Approved For Release 2000/08/08 * CIA-RDP9GqARZBA RAO 220 CRTANATiBer Education » Ad later enlarged Sor Juana’s English-speak- ing audience with translations: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Poems (Bilingual Pregs, . 1985) and A Woman of Genius: The Intel- lectual Autobiography of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Lime Rock Press, 1982). Ms. Peden, a professor of Spanish at the Uni- versity of Missouri at Columbia, also translated Mr. Paz’s Sor Juana for Har- vard. The Sor Juana revival will continue next year, when, for example, as part of its se- ries on Latin American Literature and Cul- ture, Wayne State University Press plans to publish Toward a Feminist Understand- ing of Sor Juana Inés de a Cruz, edited by Stephanie Merrim, an associate professor of Hispanic studies al Brown, No Access to Formal Education Ms. Merrim's book will address an issue to which she says Mr. Paz pays insufficient attention—Sor Juana’s relation to writing by other women. Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their Own Works, a literary study of nuns in Spain and in Spanish holdings in the New World during the 16th, 17th, and 18th cen- turies, will also shed light on that matter. Edited by Ms. Arenal of Stater Island and Stacey Schlau of West Chester University of Pennsylvania, it is scheduled for publi- cation by the University of New Mexico Press in 1989. The pivotal event, agree, will be the appearance of Mr. Paz's study in tandem with Mr. Trueblood’s an- thology. The anthology contains Sor Juana's best works in poetry and in prose—‘First Dream” and ‘‘Reply to Sor Philothea,” re- spectively—as well as a variety of her oth- er writings, including some excerpts from The Divine Narcissus, one of her several plays. As Mr. Paz shows. those achievements came against considerable odds. Juana was born out of wedlock, proba- bly in 1648, ina Village southeast of the city of Mexico (now Mexico City). Atabout the age of 10 she was sent to live with an aunt in the city. By necessity—as a woman, she had no access to a formal education—she was fargely self-taught. She nonetheless pro- Continued on Page A8 scholars seem to. A field worker sketches a fossil that researchers say belongs to the gigantic “Supersaurus” dinosaur. Parapsy chologists Fire Back at a National Academy Report That Called Field Unscientific and Experiments Flawed By DAVID L. WHEELER Parapsychologists, who investigate such ‘phenomena as extrascnsory perception, have fired back at a National Research Council committec that said their field is. unscientific and their experiments poorly conducted. Parapsychologists study psychological phenomena not readily explainable by the existing laws of science. They believe some experiments they frequently conduct demonstrate unexplainable effects that point to the possible existence of telepathy or the power of mind over matter. A report by a National Research Council commit- tee, however, said those experiments had been completely inconclusive and any pos- . itive results were due-to- methodological flaws, or “dirty test tubes." Parapsychologists consider the reputa- tion of their field and its future support to be at stake and they have been trying to discredit the National Research Council report, “Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and Techniques,” re- leased last year by the National Academy Press (The Chronicle, December 9, 1987). The U.S. Army commissioned the report to see if some performance-improvement techniques developed outside the main- stream of science, such as bicfeedback, sleep learning, and extrasensory percep- tion, might have some value for soldiers. ‘No Scientific Justification’ Not all of the report deak with parapsy- chology, but it said there was ‘“‘no scien- tific justification from research conducted over a period of 130 years for the existence of parapsychological phenomena.” Dean I. Radin, a research psychologist at Princeton University and the president of the Parapsychological Association, says the parapsychologists expected a some- what negative report but felt the National Research Council committee had gone to extremes—including the attempted sup- pression of evidence favorable to parapsy- chology—to try to debunk parapsychologi- cal research, “Reporte like the one by the National Research Council tend to influence people who might be interested in funding this work," says Mr. Radin. ‘They are not in- terested in ridicule any more than anyone else is." Universities Urged to Set Clearer Policies on ‘Gray Areas’ of Scientific Misconduct WASHINGTON A group of scientists, journal editors. lawyers, university administrators, and federal policymakers convened by the In- stitute of Medicine made a series of recom- mendations last week that could give uni- versities