588 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



COMMITTEE DISCUSSION IN 1971 



Both Thornton and Hollcnbcck referred to the pioneer work which 

 had been done in this field by Dr. James D. Watson, professor of bio- 

 chemistry at Harvard University. Nobel Laureate Watson sparked the 

 early interest of the committee by delivering a provocative paper at the 

 1971 meeting of the committee's Panel on Science and Technology. 

 Dr. Watson directed the committee's attention to the tremendous 

 possibilities and also dangers in the nascent held of "genetic 

 engineering" —the rearrangement of the basic substances that 

 determine the heredity of an organism. This was a natural extension 

 and outgrowth of the committee's interest in the life sciences, and 

 related issues such as population growth. 



Subcommittee Chairman Davis asked the Science Policy Research 

 Division for a special study of the subject, which was published as a 

 committee print in 1972, entitled "Genetic Engineering- Evolution 

 of a Technological Issue. ' ' The report concluded : 



The science of genetics is rapidly moving out of the realm of theoretical research 

 and into the more politically sensitive region of applied science. 



The report commented on Dr. Watson's warning signals to the com- 

 mittee's 1971 Panel on Science and Technology with a quotation from 

 another Nobel Laureate, Dr. Joshua Lederberg, professor of genetics 

 at Stanford University School of Medicine. Using a totally unconscious 

 double-entendre understandable only to those very close to the Science 

 Committee, Dr. Lederberg stated: 



There are indeed tigers within our walls that deserve more immediate attention 

 from our lawmakers. 



As time went on, huge strides were made in genetic engineering. 

 Public interest in the area mounted. The low key scientific conferences 

 of biologists and geneticists soon found that microphones were being 

 thrust in front of participants to explain to the public whether or 

 not they were designing Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." Many 

 scientists, acting through the National Academy of Sciences, expressed 

 a serious concern that DNA experimentation could accidentally pro- 

 duce a new molecule which might result in a highly infectious disease 

 or an increased danger of cancer. The subcommittee wanted to insure 

 that Congress was kept current in the rapidly changing areas of 

 biomedical research and genetic engineering, as well as the science 

 policy issues involved. 



THE 1974 AND 1976 COMMITTEE STUDIES 



Accordingly, Chairman Davis asked the Science Policy Research 

 Division to update its 1972 study and prepare a further study and 



