696 Nature Vol. 293 29 October 1981 CORRESPONDENCE schools of thought. Bradford University If I understand Sheldrake correctly, it seems Lab. explosion SiR- I write to draw attention to a serious that his conception of molecular biology is not SIR -A violent explosion occurred recently in mis-statement in an article on page 248 of as a sterile failure, but as an important and our laboratories, following a routine Nature of 24 September. I do so because its crucial contribution to the analysis of preparation and crystallization of cobalt (II) damaging implications have caused grave problems of intracellular organization on perchlorate [cobalt (11) chlorate (vn)]. Full concern amongst a number of my colleagues which the physiology of the whole organism details are not yet available, but we who realize how much trust your readers put clearly depends. All Sheldrake appears to have understand that between 10 and 20 g of the in the reliability of what is reported in your done, then, is to state that the whole is not just salt had been prepared by allowing aqueous journal. the sum of its constituent parts and that higher perchloric acid to react with an excess of The facts are as follows. In September your organizational states cannot be understood in cobalt (11) carbonate, filtering off the excess colleague, Judy Redfearn, explained to me on reductionist terms. Although his book is not carbonate, reducing the volume and the telephone that she was writing an article on without its scientific solecisms, Sheldrake has crystallizing the salt, and that the explosion the reactions of various universities to the raised many stimulating arguments, and occurred when the caked mass of crystals was contents of the letters they received from the presents an important landmark in the placed in a mortar and tapped gently to break UGC in July last, and she asked me to indicate application of a formal geometry to Jiving it up. No organic matter is thought to have what was happening at Bradford. I explained things as begun by Waddington and Thorn. been present, but adventitious material cannot that we had initiated a process of consultation Certainly, I feel that the book is too important of course be ruled out. The explosion punched and wide discussion which would seek out to dismiss easily, and in conclusion I should a hole through a standard teak bench-top, and "grass roots" opinion and culminate in like to recall Milton's dictum that" ... Truth fragments of the mortar were ejected through decisions by our senate in December on the never comes into the World but like a Bastard, the window glass several metres away. new academic profile for the university. She to the ignominy of him that brought her Pure samples of this compound are then pressed me to say what we were going to forth". (The Doctrine and Discipline of normally handled casually without incident, do about the specific advice given by the Divorce, 1643-44). M.T. ISAAC and very little has been found in the literature UGC, such as a possible closure of Biological St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, to indicate any risk of detonation under mild Sciences. I repeated that the matter was under London, UK mechanical shock. Cobalt perchlorate and discussion since the UGC had indicated to similar salts are readily available universities that an opportunity would be commercially, and the bottles carry little or no given for the consideration of alternative Appeal to humanity hazard warning. In the absence of any clear proposals but that these would have to be SIR- With a great feeling of sorrow, we have explanation for our explosion, we suggest that contained within the total student numbers learned of the latest frequent violations of it is prudent to handle these materials with allocated to sciences in the university. human rights in the Soviet Union. This time it extreme caution, and that any form of It is surprising to find that what was a was the arrest of a physicist, Dr A. Paritsky, mechanical disturbance (scraping, tapping, description of an option open to us becomes together with his wife, living at Str. Tonkopiya grinding) of the dried salts should be not only a statement of a preference (a policy 1912 apt. 48, Kharkov 310091, USSR. Their rigorously avoided. decision) but a selection of which specific only fault was a deep desire to Jive in Israel. In We hope to report further on the areas would thereby be penalized. all countries of the free world, any person can circumstances of the incident following I wish to state most emphatically that the leave the country where he was born, but only detailed investigations, and would be pleased University of Bradford has not decided that it in the Soviet Union is this considered to be to hear of any similar accidents or any relevant treason. Many Soviet Jews would like to leave "would prefer to cut its physics and chemistry information. P.J. ROBINSON departments rather than biology". Besides the Soviet Union owing to anti-semitism which being untrue the statement of 24 September becomes stronger every day. Among them are Department of Chemistry, destroys the internal consistency of your many scientists. However, the government of Manchester Polytechnic, Manchester, UK article where it is correctly reported that we the Soviet Union not only fires them shall not be making any decisions until immediately, but in most cases also refuses them the fulfillment of their legal rights. The Naming names December. F.M. WILLIS result of these actions is a vicious circle: on the SIR- Upon my return from vacation, I was University of Bradford, one hand, some Jewish scientists in the Soviet taken aback to discover that I was referred to Bradford, West Yorkshire Union are deprived of the possibility of in your editorial of 3 September (p.2) as one WE apologize to Professor Willis for having working according to their speciality, and thus of the creators or co-authors of the works of misconstrued his meaning- Editor, Nature earning their living, but on the other hand they Isadore (Isidore) Nabi. This is completely are not allowed to leave the Soviet Union. untrue. An example of this situation is the fate of I am shocked that you make this allegation Sheldrake's truth Dr Paritsky and his family. The family applied without checking with the people concerned, SIR - I read with interest and alarm your for exit visas five years ago. Dr Paritsky and presumably on the basis of claims by some editorial "A Book for Burning?" (Nature 24 his wife were fired immediately from their third party who prefers to hide behind the September p.245), in which you criticized work, after that they were refused immigration anonymity of a Nature editor. The error in Rupert Sheldrake's new book A New Science to Israel, and now they have been arrested. relation to my own role causes me to doubt the of Life (Blond & Briggs, London, 1981). In I would like to apply through your journal accuracy of the rest of the claims in the particular, a strong, sometimes even to the world scientific community to raise their editorial, including those about Professor hysterical, attack was directed at Sheldrake's voices in the defence of the Paritsky family Nabi. I have now had the opportunity to read alleged belief in the "failure" of molecular and other Soviet Jewish scientists waiting for two of the Nabi papers, ''On the tendencies of biology and at his "vague notion" that the exit visas. We must demand that the motion" and "An evolutionary interpretation idea of morphogenetic fields, developed by government of the Soviet Union release Dr of the English sonnet". Both are satirical embryologists such as Conrad Waddington Paritsky and give his family permission to works, the former on systems ecology and the and elaborated mathematically by emigrate to Israel. I cannot agree with the latter on sociobiology. In no way are the views theoreticians such as Rene Thorn, can find argument that this action is interference in the of the author hidden or invested with false wider application in the life sciences. internal affairs of the Soviet Union, since the authority due to the author's name. Sheldrake's views were denounced as defence of human rights is our common task. I will consider the publication of this letter a "pseudoscience", "popularist" and as On the contrary, we have a bad historical sufficient rectification of your error and am introducing "magic" into science. It was experience in the silence of the international willing to terminate my interest in the matter. implicit in the editorial that Sheldrake is to be scientific community in the thirties which RICHARD LESTER considered as an exponent of the intellectually allowed the Nazi government to do what it Harvard University, bankrupt nineteenth-century doctrine of wanted. &•KJS S. KKLJ\IGAJ z Boston, Massachusetts, USA vitalism, which has quite rightly been forced to Israel Oceanographic and RICHARD LESTER is believed to be a pseudonym yield place to the subsequently productive (but Limnological Research, of Richard Levins, one of the true culprits - arguably no less mystical) reductionist Haifa, Israel Editor, Nature ©I98I Macmillan Journals Ltd 0028-0836/81 /440696·01 $01.00