a bigger role in encouraging prop- er scientific conduct, A aumber of reports of scientific fraud this year triggered Congressional investi- gations of some specific cases and prompt- ed suggestions that the federal government should more actively audit the research it pays for. Scientists who fear such interfer- ence in research and who have some con- cers of their own about ethics in science are beginning to re-examine their research practices, Some universities are also tak- ing a new look at their promotion and ten- ure policies to ste if the policies are en- couraging rapid-fire publication that could be promoting bad science. The Institute of Medicine, which is part of the National Academy of Sciences, has put together a committee on scientific re- sponsibility that is preparing a report for the National Institutes of Health. The com- mittee organized last week's workshop, at which speakers expressed widely diver- gent views on what to do about preventing scientific misconduct—not just the blatant Continued on Page Al0 Dean b. Radin: “Reports like the one by the National Research Council tend to influence people who might be interested in funding this work.” Ray Hyman, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and one of two people on the research council's commit- tee who evaluated parapsychology, de- scribes the parapsychologists’ criticisms of the committee's report as ‘*kind of sil- iy.” Some Experiments Worth Following “The parapsychologists should be re- joicing,”” he says. **This was the first gov- ecament committee that said their work should be taken seriously.”’ The report recommended that the Army continue to “monitor” some parapsycho- fogical research and occasionally visit some laboratories, including one at Prince- ton University. The committee said the re- search worth following included “Ganz- feld’’ experiments intended to measure te- lepathy and experiments in which research subjects try to mentally force a random- humber-generating device to emit numbers that are not random. Mr. Hyman says the parapsychologists Continued on Page Al0 RESEARCH NOTES BMKOMAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Bones of the ‘Supersaurus’; Superconductioily Advance; Professionals and Part-Time Work Researchers from Brigham Young University have unearthed what they say is the largest complex of dinosaur pelvic bones that have ever been dis- covered. The massive fossils include several fused vertebrae and the pelvic bones of what was believed to be a plant-eating Supersaurus dinosaur. The Brigham Young researchers esti- mated that the dinosaur measured 120 feet in length and weighed between 20 and 30 tons when it died some 135 mil- lion years ago. The complex of bones, which meas- ured 73 inches by 52 inches, was uncov- ered August 18 at Dry Mesa Quarry near Delta, Colo. Researchers said the new find was important because it would help to set- tle the debate over how Supersaurus was related to a smaller dinosaur known as Diplodocus. _—KIM A. MCDONALD Superconductor Advance Reported at U. of Arkansas Two researchers at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville have reported a safer method of making a thallium- based high-temperature superconduc- tor, a material that, when chilled, is capable of transmilting electricity with no resistance. Thallium, a poisonous el- ement used in rat poisons, appears to be a necessary element in the preparation of superconductors with the most desir- able properties. A thallium-barium-calcium copper Continued on Page A8& Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002200270001-8 Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited.
A10 + The Chronicle of Higher Education + September 14, 1988 Continued from Page AS are pushing for acceptance by other researchers too soon. Many parapsy- chologists are well trained, he says, but are often not following widely ac- cepted standards for experiments. ‘1 think their experiments should be an embarrassment to them,” he says. “They need to go back ta their lab. oratories and clean up their act.” The Parapsychological Associa- tion, which has about 250 members, has replied to the research council's commitice with a 29-page critique of its report. Large Body of Findings Cited The critique says the ‘‘commit- tee's conclusion far outstrips the scope of its investigation. . . . Para- psychologists have accumulated a Jarge borly of experimental findings that (a) suggest important new means of human interaction with their envi- conment and (b) cannot be plausibly attributed to known conventional mechanisms.” {nm one kind of experiment, cited both by many parapsychologists and by their critics as being the best work parapsychologists have done, re- search subjects are placed in a reclin- ing chair in a soundpraofed roam