Authorship patterns in life sciences,preclinical basic and clinical research papers

The present paper examines the multiple authorship in research papers in biomedical sciences from the more basic aspects to clinically oriented research. Seventeen journals were chosen for analysis — nine from the general and life sciences categories and eight from medical sciences group with clinical orientation. All these were high impact journals as per the Science Citation Index and come in the top ten journals in their respective desciplines. The average authors/paper was significantly higher (P<0.001) in medical journals –4.299 (range 3.21–5.35) as compared to general biomedical journals –3.298 (range 3.21–5.35). Data from highly cited papers (1961–78) also indicate that papers in clinical sciences have higher average authors (2.71) as compared to preclinical basic research (2.25: P<0.26) and more basic research areas like biochemistry and molecular biology (2.208; P<0.02). The team size in research in clinical subjects is therefore appreciably larger as compared to basic biomedical sciences. Also the general and biomedical sciences articles were relatively longer (average 7.75 pages; range 2.69–10.07) as compared to medical papers with a clinical orientation (avarage 4.24 pages; range 1.80–12.92; P<0.001).     

Inland vessel rolling due to severe beam wind: A step towards a realistic model

All the present ship stability regulations include, in some way, the analysis of a ship heeling when exposed to a severe beam wind. Although the scenarios for such stability analysis are (mostly) clear and sound, the methods of the calculation are already outdated. The authors, therefore, aim to contribute to the development of new rules, based on a more advanced probabilistic approach (see [Hofman M, Bačkalov I. Weather criterion for seagoing and inland vessels — Some new proposals. In: Proceedings of international conference on marine research and transportation. 2005. p. 53–62; Hofman M, Maksić I, Bačkalov I. Some disturbing aspects of inland vessel stability rules. Journal of Ship Technology, New Delhi 2006; 2(2): 1–14]). In their previous research, for the sake of simplicity, a single nonlinear differential equation of ship rolling was applied as the basis of the analysis. In the present investigation, a more realistic model of coupled nonlinear roll and sway equations is introduced, and the behavior of inland container vessels due to severe beam gusting wind analyzed. The analysis reveals significant discrepancies of the results obtained by the different models, and shows that previous simplified approach overestimated the risk of flooding. It proves, however, the main conclusions of the earlier investigation concerning the deficiency of the present inland container vessel stability rules.     

Chinese communication studies: A citation analysis of Chinese communication research in English-language journals

The study employs citation analysis method to identify the disciplines and active research areas in communication studies on communication systems in China. Moreover, the study seeks to contribute to the methodological issues of citation analysis by including new variables in the analysis. Using Chinese communication research in 11 Chinese/Asian studies journals and 13 journalism/communication journals published in English since 1931, the study found that there were little exchanges between Chinese studies and communication scholars. Howerver, the study showed that by including two variables—theme of articles and academic affiliation of authors, the findings can more accurate demonstrate the relationship between the research activities and disciplines cited.     

The technology assessment and forecast program of the United States patent and trademark office

Often overlooked is the wealth of information in patents that makes patents useful to public policy making agencies and corporate management, among others. The source of this information is the bibliographic and classification data associated with each patent. much of which is required by law and hence is extremely accurate. These data serve to fingerprint the increment of technological activity disclosed in a patent. Possible ways of using the data include: — identification of emerging technologies — Monotoring foreign activity — identification of “actors” in the technology — tracking applications and impacts of a technologyThe objective of the technology assessment and forecast program of the United States Patent and Trademark Office is to stimulate the use of the patent file of the Office. The Office of Technology Assessment and Forecast (OTAF), which administers the program has assembled a master data base covering all U.S. patents. It periodically updates this base and adds new data items to it.     

