dated to support. This provided important recogni- 

 tion and more visibility for disciplines such as eco- 

 nomics, political science, and sociology. The NSF 

 emphasis on fundamental research that illuminates 

 basic social, economic, and political processes is 

 illustrated in the examples cited here. 



• Project LINK is a multi-investigator, multina- 

 tion eflfort which has developed the concep- 

 tual framework for integrating existing nation- 

 al econometric models and for implementing 

 this system so as to obtain better predictions 

 of world trade and of the balance of pay- 

 ments. Building from basic research, LINK 

 forecasts and policy simulations are used reg- 

 ularly by the Departments of Treasury and 

 Commerce, the Council of Economic Advis- 

 ers, and the Board of Governors of the Feder- 

 al Reserve System. 



• Elasticity of input substitution in economics 

 has been explored with "hybrid models" 

 which incorporate features of input-output 

 models and macroeconometric models. These 

 models allow for the substitutability of one 

 input for another and permit the simultaneous 

 incorporation of changes in supply and 

 demand. Much of the work with these models 

 has focused on changes in the supply of ener- 

 gy and on the interplay between investment, 

 technology, and production. This new brand 

 of macroeconomic models should provide 

 more realistic estimates of the production, 

 employment, and inflationary effects of shift- 

 ing inputs. They also contribute to a more 

 complete understanding of how an economic 

 system adapts to "shocks" and trends in the 

 supply of commodities. 



• Status attainment processes have been exam- 

 ined in a series of studies focusing on the fac- 

 tors that influence adult social status. These 

 studies have clarified, with numerical esti- 

 mates of effect, the role of parental status, 

 educational achievement, and career begin- 

 nings as determinants of adult status achieve- 

 ment, and have also explored the conse- 

 quences for social mobility of number of 

 siblings, peer influences, tested intelligence, 

 geographic migration, marital stability, 

 achievement orientation, and other factors. 

 More recent studies have compared the struc- 

 tural coefficients for different nations to ex- 

 plore the effect of societal features on the 

 status attainment process in a comparative 

 context. 



• Social indicators are quantitative measures of 

 the inputs and outputs that affect the quality of 

 life. Research on social indicators has focused 

 on previously neglected output measures and 

 has highlighted the fact that there is not a very 



direct relation between input and output in 

 most major areas of interest. For«example, 

 changes in the ratio of teachers to students are 

 not accompanied by corresponding changes in 

 academic achievement, and shifts in the num- 

 ber of policemen are not accompanied by corre- 

 sponding shifts in the number of crimes. NSF 

 grantees have provided a major part of the data 

 for the volumes Social Indicators 1973 and So- 

 cial Indicators 1976. issued by the Office of 

 Management and Budget as a social report to 

 the Nation and as a general background docu- 

 ment for Federal policymakers. 



Current and Future Research 

 Emphasis 



Five of the most interesting current biological, 

 behavioral, and social sciences projects or pro- 

 gram thrusts involving basic research are: 



• Neuroscience. Man has long been fascinated 

 with and challenged by the most complex and 

 least understood of his bodily structures — the 

 brain. A recent report to the President notes: 

 ■'. . . the ultimate challenge to biomedical 

 research, representing the very pinnacle of 

 our understanding of the human organisms, 

 lies in neurobiology." Technological and con- 

 ceptual advances of the past two decades 

 place the neurosciences on the threshold of 

 being able to respond to this challenge. Tis- 

 sue-culture approaches for studying neural 

 tissue in vitro, research using simple inverte- 

 brate systems with identified neurons, and 

 revolutionary new techniques for mapping 

 nerve pathways are rapidly accelerating the 

 understanding of brain mechanisms. Research 

 problems in the neurosciences are attracting 

 gifted scientists who have contributed 

 significantly in other areas, and increasing 

 numbers of young scientists are directing 

 their research and careers toward neurosci- 

 ence problems. 



• The river continuum project. This project in 

 environmental biology promises to enhance 

 our understanding of stream ecology. The 

 project is unique in several ways: (1) It is 

 seeking a model for predicting continuous 

 change in salient variables across a range of 

 stream sizes up to sizeable rivers; (2) it is 

 comparative by its design — simultaneous 

 studies using exactly the same procedures are 

 conducted in four contrasting geographic 

 areas — eastern Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ida- 

 ho, and Oregon; and (3) the third phase of the 

 study brings all of the team members together 

 for a concerted analysis of the best, 



NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 207 



