NEWSLETTER
of  
THE AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC AFFILIATION

VOLUME 16, NUMBER I February 1974

ATTEND THE 1974 AAAS MEETING IN SAN FRANCISCO, FEB. 24 - MAR. l...

... and the American Scientific Affiliation OPEN HOUSE, Tuesday, February 26, 8 to 10 p.m. ASA members and friends residing in the Bay Area are also invited to this informal get-together with Christians in science from across the country. At 762 Arlington Ave., Berkeley 94707. Take Albany exit from 1-80, or F bus from San Francisco ' See Dec. 1973 ASA ,News, p. 2, for more information. Or call the Hearns at 527-3056.

YEAR OF THE TIGER!

Gung Hay Fat Choy! That's the way the Chinese greet each other as February 1974 begins the Asian year 4672, "The Year of the Tiger."

Tom Howard took the title for his fine autobiography, Christ the Tiger (Lippincott, 1967), from these lines,of T. S. Eliot's poem, "Gerontion":

The word within a word, unable to speak a word,
Swaddled with darkness. In the juvescence of the year
Came Christ the tiger...

We sense that this year "Christ the Tiger" may break loose among His people, in particular among us in the American Scientific Affiliation. There are signs that we are ready to serve Him wisely and courageously, drawing wisdom and courage from Christ Himself.

No wonder there's an air of expectancy in the ASA!

Holding the hoop for us to jump through are our new officers for 1974: President Gary  E. Collins, professor and chairman, Division of Pastoral Psychology and Counseling, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois; Vice-President -and president-elect David L. Willis, professor of biology and chairman of the Department of General Science, Oregon State University,' Corvallis; Secretary-Treasurer John W. Haas, Jr., Professor and chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Gordon College, Wenham., Massachusetts.

Also on the five-member ASA Executive Council is Claude E. Stipe, associate professor of' anthropology at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The newly elected member is Dewey K. Carpenter, associate professor of chemistry, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Dewey replaces Jack McIntyre, professor of physics at Texas A & M University, College Station, who was ASA president in 1973, the last year of his five-year term on the Council.

Executive secretary William D. Sisterson presides over the ASA national office in Elgin, Illinois, assisted by our new office secretary, Doris Parker. Richard Bube, professor of materials science at Stanford University, Stanford, California, edits ASA's quarterly Journal, and Walt Hearn of Berkeley, California, edits the bimonthly ASA News.

FOURTH DOWN, AND GOAL

Completing our fourth year of editing ASA News, we've been thinking of how to do a better job. Several ideas came up at the luncheon for local section representatives at the Geneva College meeting. For example: Could we switch to more frequent publication? A monthly newsletter would be more useful to local sections in publicizing their activities. It would also better serve members in the job market. If each issue were half the present size and self-mailing without an envelope, mailing costs would not double. Or we could spread the same number of pages annually over eight issues instead -of six and mail them in the months in which the Journal does not Appear. What do you think of these ideas?

One scheme sounded like a bribe some "Committee to Reinstate a Precedent" might offer: To get members to read each issue all the way through, announce that a $10 bill will be taped somewhere inside one copy! Actually, many readers tell us they already find enough "surprises" inside to keep them reading. Several have noted with approval that we're not on a "credentials trip": ASA News treats people as people, with little emphasis on the degrees they hold.

The economics of printing and mailing may eventually bring changes in our format as ASA membership grows. In fact, a printed format was considered for this issue. But the economics aren't yet compelling. "Homestyle" mimeographing gives ASA News a "family" feel that might be lost if we went "slick." One of our goals i7-to keep reminding us that ASA really is a family: brothers and sisters serving the Father through our science.

FREDERICK H. GILES, JR., DIES

Frederick H. Giles, Jr., associate professor of physics at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, died of cancer of the bone marrow on December 19, 1973. He was a Fellow of ASA and a member of the Corporation of IVCF. He was also a Fellow of AAAS and a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American, Physical Society, the Biophysical Society, the Electrochemical Society, and the American Institute of Physics. In addition to papers in biophysics and chemical physics, he had published articles on the teaching of physics and on the interaction of-science and religion.

