(e.g., sickle cell anemia and phenylketonuria), the result, although 

 intrinsically desirable with respect to protecting the individual life, 

 could become a growing public health problem for the general 

 population. 



These many diverse but related problems of "population" call for a 

 correspondingly diverse set of responses from science and technology. 

 Population control may be enhanced by better understanding of the 

 personal, social, and economic motivations for large families, as well as 

 by more knowledge of the chemistry and physiology of reproduction 

 and its translation into new chemical approaches to birth control. In 

 the area of nutrition, opportunities exist for raising the protein 

 content of foods in tropical and semitropical lands through such means 

 as genetic engineering of cereals, development of synthetic protein for 

 enriching the diet, and greater production of fish protein through the 

 use of aquaculture. In the case of degenerative and genetic disorders, 

 much more knowledge is needed of the fundamental aspects of cellular 

 and multicellular life, regardless of the particular disease of concern. 

 This requires basic advances in the biological sciences which depend, in 

 part, on continued stimulation from related disciplines, most notably 

 chemistry and physics. 



Problems of health, like problems of population control, are 

 ethical-social-economic-biological problems. Efforts to cope with them 

 must be guided by advancing insights across the full spectrum of 

 dimensions. 



General References 



World Population: The Task Ahead, CESI/WPY 10, Centre for Economic and Social 

 Information, United Nations, 1973. 



Rapid Population Groioth: Consequences and Policy Implications, National Academy of 

 Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971. 



Primary Productivity 



Only two of the many important aspects of this problem have 

 been selected for discussion here: world food supply and demand and 

 the maintenance of natural ecosystems. 



The term "primary productivity" refers to the process by which 

 plants utilize sunlight for the synthesis of organic materials. It is this 

 process that supports the life of all the biosphere. Primary productivity 

 by green plants supplies food, fuel, and fiber (cotton, lumber, and pulp) 

 as well as ecosystems of great diversity. The vegetated surface of the 

 Earth, in addition, receives wastes, cools the atmosphere, and helps to 

 maintain the soil in a productive state. Plants supply the bulk of human 

 food, primarily in the form of cereals which are consumed directly, or 

 indirectly through animals that feed on grain. It has been estimated 



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