281 
In summary, I guess I might be said to be very interested in the fact 
that in the public mind, at least, what we do is credible, and that the public 
perception of what we have done with respect to recombinant DNA research — what 
we are doing in that area — be structured so that we won't have to get into the 
area of prohibiting or making more restrictive this area of research, if that 
didn't come through as a clear concern of mine. 
Thank you. 
DR. FREDRICKSON: Thank you, Ms. King. 
Well, Sir John Kendrew, you are now the Director of the European Molec- 
ular Biology Laboratory. What is the view from the Philosovischenvag [?] in 
Heidelberg? It is a very different world, isn't it? 
SIR JOHN KENDREW: Well, Dr. Fredrickson, it is a very different world, 
and I suppose in one sense I might feel a kind of detachment from all that 
is going on here and sit back and view it as, indeed, I do from time to 
time, with a mixture of sometimes astonishment and sometimes admiration at 
the way in which you conduct your business. 
(Laughter . ) 
Now, I think that we are all rather parochial about these things, and 
coming from the most insular and parochial country in the world, I under- 
stand this very well. I sometimes think, of course, even a country like the 
United States can be a little insular; it is an island too. I think it is 
important for a body like this to recall that actually what is going on here 
is of very intimate importance to the rest of the world. 
It happens that in this field of research the way was led by the United 
States. It happens that Asilomar happened in the United States. It happens 
that the first guidelines were drafted by the United States. And indeed, to 
a remarkably close approximation, all other countries which have now developed 
guidelines or drafted guidelines have followed the United States very, very 
closely. I think this is a remarkable tribute, as a matter of fact, to the 
kind of scientific and administrative leadership that this country has been 
able to exert. But I think that one ought to remember that it is one world, 
and particularly in science one world, and I think it is very important that 
efforts should continue in the future to produce some kind of close correla- 
tion, some kind of marching along in the same direction in this matter of 
guidelines in all the countries where this kind of work is going on. 
Now, I think in all those countries the need — almost all those countries 
— the need for guidelines has been recognized; and I think that even though 
some of us might have some sympathy with some of the things Jim Watson said 
this morn ing--wh ich , roughly speaking, was to the effect that there is no 
danger and what the hell is all this waste of time for — the fact, of course, 
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