Fred was born in Chicago. He graduated with honors from Wheaton College and received his PhD at the University of Illinois. He joined the University of South Carolina faculty in 1957, but bad taken leave in 1965-67 to serve as Fulbright lecturer and.-visiting professor of physics at the University of Baghdad, in Iraq. Devoted to teaching, he was director of undergraduate studies in his department and also directed the Annual 'South Carolina Junior Science Symposium. He is survived by his wife, Margit, a daughter and two sons; and by his mother and a sister in Wheaton.

ASA News extends our sympathy to the Giles family. (The editor particularly remembers Fred's keen sense of humor as well as his clear-cut Christian testimony when we were both graduate students at the U. of 1. in the 19509.)

"(Professor Giles)...at U. of South Carolina, was faculty advisor to IVCF and had a strong witness among fellow faculty and students. This was especially true in recent months after word got around that he was-afflicted with terminal cancer. This gave un6sual opportunity for him to witness to the sustaining power of Jesus Christ, and Fred took advantage of these opportunities in unusual manner, utilizing the great gift God had given him for relating to college faculty and students on their own wavelengths." --John W. Alexander, in the IVCF newsletter, This Week.

SOUND DOCTRINE

F. Alton Everest of Whittier, California, is a registered consulting acoustical engineer with many years of experience in equipping sound studios. To make his experience available to operators of Christian radio and recording studios around the world, he wrote Acoustic Techniques for Home & Studio, published this fall by TAB Books, Blue Ridge Summit, Penna. 17214 (paper $4.95; cloth $7.95). The ."home" part of the title stems from the fact that there are many more Hi-Fi buffs than Christian radio stations. Alton deliberately expanded the book's coverage to broaden the market and justify publication financially (which shows that the children of light are sometimes as bright as the children of this world).

Now that his "do it yourself" acoustic design handbook is in print, Alton is working on instrumentation for a new scheme of his for long-distance acoustical analysis of sound studios. Alton would send test tapes to be played into the room-in question picked up on a microphone, and recorded. This recording of the room's response would then be sent back to Alton for analysis, and he would return a prescription for "do it yourself correction." He hopes, to provide a service that will encourage quality in doing the Lord's work at a price the Lord's people-can afford. He is . currently working on a studio complex for Christchurch Recording Center, just beginning construction in New Zealand.

Newcomers to ASA may not recognize Alton Everest's name. He was one of the founders of our Affiliation, its first president, and the first editor of ASA News'. He 1'retired" once from the Moody Institute of Science to go to Hong long to teach in a Baptist College. He "retired" from Hong Kong last year after setting up a communications department and seeing it staffed by Asians. Now, after all that, he is still showing us how to serve God and serve the people--using our technical skills in a highly professional but never "elitist" manner.

AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS CONE

Charles R. Taber of Milligan College, Tennessee: writes: "I want to respond positively to Mike Chambers' comments in the December 1973 ASA News. I really dig his suggestion that linguists and exegetes, working together or  responding to each other,  They could do some exciting things at  an ASA meeting. I'd love to get into .something like that myself... I volunteer to participate in a team to explore the contributions of linguistics and cultural anthropology to the understanding of the Scriptures. Since I've not yet been able to attend an Annual Meeting (I've been overseas since becoming a member until late in 1973), 1 don't know whom to address this to. But if the idea has merit, could you pass it on to the right person?"

O.K., all you right persons, we're passing it on. Charles Taber is a linguist-anthropologist, former United Bible Societies translation consultant, former editor of Practical Anthropology, and co-author with Eugene A. Nida of Theory And Practice of Translation. Write to .him at 1606 Oakland Avenue, Johnson City, Tennessee 37601, and let's get cracking on this.

