CONTENTS 



PART I 



Technical Information for Congress 



Page 



Chapter One — Introduction 1 



Statement of the problem 1 



Plan for the study 1 



Chapter Two — Some general observations on science and government 5 



The search for a common ground o 



The political framework 8 



The scientific framework 11 



Chapter Three — AD-X2: The difficulty of proving a negative 14 



I. Background of the case 14 



The story in brief 14 



Relevant historical elements in the background 15 



Issues growing out of the AD-X2 case 17 



The illustrative features of the case 18 



II. Beginnings of the AD-X2 story 19 



The protagonist: Mr. Jesse M. Ritchie .. 19 



Uncertain composition of the battery additive AD-X2 20 



III. How the AD-X2 issue came before the Congress 22 



Bureau of Standards involvement with AD-X2 23 



The Federal Trade Commission and AD-X2 26 



The Post Office Department and AD-X2 28 



AD-X2 and the Office of the Secretary of Commerce 29 



AD-X2 and the Senate Select Committee on Small Busi- 

 ness 31 



rV. Management of the issue 35 



Structuring the issue 36 



Assessment of the issue 39 



Definition of alternatives 39 



V. Sources of the committee's information 40 



Testimony of Ritchie before the committee 40 



Testimony of Dr. Astin on AD-X2 and NBS 42 



Dr. Weber's description of the MIT tests 45 



Other technical evidence presented to the committee 46 



Recapitulation : A plethora of data _- 46 



VI. The decisionmaking method 47 



The decision method in the testing issue 48 



The decision method in the regulatory issue 49 



The decision method in the science policy issue 51 



VII. The outcome of the AD-X2 controversy 52 



Direct consequences of the controversy 54 



Indirect consequences of the controversy 54 



VIII. Lessons of the controversy — The role of scientific information.. 56 



(IX) 



