wl App monkeys may react to the same sound quite differently. The vervets are not absolutely consist- ent about what intruder triggers an alarm Call, so the scientists in the field kept track of the “mistakes.” They found that the adult monkeys seldom err, juveniles err more frequently and infants err most fre- quently of all. The juveniles, for instance, give the eagle call on occasion at the sight of an innocuous bird such as a stork or a spoonbill. Infants carry their caution even further; one gave the eagle alarm at the sight of an airborne leaf. “Although they make mistakes, there is an order to the errors,” Marler says. The young monkeys, for instance, may give an eagle call at the sight of a pigeon, but they never mistakenly give the eagle call in re- sponse to a leopard. “It’s as though they have a generally preordained mechanism, which specifies that the eagle alarm call should be given to something that may be defined as ‘moving up above’ of a certain size and with a certain trajectory,” he pro- poses. Initially for the young monkey, many stimuli satisfy that requirement. Gradually, however, the animals’ percep- tion becomes more discriminating, like children sharpening their semantic sense, Marler says. . Marler suggests that these animal studies offer a glimmer of hope for ex- perimental elucidation of the process by which a child brings “innate knowledge” to the task of developing understanding. “We blind ourselves to the prospect of new discoveries if we insist on treating animals as though they were automata. The knowledge they have of companions and their surroundings is probably as intricate and complex as our own, though with an emphasis that is unique to each species,” Marler says. In other work Marler observes among songbirds a complex mix of innate tendency, imitation, modification and in- vention (see p. 362). In discussion at the. recent meeting in Atlanta of the Society for Neuroscience, James L, Gould of Prince- ton University challenged the idea that complexity of a behavior necessarily im- plies cognition. He says that what appears to be animal awareness and intentions May just be preordained, preprogrammed learning routines combined with scien- tists' ignorance of how complicated such programs can get. His work with bees (SN:11/17/79, p. 342) indicates that appar- ently complicated feats of communication can be described by simple rules that could be genetically determined. Donald R. Griffin of Rockefeller Univer- sity emphasizes the importance of gather- ing information about whether nonhuman animais have intentions or are aware of themselves in relation to their surround- ings. “A cognitive ethology can thus hope to illuminate the fundamental dimensi of those attApprevestif ai rR and which, in their most versatile manifes- tations, are the sources of our most pro- roved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96 Fluoride: Prevents caries longer Tooth decay may not be the most seri- ous or painful health problem in the United States, but is probably the most common and certainly the most enduring. Most — but not all — dental researchers consider fluoridation the most effective means of preventing dental caries (SN: 9/1/79, p. 152). Now, in the most recent follow-up of a clinical study started in 1969, it looks as if fluoride’s protective ef- fects continue after treatment with fluo- ride tablets ceases. A year and a half after treatments were discontinued, the chil- dren in the Wayne County, North Carolina Public Health Service study who had re- ceived one or two fluoride tablets daily for six school years had fewer dental caries than those who had received a flavored placebo tablet. Both during and after treatment, the fluoride group had between 32 and 35 percent fewer caries than the control group. The study — conducted by William S. Driscoll, Stanley B. Heifetz and Janet A. Brunelle of the National Institute of Dental Dean justifies psychic research Many respectable scientists, from Ein- stein on down, have speculated on the credibility of so-called “psychic” phenomena and on how they can be studied scientifically. Generally such ef- forts to legitimize this study have been thwarted by the obvious presence of char- latans and fools among reputed psychics and by open hostility from the scientific community at large. Perhaps worst of all, few new theoretical or experimental ap- proaches to the subject have been gen- erated. , Now a fresh set of “psi” experiments involving sophisticated technology has been designed by Princeton University’s dean of Engineering and Applied Science, Robert G. Jahn, and his co-workers. Al- though Jahn is not yet ready to publish any conclusive results, he has offered some thoughts on a theoretical approach to psychic