News
The American
Scientific Affiliation
VOL 1 NUMBER
5
25
August
1959
CALL FOR TEACHERS
While this announcement is very late, it still seems worthwhile to
announce that Los Angeles Pacific College is in need of a physics teacher
and a chemistry teacher. Dean Paul C. Davis states that they are hopeful
that one of these might also be able to assist in mathematics. This need
is very urgent and any persons interested in applying should contact Dean
Davis immediately. The address of the college is
625
Coleman Avenue,
Los Angeles
42,
phone Clinton
6-22/+6
days or Clinton
5-6810
after hours.
Roberts Wesleyan College of North Chili, N.Y. is also on the lookout
for some help in the teaching of physi4cs and mathematics, principally the
former. While they have been offering only a minor in physics, they are
hoping to increase this to a major. Those interested should communicate with
Professor Charles E. Keys, Chairman, Division of Science and Mathematics.
RESEARCH
SCIENTISTS' CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
Charles Troutman, General Secretary 'of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship,
Sydney, Australia, expresses gratitude for receiving the various publications
of the ASA. The Research Scientists' Christian Fellowship of this area is
especially grateful to be kept in touch with ASA activities. Troutman writes
"At the moment, the chief activities of the RSCF have been to assist Christian Teachers in the High Schools and Senior High School students with the
problem of evolution which is still a fiery issue down under. A great deal
of material which the ASA has sent this way has been of great value. We are
also encouraging a number of our scientific men to write for British and
American publications and this seems to be a profitable activity. Unfortunately, geography is against us here and tends to isolate us from one
another. Nevertheless we have a good deal of correspondence going backward
and forwards and occasionally we do see other members of the RSCF."
NSF INSTITUTES
A number of ASA members are involved in National Science Foundation
Institutes for bringing science teachers up to date and thus improve the
quality of science instruction. Dr. H. Harold Hartzler, President of the
ASA, is teaching such a course at Mankato, Minnesota, and David P. McLaren has been attending such a session at University of Southern California.
McLaren has recently returned from Japan where he taught dependents of
Americans stationed there.
NOMINATIONS
Each year one person retires from the executive council after having
served a five-year term. This worn and exhausted individual is replaced by
a carefully elected fresh recruit with a gleam in his eye and a glint in his
hair. At the annual business meeting during the convention at Trinity
Seminary, Dr. Hartzler announced the nominees: Dr. J. Frank Cassel and Dr. David 0. Moberg. Both have the gleam in the eye, but Moberg has a
considerable edge in the amount of hair he has to glitter! The nominating
committee was composed of Hendrik J. Oorthuys (Chairman) Donald S. Robertson and
F. A. Everest.
DARWIN
In this centennial year of the publication of Darwin's Origin of
Species much bowing and scraping is being done in honor of this man's work.
Even our own ASA is coming out with a book reappraising the theory of
evolution after a century of mellowing.
Dr John R. Howitt, Executive Council member of the ASA, has called
our attention to a most interesting phenomenon. The current Everyman's
Library edition of The Origin of Species carries an 18-page introduction
written by W. R. Thompson, FRS, Director of the Commonwealth Institute of
Biological Control, Ottawa, which replaces the former introduction written
a quarter of a century ago by Sir Arthur Keith. Keith was, of course, a
staunch Darwinian, but no stretch of the imagination can picture Thompson in
this way. While Thompson admires the great scientific labors of Darwin, his
introduction is primarily a keen criticism of the evolutionary doctrine.
While too lengthy to treat in ASA NEWS, it is suggested that ASA members make
a special point to obtain a copy of this edition and study Thompson's criticism.
This book is published in London by J. M. Dent & Sons and in New York by
E. P. Dutton & Co. Perhaps some qualified ASA members would like to submit
their review of Thompson's criticism for local section attention or for
publication in the ASA Journal. Send such to Delbert X. Eggenberger, 620
Lincoln Street, Downer's Grove, Illinois.
AAAS
We wish to congratulate Dr. Virgil H. Freed for having been recently
nominated as Fellow of the American Association For the Advancement of
Science. Dr. Freed is chairman of the Oregon State College section of the ASA.
BUSWELL RECEIVES DANFORTH GRANT
A Danforth Foundation Teacher Study Grant for the year 1959-60 has
been awarded to James 0. Buswell III Assistant Professor of Anthropology
at Wheaton College. One of the 73 Danforth Teachers" appointed for next
year out of over 400 applicants, Buswell is the only anthropologist to have
been appointed since the program was founded in 1953. He will spend the year
completing the course requirements for the Ph.D. in anthropology at Columbia
University.
NEWS FROM THE 50th STATE
A letter from Hawaii indicates that Dr. Wayne U. Ault has not yet
been ravaged by that scourge of the islands, hopeless fever. Formerly of
Lamont Geological observatory of Columbia University, Wayne is now with the
U.S. Geological Survey with an assignment at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
perched on the edge of Kiluea Crater. He writes:
947 Stanford Street
Santa Monica, Calif.