48 
maximum informed public participation if the task of information 
evaluation is impossible for the lay citizen. Dr. Trumbull referred to 
the many attempts to gain public involvement at the local, State and 
Federal level as a major sociological experiment requiring intensive 
evaluation by social scientists. For example, at the very time when 
there is a growing awareness of the need to obtain informed public 
participation in government policy, there are counter efforts to reduce 
public involvement and education. He cited the current efforts to 
reduce public participation in Federal advisory committees, efforts 
to reduce expenditures by Federal agencies on public education, 
limitations of information retrieval systems to Federal use only, and 
generally limited examination of public involvement in science policy 
issues by congressional committees. Dr. Trumbull noted that there 
is a lot of activity going on now that is productive but needs to be 
constantly examined, reevaluated, and restructured as necessary to 
achieve the end of informed citizen involvement in the determination 
of science policy issues. Most of the large scientific societies now have 
professional activities to provide for participation by scientists in 
on-going public policy issues. Organizations such as the AIBS have 
congressional liaison staffs, newsletters, special committes, and special 
programs at their meetings to provide for the dissemination of infor- 
mation and to support discussion and debates about issues in science 
policy. 
As emphasized by Mr. McGowan, however, it is necessary to keep 
in mind that there are many publics, and many types of conflict. It 
is unreasonable to think that education alone will solve all of these 
problems. There will always be conflict simply because of the enormous 
range of different values which citizens hold. Further, different 
perceptions of education often further confuse the issue. Scientists 
often think that an appropriate level of education has been achieved 
only when the citizen becomes sufficiently knowledgeable to be a 
scientist. The scientific community often expects the press to learn 
the rules of science but won’t take the time to learn the rules of the 
press. There has to be compromise on all sides with meaningful 
dialogue flowing continuously. 
In his summary statement, Dr. Stone pointed out that the public 
debates on issues become serious when the facts are not well known. 
The Congress then usually becomes involved in such controversies 
and must make judgments that are often based upon determinations 
other than a weighting of the accuracy or inaccuracy of the scientific 
facts relevant to a particular area of research. The search for political 
solutions is frequently based on evaluations of factors separate from 
the search for scientific fact. 
As Dr. Stone noted, the real problems may appear as issues which 
have never been considered. Thus, an appropriate posture would be 
to deal legislatively with the immediate problems but retain the 
flexibility to make changes as the issues become clearer. 
One point on which all of these witnesses expressed concern was the 
fact that care must be taken not to create an atmosphere of discourage- 
ment for scientists who do take time to participate in research. issues 
that are of public policy significance. There is a tendency for scientists 
who become involved in such debates to be placed in defensive posi- 
tions. This tends to create pressure situations among their peers which 
[Appendix B — 97] 