phenomena and has concluded that “once the overburden of illegitimate activity and irresponsible criticism is re- moved, there is sufficient residue of valid evidence to justify continued research.” Jahn, best known for his pioneering work with plasma discharges, summarized his two-year experience with psychic re- search during a recent science writers’ meeting in Palo Alto. BASE CURIA A cfelAGREP OB: tion of anecdotes.of spontaneous events, which tend to be spectacular but unverifi- -Q9/87R000200080026-6 Research — started in 1969 when the 1,064 children were in first or second grade. After the original check-up, they were re- examined at intervals of 30 months, 55 months and six years. Following the six- year check-up, the fluoride/placebo treatments were stopped. Then in 1977, after one and a half treatment-free years, 354 children who had also been checked after six years were re-examined. This ex- amination showed: that “... cariostatic {anti-caries] benefits continue to be ap- parent for both [one and two] tablet treatment procedures at the end of seven and one half years.... Thus, the caries pre- ventive benefit did not diminish as a result of discontinuing such treatment.” The study examined not only the pro- tective effects of fluoride tablets, but also looked at the cost-effectiveness of using the treatment on large numbers of chil- dren. Overail, the fluoride treatments cost about $25 per child for six school years and — if the post-treatment period is in- cluded — prevented 3.65 “decayed, miss- ing or filled” tooth surfaces from occurring in each child during seven and a half years. This means that it cost about $7 to prevent each decay, compared with the $10 to $20 it costs to have a decayed tooth filled. 0 CALIBRATION-~+ BASE CALIBRATION _ CALIBRATION — = Chart produced by physical changes in a Fabry-Perot interferometer clearly shows different effects when a subject just relaxed (base) or tried to influence the instrument through psychokinesis (PK). experiments, results of which can be scrutinized but not clearly interpreted. What the Princeton researchers have tried to do is design experiments in which the OFE7ROGOZO0NSOO2GIE' statis. ical analysis. The work started when an undergradu- ate, Carol K. Curry asked Jahn ta eunervica
data processing skills. The researchers began woth soffie simple extrasensory pete ®pyon exercis PbOx we were indeed capable of generating ef- fects to study” —then moved on to design- ing equipment to measure psychokinesis —a palpable disturbance of a physical system by thought alone. The psychokinesis experiments illus- trate well why such research can be both :antalizing and frustrating. Rather than try to reproduce spectacular, “macroscopic” ciects, such as spinning a compass with- “xt touching it (which has been reported :; poorly documented studies), Jahn and “urry concentrated on easily observed * nicroscopic” phenomena. In one exper- “ jent, a subject was to raise the tempera- :. re of a thermistor by a few thousandths » a degree. In another, the goal was to <tyange the separation of two mirrors in a iabry-Perot interferometer by a hundred- ‘housandth of a centimeter. The observa- tions were specific and even dramatic. Subjects did, indeed, seem capable at times of raising the thermistor tempera- ture or changing the optical pathlength of the interferometer at will. But neither ex- periment was fully “reproducible” in the- scientifically accepted sense: The effects varied unpredictably from person to per- son and from day to day. Because of this unpredictability, Jahn prefers to call the results of work so far “tutorial” rather than technically conclusive. That is, they should be used as models for more exten- sive research rather than as any sort of “proof” of the validity of psychic phenomena. Nevertheless, analysis of these experiments has offered two impor- tant insights that can be further tested in future research. First, the ability to produce measurable psychic effects appears to be trainable. Neither Jahn nor Curry was aware of any initial psychic ability and both got better as they went along. An important element in such training appears to be feedback that is “visible and attractive,” Jahn says. Second, Jahn speculates that psychic phenomena may have an inherently statis- tical nature. If so, theories dealing with such phenomena are likely to involve abstruse concepts related to the for- malism of quantum mechanics or statisti- cal mechanics, rather than some easily grasped intuitive explanation. In particu- lar, psychokinesis appears to involve a re- duction of entropy —a statistical measure of disorder —and the equivalence of phys- ical “information” and energy. An ad hoc committee of the university has established a charter for