Word: scientistic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...years ago, Noel Vietmeyer, a staff director of the National Academy of Sciences, was surprised to find in a collection of reports on tropical plants one with a curious title: "Psophocarpus tetragonolobus: Crop with a Future?" Neither Vietmeyer nor any other agriculture scientist would be surprised today. For the plant, better known as "the winged bean" because of the four winglike flanges on its pod, is now regarded as a great green hope among the experts who worry about new food sources for the overpopulated and underdeveloped world...
...dilemma and choice, Brecht fashioned a play of high moral intelligence and lasting pertinence. Unlike some of Brecht's obsessively didactic works, Galileo proceeds by the Socratic method, endlessly posing questions and revealing contradictions, the dramatic equivalent of reality confronting illusion. What is the moral responsibility of the scientist vis-à-vis the state or, in Galileo's case, the church? Brecht has Galileo (Laurence Luckinbill) castigate himself toward the end of the play for a failure of integrity: "If only I had resisted! If only the scientists could have developed something like the Hippocratic oath...
Nevertheless, the big question scientists and National Enquirer readers alike ask, of course, is "can humans be cloned?" Rorvik answers that with unlimited financing from a millionaire, limited red tape and several years of research on a Far East isle, as he describes in his scenario, cloning is indeed possible. And he makes a good case for his claim, describing the current state of cloning technology in clear terms for the layman with little science background. He goes through the three stages of the process (see box), listing recent advances made with animal cells and test tube fertilization studies...
...proceeding with the cloning, Rorvik and his scientist cronies have made the decisions and they certainly have not been all-knowing nor all-wise. The very types of abuses and unethical procedure which Rorvik cites as dangers of cloning are prevalent in Darwin's work and are likely to happen again as long as methods are not open to scrutiny by the public and by colleagues. For example, Rorvik's claim in the book that a millionaire without an heir can be considered a suitable subject for cloning is, at the very least, questionable...
Jimmy Carter is the closest thing to a scientist we have had in the White House since Thomas Jefferson. It may yet prove to be both a strength and a handicap. He moves with ease in the world where there are immutable laws of action and response, where figures line up and yield answers without argument, without any need for cajolery and bourbon. Much of his trouble in the mystical arena of political leadership arises when he tries to apply these bloodless principles to human power and pride...