YUN 2 4 196

 

Professor C. H. Waddington, C.B.E., Sc.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.

INSTITUTE OF ANIMAL GENETICS - WEST MAINS ROAD - EDINBURGH 9
University Department of Animal Genetics, A.R.C. Unit of Animal Genetics & M.R.C. Induced Mutagenesis Group
Telephone : NEWington 1081

Dear Ldwhar4

I am sending you a copy of an article I recently wrote about the
proposed International Biological Programme, which I am also sending
to a number of other senior American biologists who I know to be interested
in the application of biology to human welfare, I think that, if this
programme is to be worthwhile, it will need the guidance of people who both
have some vision of what biology can do for mankind and who can also keep
their feet on the ground and prevent the programme going off izto mere
accumulation of details,

I found myself somewhat thrown into the middle of this situation
when, to my surprise, I was elected President of the International Union of
Biological Sciences. I found that they had already in existence a project
for an ILB.P,, but it seemed to be extremely vague in its objectives, each
member of the Planning Committee suggesting that it should be about his owm
Special field, I tried to look at the situation from an outside point of
view. It seemed clear that there was not much case for organised inter-
national programmes in the growing points of analytical biology, such as
molecular genetics or central nervous system work, The major international
biological problem seemed to be "the population explosion"; and in this
the control of human reproduction is already the concern of a good number
of international bodies, I came to the conclusion that the major contribution
which general biologists can make to world progress at the present time is
to study the conditions of biological productivity, on which all food
production is based, and to force this problem on public attention, trying
to make governments and peoples realise that the surroundings in which man |
lives are working biological system and not merely something to be exploited
as fast as possible,

To ask for a world-wide survey of biological productivity is, in
fact, to face ecologists with a challenge which it is not quite clear that they
can meet; those dealing with marine and freshwater habitats seem to have a
fairly well developed science of production, but production by terrestial
communities is much more complex and less well understood, I think it is
possible that it will turn out that biologists cannot yet give an account of
what living systems in all regions of the world's surface do with the
incident energy which falls on them, But even if this pessimistic opinion
is correct, at least it will surely be of great value to focus attention
on the problem,

Yours sincerely,

Ofna