A TIM FOR IDEAS HAS ALSO COME

In resp6nse'to an inquiry to International Book Project, Inci, 17 Mentelle Park, Lexington, Kentucky 40502, we received a sheet of very helpful "Tips for Mailing Books and Printed Matter Overseas." We also got a warm personal letter from Mrs. J. F. Van Meter, Executive Director of IBP:

would be delighted to have some Protestant contacts. Four or five years ago some of the Catholic publications offered us advertising space, and this resulted in possibly, 75% of our program being with Catholic institutions and in our having many Catholic Volunteers. But we are not a religious agency. We accept anyone on their own grounds, although I myself am an active Presbyterian. We do send quite a.few books to mission schools and to missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, and involve many church groups. I suppose these will always be the best source of help for worthy causes.

"We work in two ways: We tell Volunteers through this country and several others where and how to send the kinds of reading material they say they will send directly abroad. And we accumulate material here and as we get shipping money (which is difficult) we pack and ship the materials ourselves. The number of items sent is usually about half from our office. Last year we sent 107,000 items, books and journals (of all kinds, not just technical ones). We made books available to over 300,000 people in about 60 countries.

"Our biggest problem is always money. At 'the moment I don't have a typist in the office, and I am.a three-fingered one. On the other hand we do have many people helping., For this we are always grateful. But more requests come every day. Any way we can cooperate will be most acceptable. And I will be very pleased for any publicity you can arrange."

ASA News has been plugging for a technical book recycling project. We already have requests from libraries in several Christian schools, here and abroad. We thought an ASA local section should take this over, but that hasn't happened yet. O.K., maybe this is a better scheme: How about a few members at some Christian school in the U.S.,handling the project, especially where one of them is a librarian? Scientific and technical books could be sent to that school's library, which could also receive funds for shipping books overseas. As an incentive for taking on the extra work, that school might be permitted to skim off the cream, keeping whatever they needed and sending the duplicates to needy Christian schools overseas. Does that sound practical? Is there a school that would like to volunteer? Or do you have a better proposal?

Meanwhile, we can do two things: (1) Help support IBP. ' Send your (tax deductible) contributions to the address above. A contribution (or a report that you have sent books abroad) puts you on the mailing list for IBP's monthly newsletter, What's New? (2) Imitate IBP's "you mail them" scheme. ASA News will make available the same kind of helpful shipping information IBP does, updated with the new postal increases (March), along with addresses of places for you to recycle your own surplus scientific and technical publications. We can also work up a questionnaire for you to report the kinds of books and journals you wish to recycle, and somehow help you contact people in -need of what you have. This will take some doing or, as the Bible says, some works along with our faith.

Please share with ASA News any advice, encouragement, or wisdom born of experience as we take on this-t-as-k.-

AND WHILE WERE AT IT...

Here's an idea for helping overseas institutions or Christian groups, from Peter R. Childs, lecturer in chemistry, Makere University, Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda. He would like to see our own Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation made more widely available to Christian and non-Christian students overseas. Unfortunately, the cost is prohibitive to students in developing countries.

Peter suggests that ASA get a list of university "Christian Unions" in developing countries from IFEs (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) as a start, with the goal of making JASA available to those university libraries (or the C.U. libraries) and to evangelical seminaries and Bible schools. Suppose, says Peter, that each ASA member gave directly (or provided funds for) one gift subscription to a C.U. or other organization in the third world. What an .effective use of the Lord's money that w6uld be!'

Peter gives an example of the kind of key person who could benefit many others by this scheme. A Mr. Famum is finishing his PhD in chemistry at Makere and may go back to the Cameroons as a lecturer. He has been greatly used as a speaker and evangelist among his people and has found Peter's ASA Journal stimulating and useful. It would be a great help if he could have a personal subscription. If not, then the Journal should at least be available where he will be teaching.

While we work on sending technical journals and books  to the third world, shouldn't we be exporting our own Journal, too? What do you think of this idea?

