Word: sftp
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Dates: during 1976-1976
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...recent years SftP has actively protested, although not always in such a theatrical manner, what the group sees as misplaced priorities in many fields of scientific research. This summer, for example, the Cambridge City Council voted a three month moratorium on recombinant DNA experiments within the city limits of Cambridge. The decision came after two public meetings involving pro and con testimony from prominent science-faculty members at Harvard...
Joining George Wald, Higgins Professor of Biology, in opposing the proposed research at Harvard's Biology Laboratories were several members of the Boston chapter of SftP: Jonathan R. Beckwith '57, professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Richard C. Lewontin '50, Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Steven Chorover, professor of Psychiatry at MIT, and Jonathan King, associate professor of Biology...
Many scientists expressed concern that an unfortunate precedent had been set for local communities to interfere in scientific research they don't understand. But members of SftP were elated over the decision. Jonathan King and others say the council's decision was a milestone in a movement of people to gain more control over their own lives...
...case, King claims the council's action was not a spontaneous event precipitated by the testimony of a few prominent scientists, as he says the media tended to portray it. According to King, it was at least partly the result of long term efforts of various organizations, including SftP, to build a movement forcing science to serve the people rather than what he perceives to be the present dominating interests of a scientific elite--motivated by the prospect of Nobel prizes--and a corporate-governmental complex geared toward profit, imperialism, and maintenance of the status...
King says it is not widely known that the SftP, cooperating with other groups, has agitated for several years for close monitoring of genetic engineering research and its relegation to a lower priority. He cites an SftP pamphlet published years ago that dealt with the hazards of genetic engineering long before the technology to accomplish it existed, and a barrage of letters and critiques sent out to scientific conferences, government agencies, and public interest groups...