Dimensions of research planning: Comparative study of research units in six countries

This paper seeks to examine the characteristics and quality of research planning at the level of microcosm of the research unit in six countries — Argentina, Egypt, India, Republic of Korea, Poland and USSR. It is concerned basically with the following aspects: (i) differences in the characteristics and quality of research planning in research units in different countries and institutional settings; (ii)pattern of relationships between the indices of planning and three measures of effectiveness—scientific, user-oriented and administrative; and (iii) stability in the pattern of relationships across countries and measures of performance. As a result of analysis, a few universal indices have been identified that have consistent relationships across countries. It is concluded that the determinants of effectiveness of research planning depend upon the criteria used for measuring the performance of the research unit. Besides specificity of research goals, the most important predictors of performance are: conceptual challenge of the research programme and external linkages of the research group—linkages with scientific peers and potential users of research results.This is a revised version of the paper presented at XIth World Congress of Sociology, New Delhi, India, August 18–22, 1986.     

Some problems in the metrological support of precision telemetry

The current state and basic assumptions of a new structure for the transfer of the dimension of the unit of length — the meter — to the large-length region are examined.Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 6, pp. 26–27, June, 1993.     

Assessing the science–society relation: The case of the US National Science Foundation's second merit review criterion

The science–society relation exhibits a tension between scientific autonomy and societal control of the direction and scope of scientific research. With the 1997 formulation of two generic merit review criteria for the assessment of National Science Foundation proposals—one for intellectual merit, and a second for ‘broader impacts’—this tension between science and society took on a unique institutional expression that has yet to work itself out into a well-accepted balance of complementary interests. This article examines some of the issues associated especially with the second ‘broader impacts’ criterion.     

Basic research: Its impact on China's future

Not only have science and technology received growing priority in China's development strategy, but basic research has also received greater attention in the country's policies on science and technology. From Deng Xiaoping's notion that “science and technology are the primary productive force” to the national strategy of “invigorating China through science and education,” China has experienced a deepening and maturing process in understanding the characteristics and values of modern science—especially basic research—and the roles of science in the country's economic and social development.     

Breakdown of an organically based composite material in a high-temperature gas flow

The authors analyze a mechanism for breakdown of a composite material of the textolite type, composed of the chemical elements H, C, N, and O in an air stream of stagnation enthalpy 14,000–73,000 kJ/kg. A comparison of the theory and the experimental data show that the accuracy of the theoretical model is 25%.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 50, No. 3, pp. 367—373, March, 1986.     

A note on the radial wall jet with swirl

Summary The aim of this paper is a determinations of the space flow geometry of turbulent radial wall jet with swirl by means of a similarity analysis. It is assumed that except for a very thin layer near the wall, the flow field of the turbulent radial wall jet is similar. The wall conditions for a Newtonian fluid flow used in a paper by the present authors [11] — and satisfactory only for a laminar regime — are substituted by a suitable condition often employed in 3-D turbulent boundary layer problems. It is assumed that the direction of the shear-stress resultant is the same as the direction of the mean velocity-gradient resultant.With 3 Figures     

Science in the eighties: A typology of countries based on inter-field priorities

This paper seeks to compare the research priorities of thirty three countries in five macrofields (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Engineering & Technology) in two time spans: 1980–1984 and 1985–1989. Comparative analysis is based on the distribution of publications in different fields. Since the raw counts of publications are confounded by the size of the countries and the size of the subject fields, a relative index — Research Priority Index (PI) — is computed for cross-national comparisons. Correspondence analysis is applied to the asymmetrical matrices of priority profiles to reveal the structure of multivariate relationships between countries and fields. The configurations for the two time-spans, obtained through correspondence analysis, are compared to reveal the dynamics of research priorities of these countries.     

Theory of freezing: The inhomogeneous Ornstein-Zernike equation

We present a new freezing theory based on the inhomogeneous Ornstein-Zernike equation. The new theory is nonperturbative, in the sense that crystal and liquid are treated at the same level of approximation. This is in contrast to the popular density functional theory of freezing, which uses the liquid as a reference state for perturbation theory. Due to the demanding nature of the numerical method, preliminary calculations are presented for a model problem — which, in the strictest sense, is unphysical — namely, the freezing of hard disks in two dimensions. We also explore a generalized Percus-Yevick closure appropriate for the crystal.Paper presented at the Tenth Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, June 20–23, 1988, Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S.A.     