with “white noise” piped into their ears and goggtes or halves of Ping- Pong bails placed over their eyes so they see a uniform field of light. The blandness of thelr sensory environ- ment puts them into a reportedly pleasant, altered mental state, or “Ganzfeld."” Some parapsycholo- gists believe this state makes the re- search subjects more receptive to telepathic messages. In a separate room, a researcher selecis a videotape or a still picture from & group and shows another re- search subject an image, which he or she tries to transmit mentally to the person in the Ganzfeld state. After a set time, the “receiver,” or person in the Ganzfeld state, is brought out of the state and is shown the same sroup of videotapes or pictures. The receivers are asked to pick the image that most closely-welates to the New this fall. From ACE/Macmillan. «6. a splendidly rich, robust and realistic account, 9* ROBERT L. PAYTON PHILANTHROPY VOLUNTARY ACTION FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD Foreword by Richard Lyman Philanthropy, Robert Payton writes in this provocative and enli: hiening k, is “Americas most distinctive virtue.” And now one of philanthropy images that were in their mind during the Ganzfeld state. If the receiver picks the image that the sender was shown, it is considered a “hil” or a positive result. Tests Called Poorly Designed The experiments vary in their ex- act design, but Mr. Radin says that, taken as a group, they demonstrate that “information can be tranamitied in ways we don't understand yet.” The -N.R.c. commilttee’s Mr. Hy- man attributes research results indi- cating telspathy or other parasormal . communication to poorly designed experiments. He-says that, if para- normal communication is to be’ proved, experimenters first have to be certain that the selection of images is completely random. No such proof is given in Ganzfeld experiments, he says, and poor methods of randomly selecting an image are used, such as hand shuffling. He also says the experimenters should use iwo sets of the same im- ages—be theyveaill pictures or video- 2 A NE ee a et cane most distinguished leaders offers a powerful statement of {1s purpose and acritical inventory of its potential. 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There’ more: a clear, concise guide to whal accreditation means; help on distinguishing legitimate nontraditional educational programs from fraudulent ones; and workable recommendations for fighting this multimillion dollar danger to the quality and integrity of American higher education. “An essential guide for anvone who wants to leam how to distinguish legitimate from fraudulent degree granting institutions” —*Fred M. Hechinger, The New York Times Foundation, inc. 272 pages + $19.95 At bookstores. Or order toll-free with your credit card: £ (800) 323-7445 The American Council on Education/ Macmillan Series on Higher Education MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMPANY A Division of Macmillan, Inc. + 866 Third Avenue + New York, NY 10022 the picture in a way a “receiver” might notice. Mr. Hyman says other cues also might make it possible for receivers to detect which image was used unless the experimenter has two sets of images. In a second kind of common para- psychology experiment, research subjects try mentally to influence machines that generate numbers ran- domly. In the usual version of these experiments, an electronic device generates a random series of zeroes and ones, and the subject of the ex- periment tries to push the string of numbers mentally either in the direc- tion of more zeroes or more ones. Mr. Radin, who has analyzed 597 random-number-generator experi- ments done by 68 researchers, says the results indicate that the random- number generators are somehow be- ing influenced away from random- ness. “The statistics indicate that the re- sults are so far away from chance that chance is not a possible explana- tion,” he says. “I'm not saying it’s something psychic, but there is some artifact there. And so far | haven't been able to find aay normal artifact that might explain the results." Once again, Mr. Hyman says the parapsychologists don’t have enough proof that the random-number gener- ators are really random, and without that proof he says the experiments are meaningless. The parapsychologists also had some political quarrels with the Na- tional Research Council's report. They charged that the committee chairman bad asked the author of a background paper commissioned for the report to withdraw his conclusion that the Ganzfeld experiments are methodologically sound, The chairman, John A. Swets, chief scientist at Bolt Beranck and Newman, a Cambridge, Mass., con- sulting firm. says he did ask Robert Rosenthal, a professor of social psy- chology at Harvard