206 SCIENTIST 



one to be vaccinated against smallpox even though we know 

 that perhaps as many as one in a million will contract a 

 dangerous encephalitis. There is no formula that can be 

 used to decide just what the odds should be in any par- 

 ticular case. In practice, a committee of experts will 

 weigh many different factors before coming to a con- 

 clusion. The decisions of such committees provide excellent 

 examples of the close working relationship between science 

 and values which is increasingly characteristic of modem 

 society. 



In the Soviet Union, something over half of the top 

 policy-making positions in the government are occupied 

 by persons with scientific or engineering educations. The 

 situation in the United States is far different, but even 

 so, scientists here have become policy makers to an extent 

 that would have been regarded incredible thirty years ago. 

 Their most obvious role is in making the pohcy of science 

 itself. Science has become very big business indeed, with 

 an estimated 15 billion dollars spent on research and 

 development in 1961-1962. The wise expenditure of such 

 sums as this requires much careful thought and detailed 

 planning — much of it necessarily by scientifically trained 

 executives. The scientist administrator is thus becoming a 

 familiar figure not only in such obviously scientific organi- 

 zations as the National Science Foundation and the Bureau 

 of Standards, but in almost every government department 

 and throughout industry as well. Even the State Depart- 

 ment has a scientific staff to advise on science as it affects 

 international relations. For the past ten years a prominent 

 part of the White House organization has been the Office 

 of the President's Science Advisor, supported by a group 

 of full-time assistants and a part-time committee of civilian 

 scientists. Originally formed to give advice on the use of 

 science in national defense, the ofifice now is involved in a 



