Area Code 415
497-3693

PROGRAM IN HUMAN BIOLOGY
Building 80, Inner Quad

 

 

0, é
LE oF tye ESS

August 8, 1979

Dr. Joshua Lederberg

The Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue

New York, NY 10021

Dear Josh:

This was written very quickly, to be used as a basis for part of
the President's "Second Annual Report to the Congress on Science and
Technology". I will be revising it in a few weeks and will welcome any _~
comments.

I feel a strong need to go further. The public debate over risk
is chaotic. A recent set of joint Senate/House/AAAS hearings on risk
assessment was uncreative, as have been other symposia... but you know
all that. I have been trying to think of the best way to reach an
intelligent, leadership audience. What do you think of a careful New
Yorker series that becomes a book (Bantam, Penguin, Norton)? Content
aside, recent articles, such as those by Brodeur, Commoner, and Dyson,
have shown this format to be an extremely effective one. I would build
upon Of Acceptable Risk, and would go more into the business of "risk
management" (regulation, law, insurance, design, operator error, priority-
setting, cross-comparison of major hazards); the roles of technical people
(René Dubos urged me in a letter some months ago to work on the issue of
the social responsibilities of engineers); and social philosophy (as, for
instance, is alluded to in the latter part of the enclosed draft regarding
such things as "cooperative federalism" and the disposal of nuclear waste
and as has lain at the heart of such debates as the laetrile ruckus). For
anecdotal "color", the year could not have provided a livelier palette:
Three Mile Island, the big shipwrecks and oilspills, the DC-10 crash,
floods in Texas, earthquakes in Vermont, Pinto gastanks, Firestone tires,
the saccharin moratorium, nitrites, Skylab.... I greatly need advice on
whether and how to pursue this with New Yorker, perhaps a publisher (I have
mentioned to Bill Kaufmann my interest, and he understands my preference to
go for a larger audience), and so on. Any suggestions?

As to my career, I am frustrated and almost angry about the way things
have worked out here. I am committed to teaching in Human Biology through
this coming year. Beyond that, nothing has developed. Al Hastorf has nomi-
nated me to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; with
your permission, for which I will telephone you next week, I will give your
name as a reference. I will apply for a Guggenheim Fellowship. I may apply
to the Twentieth Century Fund or other foundation for support that I
could take with me to any institution. I simply must seek a research
base and the time to write!

My apologies for an overly long letter. I would greatly value your
counsel.

Cordially,

William W. Lowrance
Visiting Associate Professor

WWL:1d