University, if he would eliminate his conclusions 2000/08/08 : CIA-RRP9§-00789R002200270001-8 Panibsycholopists ltespon to Uniticism oF teld the picture ine way a ceceiver™ Continued from Page AS Fabrication of data, but sloppy re- search practices. Despite the differences, six panels that met for two days came up with some specific recommendations for preventing misconduct and poor re- search practices. The panels recom- meaded that universities have: ®@ Specific policies requiring scien- tists to keep data to support pub- lished papers and encouraging scien- tists to give the data to others who want to check their results. © Guidelines for the heads of lab- oratories and the mentors of research trainees about their responsibilities to trainees. Such guidelines would make sure students and trainees knew who was supposed to be train- ing them and whom they could turn to for help. Some training in the eth- ics of science and good research practices might also be required. @ Written policies making it clear that those who are not directly in- volved with research should not be named as the authors of scientific pa- pers. The policies would end the practice in some laboratories of aulo- matically making the head of a lab- Oratory an author on every paper coming out of the laboratory. Arnold S. Relman, editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, spoke in support of a larger role for the institutions where scientists are based. “‘Institutions have to take more of a role in making sure good Reproduced vith pep pbe ved howirReleaser2000/03/08-t GlArRDR96-00789R002200270001-8 Scholarship about the Ganzfeld experiments from his paper. Mr. Swets says the com- mittee preferred its own analysis of the Ganzfeld experiments. “We thought the quality of our analysis was better, and we didn't see much point in putting out mixed signals,”” says Mr. Swets. “I dida‘'t feel we were obliged to represent every point of view.”’ Mr. Rosenthal said he thought it was “inappropriate” of Mr. Swets to ask him and Monica J. Harris, a grad- uate student, to withdraw their con- clusions about the Ganzfell experi- ments. The conclusions were ulti- mately kept in the background paper but not inchuded in the report, Makeup of Committee Criticized ‘The parapsychologists also say the committee was unfairly stacked with avowed critics of parapsychology and should have had at least one parapsychologist on it. Mr. Swets says the committee didn’t have any members who were advocates for the performance-en- hancement methods being evaluated. Mr. Hyman, who is a cognitive psy- chologist interested in the subject of human error, says he has written about parapsychology since the 1950's. “i'm one of the few critics who knows them, who reads their lit- erature, and who goes to their con- ventions."* He says he is neutral. ‘'] don’t care about parapsychology,’ he says. “To me it's a very dull topic.” Evenif parapsychologists discover the existence of special mental pow- ers outside of whai is now known, Mr, Hyman says he believes the powers will be so clusive and so sub- tle that they can't be controlled. If anything, he says, parapsychologists will only find a “cosmic hiccup.” Copies of the Parapsychological Association's critique, “Reply to the National Research Council Study on Parapsychology."* are available for $2 from the Parapsychological Asso- ciation, P.O. Box 12236, Research Triangle Park, N.C. 27709. Policies on Scientific Misconduct publication practices are followed,” he said. ‘We editors cannot possibly investigate and insure the validity of every author's name on each paper.” An enhanced role for universities and other research institutions was not supported by everyone at the workshop. Some scientists argued that the en- couragement of good research prac- tices should come from the laborato- Ty itself, without outside interference by the university, The Institute of Medicine work- shop was intended to look at “gray areas‘ where blatant fraud is not in- volved but where research practices might still be questionable, William Raub, deputy director of the National Institutes of Health, said much attention had been given to big scientific sins, such as plagia- rism, but less attention had been giv- en to the litle sins—sloppy record- keeping. poor supervision of re- searchers, selective reporting of data, publishing the same data in many journals, and the use of the “least publishable unit.” That term refers to scientists who write papers the moment they have enough significant data, instead of waiting to confirm those data or ex-- pand on them. “There is no apparent consensus on how bad these sins arc, what the standards should be, or if there should be standards,"’ said Mr. Raub, —DAVID L, WHEELER To cen te aie oo Aa ele det ee el RAR Ae RY LY 3, AND enna NE