for study of almost every academic subject.

Short-term educational opportunities of aninternational character particularly those offeringvacation courses at university level.

The section Vacation Study Abroad replaces Vaca¬tions Abroad : courses, study tours, work camps,previously issued as a separate publication.

Trilingual: English /French /Spanish. 683 pagesPrice: $5 25/- (stg.) 17,50 F.

WHERE TO RENEW YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

and order other Unesco publications

Order from any bookseller, or write direct tothe National Distributor in your country. (See listbelow ; names of distributors in countries not

listed will be supplied on request.) Payment ismade in the national currency ; the rates quotedare for an annual subscription to THE UNESCOCOURIER in any one language.

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ELECTRONIC

COMPUTER

HELPS HARNESS

THE MEKONG

Photo © Raymond Cauchetier

Until recently man had never attempted to control the unpre¬dictable Mekong ("Mother of Rivers"), one of the world'slongest rivers (2,600 miles) whose vagaries directly affect theeconomy of vast areas of South-East Asia. The developmentof the Lower Mekong Basin concerns Cambodia, Laos, Thai¬land and the Republic of Viet-Nam, but cannot be carriedout without international assistance. For the past sevenyears Unesco and the United Nations Development Programmehave worked with these countries on plans to control thelower course of the Mekong. For this unprecedented project amathematical model of the Mekong Delta has been createdwith the aid of an electronic computer (see article page 17).