Metal materials biodegradation: a chronoamperometric study

The aim of this work is to illustrate the use of a reliable electrochemical technique — chronoamperometry — for the study of the biodegradation process that metal alloys suffer in the human body. The designedin vitro experiments, simulating in a short period the situationin vivo, can be used to quantify the materials corrosion resistance. Data on the amount of released materials can also be obtained which is valuable information for research on biocompatibility.     

Evaluating big science: CERN's past performance and future prospects

After explaining the reasons why science policy-makers face a growing need for more rigorous forms of research evaluation, we outline an approach combining bibliometric and peer-evaluation data that has been developed at the Science Policy Research Unit in the course of a programme of studies of Big Science specialties. The paper describes the results obtained when this method of converging partial indicators is applied to compared the past research performance of the accelerators at CERN — the joint European Laboratory for Particle Physics — with that of the world's other main accelerators. The paper concludes by demonstrating how, on the basis of an analysis of the factors that have structured research performance in the past, it is possible to arrive at a systematic set of conclusions about the future prospects for a major new research facility such as an accelerator.No order of seniority implied (rotating first authorship). The authors are Fellows of the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, where they work on a range of issues connected with policies for basic and applied research. They gratefully acknowledge the support of the British Economic and Social Research Council in carrying out this research, and that of the Leverhulme Trust in meeting the costs of additional analysis and the writing of this paper. The autors also wish to thank various colleagues at SPRU, especially Professors LindaWilson and KeithPavitt, for numerous useful comments and criticisms. An earlier version of the paper was presented at an Imperial College/Science Policy Research Unit seminar in May 1983, and at a Nordic Scientific Policy Council conference held in Helsinki during February 1984.     

Thermal Radiation of Liquid Metals

A unified generalized dependence for calculating hemispherical integral fluxes of thermal radiation of liquid metals has been obtained. The authors established a periodicity of the thermal radiation of liquid metals and its relation to a characteristic of the bonding strength — the Debye temperature.     

Stress-strain state in the vicinity of stiffness in pressed and welded panels and their effect on crack propagation

The authors examined special features of the stress — strain state in pressed and welded panels enforced with stiffness. Relations for characterizing the cracking resistance in axial and biaxial loading are derived. The calculated data are in agreement with the experimental values.Translated from Problemy Prochnosti, No. 10, pp. 89–96, October, 1993.     

Agricultural research in flux : Experiments in university-industry ties

Dramatic advances in agricultural technology and management are changing the institutional structure of agricultural research in business, academia and government. A range of “experiments” aimed at improving the transfer of information from academia to industry are being run; some will work and some will not. Overall, these experiments are facilitating information exchange, and enhance—rather than pose a threat to—openness.     

International cooperation for development of new infrastructure technology for better living

Physical infrastructure — pipelines, roads, treatment plants, and a variety of other facilities — provides services essential to virtually all economic and social activity. The facilities of infrastructure are long lived, and evolving technologies offer enhanced performance for aging systems. At the same time, new discoveries in electronics, biotechnology, materials sciences, and other fields offer radically different and potentially valuable ways of providing infrastructure services. Substantial opportunities exist for improving the various functional modes of infrastructure. Also, common problems and opportunities among these modes make infrastructure, taken as a whole, a meaningful target for research and development of new technologies. However, substantial institutional and economic barriers to infrastructure innovation must be lowered if the potentials of newer technologies are to be realized. International cooperation is a means to lowering these barriers. As an initial step toward broad international cooperation, Japan and the United States could undertake a program of joint research and demonstration of technologies to serve domestic and international markets. Working together, these two leading industrial nations can achieve more than they can separately, for themselves and for all the world's people.     