Jahn’s work on psychic phenomena to proceed and he has brought in developmental psycholo- gist Brenda Dunne to work full time on the program. In an interview Dunne said that a growing number of reputable scientists, are becoming active in psychic research, but that “the field as a whole is struggling for recognition ask legitimate science.” U0 NOVEMBER 24, 1979 NASA back into ue soon, but then what? RCA Satcom il: Satellite communications, more inti- mately woven into contemporary life than perhaps any other aspect of Space Age technology, owes much of its solid footing to years of research and development by the National Aeronautics and Space Ad- ministration, which was ultimately able to pass on most of the effort to private indus- try as a self-sustaining enterprise. In 1973, prompted by tight budgets, Nasa virtually dropped its R and D program in the field. Now nasa is back in the game, with a five-year program “aimed at retaining US. world leadership in satellite communica- tions research and technology.” Several factors have contributed to the restored effort: Early in 1977, a special committee of the National Research Council’s Space Applications Board strongly recommended just such action (SN: 4/9/77, p. 231). A year later, President Jimmy Carter’s reorganization plans pro- duced the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, charged in part with easing the way for NAsA com- munications experiments into commer- cial use. Further support came from vari- ous federal agencies and industries in the form of responses to a questionnaire from the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy. The satellite-allocated portions of the communicatiens spectrum have become increasingly crowded, and, Nasa points out, the U.S. is facing more foreign technology competition. The new nasa effort, based at the agen- cy’s Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, is concentrated on the high-frequency, 20- to-30-gigahertz portion of the spectrum known as the Ka band. Lower frequencies are fast approaching saturation, and, says NaASA’sS Donald K. Dement, “this Ka-band allocation is the last potential opportunity for significant new capacity to be devel- 6 : CIA-RDP NASA power levels.” But, he adds, “this band has beer inadequately explored, and technol- te aha een studying multi-beam antennas, on-board signal-switching and other technologies, but there is far more to the satellite com- munications problem than the opening of additional frequencies. As the saB committee’s report empha- sized, there are many potential satellite communications users who are too small or widely scattered to form a feasible commercial market. The Ka band is primarily relevant to large-scale, wide- band traffic, while the small users often can use narrow-band, lower-frequency equipment — which is also less costly. Some of NAsa’s new technologies will be applicable there, but much of the small- user activity is being studied amid a thicket of other agencies and organi- zations. The matter is thorny — and far from solved. O Lasker Awards: DNA and the brain The 1979 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Awards were presented to three scientists whose basic research has po- tential for clinical as well as laboratory use. Roger W. Sperry of the California Insti- tute of Technology received a $15,000 award for his investigations into the work- ings of the brain’s hemispheres, and Walter Gilbert of Harvard University and Freder- ick Sanger of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England shared another $15,000 for their independent de- velopment, of new methods of rapid sequencing of DNA... In 1953, Sperry developed the technique of “split brain” research, in which he se- vered the bundle of nerve fibers that con- nects the two halves of the brain. He dis- covered that the two hemispheres func- tion independently in this situation; the right brain does not know what the left brain is learning. Sperry found that the two halves of the brain govern two sets of ac- tivities; there is no one “dominant” hemi- sphere for all mental processes. The second Basic Research Award was presented jointly to Sanger and Gilbert (a 1949 Westinghouse Science Talent Search winner); whose rapid sequencing tech- niques will allow molecular biologists to discover the sequence of DNA compo- nents in a few days, instead of months. Gilbert's method uses chemical reagents to break the pNA molecules into frag- ments, and Sanger’s employs an enzy- matic reaction in its sequencing proce- dure. The Lasker Special Public Service Award was presented to Sir John Wilson, President of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. a) pproved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080026-6, ,