For UFO Study? - The Black Vault

.-',... NEWS IN BRIEF
• TRUMAN NAMED MOUNT cific eligibility requirements f/r grant
HOLYOKE PRESIDENT: David B. applicants. Institutional and individual
Truman has resigned as vice president , project proposals may be submitted to
and provost of Columbia University to 'Ralph G. H. Sin, Direclor,/4ati6nal Inbecome
president of Mount Holyokc stitutc of Law Enforcement and Crimi-
College in South Hadlcy, Mass. Tru- nal Justice, Departmc/t of Justice,
man, who has filled Columbia Univer- Washington, D.C. 205/0.
sity's second highest administrative post
since June 1967, was formerly dean of • POWER PLANT/PERIL: An inter-
Columbia College and has been at Co- agency report, which calls for advance
lumbia for 19 years. He was a central planning in choo/ng power plant sites,
figure in the student-administration con- warns that an estimated 250 huge new
frontations, which occurred at Colum- power plants /ceded to fulfill the nabia
last spring (see Science, 22 Nov.). lion's future/>owcr .demands by 1990,
Truman will assume on 1 July 1969, his could constitute a serious perilto the.
duties as president of Mount Holyoke, nation's ai^and water supply. Consider-.
a woman's college with 1800 students, ations Affecting Steam Power Plant Site
Selection, which was prepared by the
•EDUCATION UNDER THE GI Office/of Science and Technology,
BILL: More than a half million vetcr- calls/or scientific and engineering deans
are now enrolled in' education and velopments to reduce danger, from
training programs under the "Post- thermal pollution, radiation contami-
Korean GI Bill" and nearly 325,000 of n/tion, and other potential pollution
these are involved in college-level pro- tfazards; it may be obtained for $1.25
grams. A Veterans Administration (VA) /from the Superintendent of Documents,
report shows that nearly 1 million, or /U.S. Government Printing Office,
about 20 percent, of all recent veterans
have received some educational bcnJ- • FEDERAL RAT CONTROL
fits under the present GI bill, which GRANTS: The final grants to cities
became effective 1 June 1966. VA /fli- for rat control pilot studies have been
.cials told Science that the percentage announced by Wilbur J. Cohen, Secreof
veterans expected to seek educational tary of Health, Education, and Welfare,
benefits under the present bill \viu prob- The grants were provided by Congress
ably approach 50 percent, as ywas the on second thought after it defeated the
case with both World War II/tnd Ko- President's Rat Bill in 1967. The Partrean
War veterans. Under t/e present nership for Health Act provided a total
bill, servicemen arc eligible/for educa- of $15 million to 14 urban areas which
tional benefits for 8 yeaix after they were selected to pose a variety of rat
terminate their service. /The 325,000 control problems. The federal grants
veterans now enrolled jrn college-level are supplemented by almost $6 million
programs constitute slightly more than in matching funds. The projects will be
5 percent of the 6 mi/ion students esti- evaluated at the end of 1969, and the
mated in higher cdu/ition last fall. experience derived will be made available
for use in the rest of the 130 ma-
CRIME RESEARCH GRANTS: The jor cities in the country.
Justice Departmc/t has announced "Exercise
Acorn," / small grants program • ARS ANIMAL RESEARCH CENto
encourage new ideas in research and TER: A $2.7-million National Meat
development/n broad areas of crime Animal Research Center is being estabprevention,
/rime control, and the ad- lished by the Agriculture Research
ministratio/ of justice. The recently Service (ARS) in Clay Center, Neb., to
established National Institute of Law coordinate all new ARS research efforts
Enforcement and Criminal Justice in livestock breeding and management,
within/he Justice Department plans to The purpose of the center, which will
award/about 50 grants, not exceeding support about 240 specialists, will be
$5000 each, to scientists, scholars, and to conduct new ARS basic and applied
oth/r professionals interested in re- research programs in the feeding, breedsearch
in such areas as the -reduction ing, and genetics of livestock and meat
/f crime, the improvement of law en- production; to study how animal wastes
'forcement services, courts, and corrcc- contribute to water pollution; and to
tional institutions, including parole and continue research conducted formerly
probation agencies. There arc no spe- . at ARS regional centers.
reality behind the UFO mystery. But
Condon and the Academy panel, noting
that UFO cases tend to be explicable
in conventional terms when enough
data arc available, disagree. The Academy
panel asserts that, "while some
incidents have no positive identification
with familiar phenomena, they also
have no positive identification with extraterrestrial
visitors or artifacts." It
adds that, while some UFO sighting^:s •
are not easily explained, the Condon
report suggests "so many reasonable
and possible directions in which an cx-
. planation may be found that there
seems to be no reason to attribute
them to an extraterrestrial source without
evidence that is much more convincing."
. . . . .
The Condon report emphatically asserts
that there is .no evidence 1 of a
government conspiracy to hush iip the
truth about flying saucers. "We have
no evidence of secrecy concerning UFO
.reports," Condon states. "What has
been miscalled secrecy has been no
more than an intelligent policy of delay
in releasing data so that the public
does not become confused by premature
publication of incomplete studies
of reports." .
In the past, however, there was considerable...official
secrecy, for 'up to
I960 UFO reports were handled as
classified information. Condon believes
this secrecy did much to fuel.the UFO
controversy, for it allowed dark suspicions
to take root, and it fostered
sensationalized commercial exploitation
of the idea that the government knew
much about UFO's that it was concealing.
"Had responsible press, magazine
writers, and scientists been called
in and given the full story . . . they
would have seen for themselves how
small was the sum of all the evidence
and in particular how totally lacking in
positive support was the ETH [extraterrestrial
hypothesis] idea," Condon
says. ' ' . • • • • • ' •
Whether the Condon report will ultimately
quiet the UFO controversy remains
to be seen, but the criticisms already
stirred up by the Colorado project
serve as a reminder that scientific methods
are not always able to resolve problems
in fields where emotions run high
and data arc scarce. Meanwhile, a
Nobel prize probably awaits the first
scientist who conclusively demonstrates
that UFO's really are vehicles from another
world. As Condon notes, this
would be "the greatest single scientific
discovery in the history of mankind."
—Piiii.ir M. BOFFEY
262 . ' SCIENCE. VOL. 163
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