ANOTHER CONCRETE SUGGESTION

John E. Mariner (administrator, Nancy Fulwood Hospital, Sahival, Pakistan) has ;7r-itt-en to ask about the possibility of technical assistance for overseas projects coming directly from qualified ASA members. Here is a specific example waiting for one of you readers with appropriate experience:

"One small design project that would help us would be the design of a concrete compressive strength testing machine to be built out of wood, angle iron, and other small members which could be purchased locally in a country like Pakistan. There is a lot of concrete construction being done with no easily available machine to check compressive strength. If a machine was built that was within 15% accuracy limits for testing concrete cylinders, it would be a great help. Other projects desirable throughout the tropics are design of solar water heaters, etc.11

John is aware of VITA (Volunteers In Technical Assistance), set up to provide this kind of assistance, but he thinks compiling a detailed list of the specialties of ASA members might also be useful. For one thing, the list could be made available to U.S. AID, VITA, and VISTA. That would give ASA more visibility than when individual members volunteer. Or we might work out a service of our own, providing some kind of help, or helping in some special way, that other agencies couldn't. What do you think?

Meanwhile, until ASA does something as an organization, why not volunteer your technical skills through VITA, now at 3706 Rhode Island Ave., Mt. Ranier, Maryland 20822. They do an outstanding job of matching volunteers and technical projects. You generally get a chance to make friends with the people you help, so your consultation can clearly be given in the Lord's name.

"IN A CAVERN, IN A CANYON..."

Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Hinds (Star Route, Parker, Arizona 85344) ask Christians to influence the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to permit development of a geological field station for Pepperdine University on the site of their Copper Basin Mine in the Whipple Mountains of Southern California. The Hindses have held this property for 20 years and would like to see it become something like the Black Hills Science Station operated by Ruth Hinds' alma mater, Wheaton College. The BIM is now formulating a land-use plan for the federal lands along the Colorado River. The Hindses consider this a providential opportunity. Write to them for more information, or write a letter of approval and request to: Mr. H. M. Bruce, District Manager United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management 2450 Fourth Ave., Yuma, Arizona 85364

If this plan works out, Pepperdine University will also need a Bible-honoring staff for their science station, according to the Hindses: "Some of you may be ready for active retirement in an inspiring natural environment where you can pursue your scientific interests at first hand and help young people in their appreciation of God's handiwork, finding answers that sustain and encourage faith in these perplexing times."

PLEASE DON'T EAT THE P(OC 2)39-Et

Two unrelated stories caught our attention recently because both featured ASA members concerned about chemical toxicity. The Dec. 1973 Oregon Stater had a story on the Environmental Health Sciences Center at Oregon State University in Corvallis. The Center, directed by chemist Virgil H. Freed, recently received two grant extensions totaling ~1,100,000 from the National Institute of Environmental Sciences, part of the National Institutes.6f Health. One of the studies supported by the grants is in its fourth year, the other its 10th year. Virgil is quoted as saying that the studies on toxicology of a variety of chemical agents are leading to better regulation of chemicals. "Some studies have enabled us to know more about chemicals in the Oregon environment and be more comfortable about the quality of our environment."

Iowa State University chemistry professor John G. Verkade doesn't sound so comfortable in a story in the Jan. 7 issue of Che_-micj1 & Engineering News. John was the first person to synthesize bicyclic ("caged") phosphorus esters and has been working with them for over 20 years. He estimates that over 100 laboratories may now be using this class of compounds in spectroscopic studies and in the synthesis of organo-metallic compounds. But investigators at U.C. Berkeley have recently found that several of the caged phosphate and phosphite esters are at least 30 times more toxic than either parathion or diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP), whose anticholinesterase activities make them a potent insecticide and a nerve gas. The caged phosphorus compounds do not inhibit cholinesterase, but they produce convulsions and death in mice at an LD50 of about 0.2 mg/kg. The compound P(OCH2)3CEt1 which is commercially available and.widely used as a ligand in coordination compounds, has LD50 Of 1.1 mg/kg, about five times the toxicity of the dangerous nerve gas DFP.

John is quoted as saying he is very concerned about the health hazard to research workers who aren't aware of this high toxicity. A letter from the Berkeley group in the same issue suggests that phenobarbital may be a useful antidote in combating the acute convulsions. Sublethal doses are apparently not cumulative--a fact that may account for John's good health after so many years of working with these compounds.