Estimates of the annual total number of titles on medicine and its disciplines and scientific productivity of physicians

Two scientometric indices are reviewed: number of printed scientific works per 100 specialists per year and number of scientific journals per 1000 specialists. In 1973–1977 Brazilian chemists and pharmacologists published 15.8 scientific works per 100 specialists per year, in 1981–1985 Japanese physicians — 17.1 ones, in 1968–1986 Czechoslovakian physicians —17.1 ones, in 1978–1986 Hungarian physicians — 18.3 ones, in 1963–1979 Polish physicians — 18.5 ones, in 1983 Yugoslavian physicians — 20.1 titles per 100 specialists. In 1986 in USA 7.2 biomedical journals were issued per 1000 physicians, in Japan — 3.4 ones, in Spain —1.8 biomedical journals per 1000 physicians. In 1986 in USA 6.8 dental periodicals were published per 1000 dentists, Great Britain — 3.0 ones, in Canada — 2.6 ones, in Spain — 2.0 dental journals. The total number of world's biomedical articles and books' titles was 535,000 in 1967, 628,000 in 1972, 820,000 in 1978, 1.01 million ones in 1983 and 1.13 million titles in 1986.     

Science and the humanities: the case for state humanities councils

Although joined together by their commitment to inquiry, in their pursuit of seemingly divergent goals science and the humanities sometimes appear to be in tension. This article suggests that the public humanities programs sponsored by state humanities councils, the independent nonprofit state affiliates of the National Endowment for the Humanities, serve as vehicles for reconciling the differing concerns of science and the humanities. The article highlights a variety of thoughtful, successful community-focused science and humanities programs offered by state humanities councils, including a series of targeted programs supported through a special initiative jointly-sponsored by NEH and NSF in the mid-1990s, and invites consideration of opportunities for future collaboration.Whether as informed inquiry or organized skepticism, the process of questioning represents a crucial connection between science and the humanities. The importance of this connection was especially significant to the scholars, educators, and politicians who helped establish the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 1965. They were concerned about perceptions that the humanities and science were at odds, and they were anxious about the apparent advantageous position of science, as reflected in the 15-year existence of the National Science Foundation, and magnified by major increases in federal support for science following the 1957 launch of Sputnik and the ensuing “space race”.These worries no doubt also motivated the group’s focus on the similarities between science and the humanities “as systematic approaches to knowledge and understanding”, further buttressing their argument that the humanistic disciplines were a legitimate national concern [1]. The 1964 Report of the Commission on the Humanities [2], which laid the foundation for the NEH, noted, “if the interdependence of science and the humanities were more generally understood, men would be more likely to become masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants” (p.2).In the years following the 1964 Report, we are still pursuing a broader understanding of the “interdependence of science and the humanities”. Throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, science and technology have emerged as preeminent forces that shape and define nearly every aspect of life. From the microchip revolution to the prospect of human cloning, from smart bombs to smart highways, from the fanciful notion of a universe defined by string theory to the rhetoric of the Unabomber’s infamous Manifesto [3], the challenges posed by science and technology—their impacts on our lives, our institutions, and our basic understanding of the world—have been profound.Despite this intertwining of science and human experience, many Americans, while readily endorsing increased funding for science, believe the culture of science to be inaccessible. They make light of their capacity to derive satisfaction from science literature or learning and, more significantly, retreat from discussions of public policy issues involving science and technology. Their withdrawal from such policy debate threatens the long-term health of our democratic society.It is illuminating to examine ways in which the public humanities, particularly the community-based work of state humanities councils, make it possible to reconcile the two strands of potentially divergent thought defining the relationship between science and the humanities and to facilitate meaningful connections. One approach, self-reflective in its analysis and based on successfully attracting resources for work done in the respective fields, considers the pursuit of knowledge in science and the humanities as having far different ends—and scientific ends being of greater utility (i.e., “two cultures”, one of greater significance).A recent example of this approach can be seen in the Final Report of the Roundtable on Scholarly Communication in the Humanities and Social Sciences [4]. The Roundtable was convened by the Association of Research Libraries, the National Humanities Alliance, and the Knight Collaborative, with support from NEH, for the purpose of considering the future dissemination of scholarly findings in the humanities and social sciences. Reflecting on the publishing challenges confronting the “disciplines that are rooted in a non-profit ethos” at a time of rising costs and changing technologies, the authors of the report observed that in thinking about

