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5 

 pool of knowledgeable and trained advanced students to act as research 

 assistants for scientists in the laboratory and library. (6) The shortage 

 of instructional positions and of funding impedes the retraining of staff 

 because of the difficulty of releasing them for periods of retraining. 



(7) The shortage of travel funding which usually requires foreign 

 currencies hinders scholars with similar research problems from consulting 

 actively with each other. This problem is accentuated by the low quality 

 of telephonic communications and the slowness of the postal services. 



(8) Even though much of the research requires the best of international 

 science, there is a great shortage of travel funding to attend seminars 

 and conferences to keep abreast of the latest techniques and to develop 

 the collegial cooperation with other scientists as well as simply to 

 maintain morale. 



As a result of these and related factors, morale among African 

 scientists is often very low. One group of 27 Nigerian scientists 

 recently wrote a book entitled What Science? , asserting the virtual 

 impossibility of scientific research and its application in the face of a 

 multitude of impediments in their nation. This low morale often leads 

 scientists to seek opportunities elsewhere in Western laboratories and 

 universities. Their migration is a crucial loss to already beleaguered 

 faculties, which further decreases the mass of scientists and increases 

 the ratio of students and government civil servants to faculty member. 



In spite of all these hindrances, some individual scientists and 

 departments persevere and garner the minimal requisite resources to 

 conduct science and to apply it to development problems. Various articles 

 and reports from African institutions testify to the success of these 

 motivated and resourceful scientists and scholars. The institutional. 