CREATION, CONTINUED

ASA News appreciates the communications we've been receiving to keep us up to date on creationist/evolutionist controversies. W. R. Shope of Scottdale, Pennsylvania, wisely asked "Why does it have to be controversial?" and sent a kind of time chart he's worked out on "The Earth Through the Ages," using a 10-cycle logarithmic scale. Since he had to bend it around to get it on one page, he wonders if going backward in time far enough brings us to "eternity" forward or backward? Could time be cyclic?

John S. Setchell, Jr., of Rochester, New York, sent us a much appreciated clipping from The-Rochester7-Democrat and Chronicle, headlined "New Monkey Trial? Conditions Now Ripe For It." The story consisted largely of the thoughts of citizens of Dayton, Tennessee, interviewed by Simon Winchester for the British Manchester Guardian.

J. P. Roberts of Grand Rapids, Michigan, sent us a copy of The Michigan Voice, a Newsletter he edits for the Michigan State Committee of National Association for Political Action. The Voice issue he sent contained an editorial by him, "Should 'Public' Schools Teach Creation?" He argued that the usual form of the controversy '%rings down the Word of God to a man-made debate. God is not theorizing about life to man, and I do not think that he meant for Christians to pose creation as a theory. God reveals creation..."

From Acts & Facts of the Creation Research Society in San Diego, California, we learned that Henry Morris, ICR director, spoke on "The Twilight of Evolution" to 2,200 delegates and visitors to the International Congress of Fundamental Baptist Churches on November 6,1973, in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England. "About 20 creationist scientists in the London area laid tentative plans for a British society to oppose evolution in the United Kingdom. Under the temporary chairmanship of geographer/geologist Edgar C. Powell, the society will probably be called the Newton Scientific Association and will stress scientific, rather than religious, difficulties with evolution, hoping to make significant contributions to the subject in British scientific journals."

From the Creation-Science Research Center in San Diego (not to be confused with the Institute for Creation Research in the same city), we received an appeal for funds to "continue in our fight to reach the 63 million school-age children in America with the Biblical truth of creation." Kelly L. Segraves is director of CSRC.

HOW TO RECYCLE SOMETHING. No. 7

This series lets you share ingenious (not necessarily original) ways you've found to recycle materials for ecology's sake, or economy's. "The earth belongs to God," says Psalm 24, and "everything in all the world is His." Let's take good care of it.

Paper. Mack Goldsmith, who teaches psychology at Stanislaus State College in Turlock, California, wrote to us on some of the beautiful waste paper he collects from the college extension service. They regularly send out announcements of courses printed on one side of high quality (stiff) 8~ x 11 paper in six or eight bright colors. They regularly print more than they mail out, probably for people to pick up at the office. They seem happy to unload the outdated ones on Mack, who first started taking them home for his own kids. He soon had far more than his three little girls could use for all the art projects they could dream up, so he began distributing the surplus to Sunday schools, hospital handcraft therapy rooms,  etc. Makes him feel like Santa Claus to deliver such multi-colored and eagerly received gifts, he says.

Calendars. The only kind we buy are the ones printed on linen. After they've hung on the wall for a year, they're usable as dish towels that last for years. (Some of ours from the early 60s are now getting pretty faded). For other wall or desk calendars, Ginny finds the local businesses that put out the nicest ones for their customers and asks for one. I've just found a way to stretch a flipover daily reminder calendar (Success No. 19, for example) one extra year. One, cut with scissors across the top removes the day of the week, letting the date match the day showing through from the next page. Having to cut it every day may seem a silly waste of time to save a buck, but that little ritual seems to fix the correct day and date in my mind.

PEOPLE LOOKING FOR POSITIONS

John D. Yordy (Chemistry Dept., Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824) seeks a college teaching position in organic or general chemistry. He expects to receive his PhD in organic from MSU by August 1974. Besides his strong education in chemistry, his background includes experience as a community developer in Mexico and teaching in Nigeria. He has an interest in developing student participation in chemical research. John is a friend of Art Smucker of Goshen College.