...the predilections of the humanists and social scientists thus assembled, we talked about ends more than means—about the purposes of discourse and discovery, and only subsequently about the dissemination of results. In the fields that were the primary focus of “To Publish and Perish”, principally science, medicine, and technology, the issues were really ones of access, cost, and control. While these concerns matter to humanists and social scientists, the more central issues of audience, style and purpose often overshadow them. (p. 2)

The authors continue, “The societal tendency through the latter half of the 20th century, however, has been to distinguish between kinds of knowledge—and to value the practical advances in science, medicine, and technology over scholarship in such areas as literature, languages, history, philosophy, politics, and art.” (p. 3) Finally, in a statement apropos to a discussion of making a public case, the report notes,

No scholar in the humanities and social sciences can fail to perceive the difference between the kind of external support provided to the scientific fields and that which the work in his or her own discipline attracts. ...Through the past two decades, the scientific disciplines have proven remarkably successful in building public support for research in apparently inscrutable domains, deploying the popular media to help communicate both the excitement and value of scientific discovery. (p. 5)

Although this visceral appeal to the public is significant, when it is complemented with humanistic inquiry, there is a far more important additional benefit: deepening public understanding of the moral complexity of science and technology. This is the goal of programs sponsored by several state humanities councils seeking to bridge the gap between the practicality and apparent certainty of science and the often-frustrating ambiguity of the humanities. For example, during the period 2000–2002, the Texas Council on the Humanities issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for projects directed at the theme “Science and Human Values” [5]. The RFP asked:

Is the universe a vast yet ultimately predictable machine? Or is it an infinitely dynamic process rendered unpredictable by countless random events? What does either model have to do with the way we go about the daily business of living? Are there certain assumptions implicit in the worldview of Newtonian physics, quantum mechanics, or chaos theory that impact the human imagination and influence human interaction? How do new technologies affect the way we relate to one another and form communities? These are a few of the questions driving important conversations between the sciences and the humanities. Exploding scientific discoveries and rapidly-developing technologies are affecting the way we interpret our experience and the way we live, taking us always, as Jacob Brownoski says, “to the brink of what is known”. TCH invites proposals for projects that will provide opportunities for Texans to consider and discuss issues such as:

• Web of Human Relationships: New Technologies, New Communities

• From Revolutions in Science to Evolutions in Human Thought

• Technologies of Life: Health Care, Genetics, and Medical Ethics

• The Self and the Laws of Science

• Artificial Intelligence and the Nature of Knowledge

• New Theories in Education and Business

• The History of Science and Society

Much of the discussion in these and other humanities-based programs involves examining assumptions that shape the work of those pursuing science and technology, or in some cases, considering how significant outcomes may be overlooked or disregarded when the question of purpose is ignored. In the case of a successful project initiated by the Maine Humanities Council and now carried out by several New England councils, entitled “Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care,” health care providers participate in a series of reading and discussion programs that encourage them to connect the world of medicine with the world of lived experience. A family physician who attended the seminars in Maine for three years stated, “we use literature to help strip away the assumptions we bring to work, and improve our understanding of our patients and each other.”In the mid-1990s, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities brought together scientists, humanities scholars, and members of the public, especially teachers, in an “Initiative on Science, Technology and Society” [6]. The project, comprising a public discussion series and a teachers’ institute that attracted teachers in a broad range of disciplines from across the state, was designed to help those attending become familiar with the goals of science by considering the implications for the average individual.The council described the impetus for the program as follows:

For many people, science and the benefits that result from technological innovation are inseparable from the idea of human progress. Others believe that science may have gone too far, or at least progressed too quickly, raising issues that society cannot answer and moral dilemmas that individuals can barely comprehend, much less address. Meanwhile, increasingly sophisticated technologies born of new scientific discoveries are continually reshaping the fields of health care, education, transportation, communication, agriculture, and a host of other activities from sexuality and human reproduction to personal banking. But at the same time, very few non-scientists become actively engaged in making judgments about what science should do. Likewise, few opportunities exist at present for so-called ordinary people to question and interpret the work of science and the applications of new research, or to participate in structured discussions about the impact of technology on their lives. [p. 33]

The council noted further:

Our goal is to continue to provide a framework and a stimulus for new programs that erode the customary distinctions between scientists and humanists; programs that foster a renewed public interest in the work that scientists do and a greater understanding of the complex relationship between science, culture, government, and the marketplace; programs that encourage informed debate about the directions of scientific research and the applications of technology in light of their practical and moral consequences. [p. 34-35]

Their public discussion series, “Science and Society: Toward a New Understanding of the Covenant,” involved five lectures on the benefits and challenges presented by science in our democratic society, and all five lectures were broadcast and downlinked to six remote sites.Information about the Virginia program was drawn from material the council submitted in connection with “Nature, Technology and Human Understanding”, a joint initiative of the NSF and NEH [7]. From 1993 to 1995, the NSF/NEH ran a competition for state councils which was designed to promote greater public understanding of the interrelationships between science and the humanities. The guidelines for the first year of the initiative provided that it would support “public programs designed to inform and stimulate discussion about the interrelations of science, technology and the humanities... It is also hoped that the project will have long-term benefits for public understanding of the sciences and humanities...” (p. 1). Suggested topics included:

• —conception and definition of science

• —understanding nature and mind

• —science, engineering, and social change

• —history of science and evolution of engineering

• —science and its cultural context.

It is interesting to note the subtle shift in emphasis from 1993 to 1995, apparent in the guidelines for the 1995 funding cycle:

NEH and NSF expect that the projects will have long-term benefits for public understanding of the sciences, engineering, and humanities, and of the ways in which these systematic approaches to knowledge form part of our daily lives.The agencies also hope that, through these projects, the public will come to have a deeper understanding of the basic character of humanistic inquiry and scientific methods as well as a heightened awareness of the socio-political aspects of scientific institutions, including the interaction of science and technology with democratic processes, and the philosophical issues raised by the practice of science and engineering in particular social contexts. (p. 1)

Here we see the emphasis not on science and the humanities as two cultures with distinctive goals, but rather as complementary, interrelated systems of knowledge. The shift is reflected in the slightly different thrust of the topics suggested in the 1995 guidelines:

• —the social context of science

• —political culture and science

• —understanding nature and mind

• —approaches to knowledge

• —science and its cultural context in the USA.

