Category - No 5

Report from the Boston Science Teaching Group

The Science Teaching Group has concentrated in the last few months on sales of the 3 “Science and Society” pamphlets, on a Biology Teachers’ Conference in Framingham and on consideration of new projects. Sales of the pamphlets have been going extremely well with both “The Energy Crisis” and “Genetic Engineering” (2000...

Something Old, Something New

Once again the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will hold its annual meetings in New York, Jan., 1975. This is not new.  Once again Science for the People can be there carrying out its responsibilities to humankind by attacking, behind the mask of science, the technology and ideology of...

Science Teaching Column: Inside Prison Walls

Two of the major goals of the course were to develop the intellectual confidence of the inmates and to enhance their abilities of collectively understanding and solving their problems. Group oral reports and attempts to draw out collective solutions in discussion were methods used to accomplish these goals. The group...

Report from the Genetic Engineering Group

The group is still in the process of defining its goals, but our overall position may be summarized:  (1) Scientific progress does not equal human progress and technology is not a goal in itself.  (2) Scientists cannot be trusted to regulate their own activities; they should account for the consequences of their work...

XYY: Fact or Fiction?

You've just returned home from the Lying-In Hospital in Boston bearing a beautiful normal baby boy. You and the father let out a quiet sigh of relief — everything went alright, the future looks bright, true happiness is yours. In a few days, however, a message arrives from Dr. Stanley Walzer, a child psychiatrist...

Technicians and 1199

In the following series of statements we have attempted to contribute to our understanding of scientific workplaces. Hospital and research laboratories are very different. Different workers may have quite different motivations and expectations. Unionization can substantially improve wages and solidify class...

Aiding Workers’ Struggles

Where did this concern about health and safety grow out of? The issue itself has existed for a long time. Public concern with toxic effects of chemicals created fertile soil in which workers' complaints about conditions inside the plant grew. The threat that workplace hazards might leak into the community was another...

Science for the People: The Natural Birth of a Woman’s Group

The impetus for our meeting can be traced back to last Fall's Eastern Regional Conference where it was decided that people in the local chapters should take a close look at problems of "sexism, racism and elitism." The Boston chapter then held two general meetings about "Interpersonal Relations and the Class Struggle...

Review: Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers

The authors find that the conventional reasons given for the rise of (male) professionals are myths. The professional takeover of health care in both epochs occurred before there was any real scientific superiority of the practicing professionals. If anything, the medical craft practiced by (female) lay healers...