Robert A. Witter (3246 Evergreen Drive, Murrysville, Pennsylvania 15668) is a member of the local Bible-Science Association chapter that sent a warm letter of Christian greeting to our Annual Meeting at Geneva College. Bob is also a senior chemistry and philosophy major at Carnegie-Mellon University. He is looking for a graduate school in geochemistry, hoping that he might work with a Christian geochemistry professor. He sounds like a serious scholar, since the graduate schools he's considering so far include Caltech, Chicago, and Yale. Any of you geochemists have an opening for a sharp new grad student?

POSITIONS LOOKING FOR PEOPLE

Edwin Yamauchi, professor of history at Miami University, oxford, Ohio 45056, writes that Miami University has taken over a small private college in Oxford, The Western College, and is beginning a new liberal arts program there. The new college will stress interdisciplinary programs: 1) American Studies, and 2) Environmental Studies. If you know of any ASA members with interdisciplinary interests, you might call their attention to this opening." (5 Jan. 1974)

William Jewell College has a teaching position in its Biology Department available for 1974-75. Applicants should have an interest in teaching microbiology and be prepared to teach courses in genetics, invertebrate zoology  and . environmental biology for non-majors. Additional responsibilities include directing seminars and advising students in independent research projects. Applicants should be willing to support the goals and objectives of a Christian liberal arts college. Applications, including all pertinent materials, should be sent to Dr. Burdette L. Wagenknecht, Biology Department, William Jewell College, Liberty, Misso-uri64068(24 Jan. 1974)

Spring Arbor College will need a Clinical Psychologist beginning September, 1974. The following qualifications were stated: "PhD with teaching experience preferred. 'Teach Abnormal personality, child development, small seminars, and organize field experiences for undergraduates at an evangelical Christian college." Contact Dr. John M. Newby, Acting Dean of Academic Affairs, Spring Arbor College, Spring Arbor, Michigan 49238 (10 Jan. 1974)

Dr. Edward Groesbeck, Academic Dean of Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania telephoned the Elgin office on the first of February about a position open there. They want an evangelical Christian with a CPA and/or a PhD to teach accounting, finance, and quantatative business. Grove City College is a debt-free institution of Presbyterian background. If you know someone who might be interested have them contact Dr. Groesbeck at the college or call him at (412) 458-6600.

LOCAL SECTION ACTIVITIES

John Frederickson, physicist at Cal State Long Beach, was scheduled to introduce ASA to the audience after 9:30 a.m. registration. The initial paper on "Recent Research in Genetic Engineering" by Everett Hrubant, geneticist at Cal State Long Beach, was to draw response by a panel consisting of biologist Mark Biedebach, chemist Robert Fischer, and anthropologist/linguist Harold Key. Legal and medical ethical aspects were to be covered in the afternoon, followed by theologian Bernard Ramm's "Outline of Theological Implications in Ethics for Human Genetic Engineering.'

We wis~ the section well in this ambitious program. Lunch was included in (prepaid) registration fees of $3 for students, $10 for others. ASA News was fascinated by the mailing address for pre-registration: P. 0. Box 160-,Placentia, CA 92670. (We read it "placenta" and wondered if they did that on purpose. The only other appropriate address in Southern California we could think of was "Pt. Conception" west of Santa Barbara.)

SAN FRANCISCO BAY

Scheduled events: February 16-18: Weekend Family Conference with IVCF alumni. Gene Thomas on "Contemporary Christian Lifestyles"; Walt Hearn and Jim Berney on "New Forms of Ministry"; John Amoore on "Genetic Engineering."

February 26: Open Douse, 8-10 p.m. 762 Arlington Ave., Berkeley, for local section members and friends, and ASA'ers attending the AAAS national meeting in San Francisco. (For details of both events, see ASA News, Dec. 1973.)

OREGON

A note from Hendrik Oorthuys of Oregon State University, Corvallis, says the section had planned a January 29 meeting at George Fox College in Newburg. Elver Voth. biology professor at the college, made the local arrangements, including ; a ham dinner" in the Commons. After dinner,  Jim Morris, OSU chemistry professor, was scheduled to speak on "How Do You Interpret Scripture?"

NOTES FROM THE NATIONAL OFFICE

Sincerely,
Bill Sisterson
Executive Secretary

PERSONALS