879 



"Because of its objectivity," Salomon continues, "science is considered 

 to be supracultural . . . ." Even the idea of a national scientific 

 community would be contradictory since scientists share a ". . . single 

 language, similar procedures, comparable experiments, [and] shared 

 norms . . . ." Ideally the scientific community is a "spiritual collec- 

 tivity, . . . and for this reason it so far transcends incompatibilities 

 arising out of nationalism or ideology as to be completely unaware 

 of them." 



Pragmatically, the supranational momentum of scientific inquiry 

 led early scientists to establish and maintain relations with their 

 colleagues in other countries through exchanges of correspondence, 

 publications, and visits. These first forms of international scientific 

 cooperation served the same function for early scientists as they do 

 for their twentieth-century colleagues. The American oceanographer. 

 Dr. Roger Revelle, has described the scientific rationale for meetings 

 between scientists: 



1. Face to face meetings among scientists . . . are a most effective means for 

 exchange of scientific information and ideas. 



2. [Imagination and creativity and an ability to s( e relationships that have 

 never been seen before are essential to scientific discovery.] A good deal of science 

 cannot be communicated, much less taught, except through direct personal 

 contact. . . . Details of experimental procedure are hard to describe in words and 

 are rarely published; they must be seen to be believed. 



3. . . . Scientific ideas are usually born in conversation, rather than in the mind 

 of one man. . . . The fresh insights, the new association between previously 

 unrelated phenomena, often come from the interplay of two or three minds 

 clashing in conversation. 



4. ... In talking face to face, scientists allow themselves to state their intui- 

 tions and partly-formulated ideas, unconstrained by the caution they demand in 

 the printed word.* 



The Size and Variety of Overseas Activities of American Scientists 



Members of the American scientific community, like their counter- 

 parts in other countries, travel a good deal. So extensive are their 

 activities it is impossible to describe them fully. In a paper written 

 in the early 1960's, Roger Revelle estimated that between 15 and 20 

 thousand U.S. scientists and engineers attend foreign scientific 

 meetings each year.® However, a valid portrayal of the size and scope of 

 U.S. overseas scientific and technical activities would have to encom- 

 pass governmental and nongovernmental programs in education, field 

 research, technical assistance, and participation in large international 

 cooperative projects, most likely multiplving Revelle's figure several- 

 fold. 



The paucity of valid information about U.S. scientific activities 

 abroad is matched by the lack of readily available data describing 

 Government-sponsored overseas programs for nongovernmental 

 scientists. An American attending an international scientific con- 

 ference may have paid his own way or have received his support 

 probably as easily from a non-profit foundation or professional asso- 

 ciation as from a Government-sponsored program. Research performed 



' Roger Revelle, "International Cooperation and the Two Faces of Science." In: American Assembly, 

 Cultural Affairs and Foreign Relations (Washington: Columbia Books, Inc., reprinted 1968), pp. 141-142. 

 ' Roger Revelle, "International Cooperation and the Two Faces of Science," op. cit., p. 141. 



