Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-08-18
Eternal Search for Truth Leads Academy Science Anywhere and Everywhere

rapid progress In material inn
provementS that it is impoS-
sible for either the legislative
or executive departments Of
our Government to avoid in
cidentally. If not directly, be-
ing involved In the decision Of
such questions. IF all ex-
animation is refused, the good
is confounded with the bad,
and the Government may lose
q most important advantage.
II a decision is left to influence,
or to imperfect knowledge, the
worst consequences follow"
Out Of his words and worry
grew the plan for the National
Academy Of ScienceSan organ
ization which would have the
dual role of honoring members
elected to the group and Of serv-r
ing as adviser to the Govern
ment.
In 1863 the academy was
chartered by an act of Congress
which. incidentally, passed both
houses and was signed by Presi-.
dent Lincoln on the same day,
March 8. -
Scientists of the academy
started of by looking, at the
Governments request. into such
things as weights. measures and
coinage; metric standards: pro-
lection Of the bottom Of iron
vessels. magnetic deviation in
iron ships and the erection of a
naval observatory. One commit
tee saw to it, on a request from
the State Department, that the
original manuscript Of the Dec
laration Of Independence was
sealed between glass plates for
protection. Another tested the
purity Of Government-bonded
whisky. The National Forestry
Service grew out Of q recon-
mendation made by an academy
committee studying a rational
forest policy" for the Depart
ment of Interior.
National Research Council.
The National Research Coun-
ell is a part of the academy and
is located in the same building.
It was set up by the academy
in 1915, when President Wilson,
faced with a war, needed help in
organizing all the scientific re-
sources Of the country. The
council, together with its many
committees. is made up of thou
sands Of scientists drawn from
academic, industrial and Govern
ment organizations. It is pri-
marily through the council that
the academy draws upon scien-
lists. whether members Of the
academy or not, in furtherance
OF its scientific purposes. The
close relationship has led to the
phrase, ''the Acadmy Council" in
referring to THE whole organi-
zation!
Scientists are elected to the
academy for life. They are
selected for outstanding work in
the fields of mathematics, as
tronomy. physics, engineering,
chemistry, geology. botany. zool-
ogy, anatomy, physiology, bio
chemistry, pathology, bacterio-
logy. anthropology. psychology or
geophysics. The membership in
cludes the names: j. Robert
Oppenheimer, Albert Einstein,
James B. Conant, Arthur H.
Compton. Vannevar Bush, Ed
ward Teller and an engineer,
Herbert Hoover. There are SGT
members at present. Detlev v.
Bronx, former president Of Johns
Hopkins University and now
president Of the Rockefeller
Institute for Medical Research,
Is the present president.
The academy meets in the
spring of each year in its Consti-
tuition avenue building. and each
fall, at a center Of academic
research elsewhere. Members
present scientific papers on a
variety of subjects, and each
reading is limited by the acad-
envy to Is minutes.
Housed in IL Buildings.
The building contains no lab
oratory space but serves as a
meeting hall for scientists fresh
from their own laboratories.
Parts of the academy are housed
in some II other buildings
throughout Washington.
The organization receives its
funds from endowments, be-
quests and from contracts and
grants from Government agen-
cies. philanthropic foundations
and other public and private
sources.
Often academy projects are
contracted for by the Govern
ment, and the academy places
the money at the point of re-
search. It receives no profit from
q project undertaken for the
Government and is reimbursed
only for the actual expense of
providing its services. One in
tegral part of academy functions
is its program of channeling
funds gathered from the public
into the proper place Of research.
It handles, as an example,
American Cancer Society funds.
And in recent years it has turned
over to a scientist named Kim