The Virginia council was one of several state humanities councils that developed a diverse array of projects which were subsequently supported through the NSF/NEH initiative. Several councils drew upon the integrative model of the relationship between science and technology and the humanities. The Georgia council sponsored a series of public lectures and discussion sessions on “Technology and the African American Experience”; the Kentucky council sponsored lectures and discussion sessions on the theme, “Science in Our Lives”, which examined the state’s transition from an agrarian lifestyle and an economy based on tobacco farming and coal mining to more technologically sophisticated alternatives; the Nevada council sponsored a seven-part lecture series, “Nevada in the Nuclear Age”, which explored growing scientific, philosophical, and social concerns associated with the nuclear era.Like its counterpart in Virginia, the New Hampshire Humanities Council pursued a fairly comprehensive model. Indeed, by the time of the launch of the NEH/NSF initiative, the New Hampshire council had already developed its unique “Scientist as Humanist Project”, which for several years (1990–1994) brought together science and humanities teachers from New Hampshire schools for resident summer teacher institutes in which they explored connections between science and the humanities. In describing the success of this project in their application for a grant under the 1993 NEH/NSF special initiative, the council reported “dramatic results in integrating sciences and the humanities in the classroom, in breaking down the perceived barriers between the sciences and the humanities, and in redefining the notions of insight, creativity, and categories of knowledge.” To their earlier initiative they added “Of Apples and Origins: Stories about Life on Earth”, which featured reading discussions exploring the history of great ideas in science and philosophy, a series of public lectures, and a closing conference where audiences were offered new insights into 20th century science and its implications for everyday life.Responding to the tremendous success of these programs, the New Hampshire council sought and received special funding from NEH for a second phase of the project, “Of Apples and Origins II: The Brain, The Mind and Human Meaning”, designed to explore new ideas about human consciousness and the brain. Following the same model as its predecessor, the program culminated in a two-day public conference focused on the new brain/mind science and its impact on our understanding of the self.The appeal of this approach is its relevance to the everyday life of the average individual. State humanities council programs in this area seek to make science and technology accessible by connecting theoretical knowledge with its practical application. Thus, during 1997–1999, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, building on the NSF/NEH-supported project they had created on new communication technologies and their effect on American society, pursued a project entitled “Technology, Communications and Community”. With support from the Howard Heinz Endowment, this project gave participants opportunities, through community forums, read-and-discuss groups, Internet training, and demonstrations, to discuss the impacts on American communities of 20th-century technologies such as radio, television, and the computer. A subsequent project, “Technology and Community”, brought humanities scholars together with the public in face-to-face and online conversations about the proliferation of the Internet in society. Other similar programs supported by the council included a panel discussion and in-person and online lectures on DNA research and its impact on the work of family historians conducted by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, and a project sponsored by the Franklin Institute which gathered an audiovisual collection of oral histories that document how scientific and technological innovation in the past century had affected and shaped the lives of local citizens.Today, almost a decade later, there are still areas where science and the humanities clearly share concerns and find opportunities for joint problem-solving. Examples include:

• —The commoditization of knowledge. The rise of market-driven, corporate-financed research at universities has been noted with increasing alarm by scholars and lamented by public commentators. A major source of concern—the compromising of openness and sharing which traditionally characterized and gave distinction to the nonprofit knowledge enterprise represented by the university—is a question for the humanities.

• —The growing divide between pure and applied research. The increasingly pervasive emphasis on connecting funding to immediately demonstrable, utilitarian results and/or economic benefits (reflected in skewed federal support and private funding) mirrors the phenomenon discussed earlier in this essay regarding the “divide” between science and the humanities.

• —The persistence of non-scientific, and widespread growth of anti-scientific, views.

The public humanities provide a means for resisting the push to commoditize knowledge and willful science illiteracy. Public programs, reading and discussion programs, and teacher institutes supported by state humanities councils offer a context for public conversations about issues that require scientific expertise. Such community-based activity is a powerful complement to the efforts of beleaguered communities of humanities academics, which one would expect to be among those leading the charge against trends toward commercialization on the one hand and the questioning of scientific knowledge on the other. Unfortunately, the post-modern tendency to delegitimize knowledge has led many university-based humanities scholars to retreat from public debate about right and wrong and to adopt a relativistic approach to all knowledge. This runs the risk of abandoning an intellectually bereft public to the easy picking of a market without morality or to a backward-looking ideology of denial bent on resisting the onslaught of modernity.State humanities councils have a rich history of helping citizens feel they can participate in conversations about science and technology. Council programs and projects take advantage of the unique capacity of the humanities to explore and explain complexity in human life. These are the vitally important occasions where science and the humanities join together to make their public case.