american academy of arts & sciences summer 2006 Bulletin vol. lix, no. 4 Page 6 Is Science Under Siege? Harold Varmus Page 12 Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution Stephen G. Breyer Page 36 Innovation: The Creative Blending of Art and Science George Lucas, Rob Coleman, and John Hennessy Page 44 Threats to the Rule of Law: State Courts, Public Expectations, and Political Attitudes Margaret H. Marshall and Ronald M. George inside: New Academy Leaders, Page 1 Remembrance of Jaroslav Pelikan by Martin E. Marty, Page 5 Tax Reform by James Poterba and Michael J. Graetz, Page 17 Preparing for Pandemics by Barry R. Bloom and Howard Koh, Page 28 american academy of arts & sciences Norton’s Woods 136 Irving Street Cambridge, ma 02138-1996 usa telephone 617-576-5000 facsimile 617-576-5050 email [email protected] website www.amacad.org Calendar of Events Thursday, Saturday, September 7, 2006 November 11, 2006 Meeting–New York Stated Meeting–Chicago Cohosted by New York University’s John War and Peace in the Operas of Giuseppe Verdi Brademas Center for the Study of Congress Contents Speaker: Philip Gossett, University of The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing Chicago America and How to Get It Back on Track Academy News 1 Location:Gleacher Center, University of Speakers: Norman Ornstein , American Chicago A Remembrance 5 Enterprise Institute, and Thomas Mann, Brookings Institution Time: 5:30 p.m. Academy Lectures Location: Kimmel Center for University Life, Thursday, New York University December 7, 2006 Is Science Under Siege? Harold Varmus 6 Time: 4:00 p.m. Meeting–New York City The Future of News Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Saturday, Democratic Constitution October 7, 2006 Speakers: Ann Moore, Time, Inc.; Norman Stephen G. Breyer 12 Stated Meeting and Induction Pearlstine, Time Warner; John Carroll, Joan Ceremony–Cambridge Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics & Tax Reform: Current Problems, Possible Public Policy, Harvard University; Geneva Solutions, and Unresolved Questions Location: Sanders Theatre, Overholser, University of Missouri School James Poterba and Harvard University of Journalism; Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine.com Michael J. Graetz 17 and cuny; and Jill Abramson , New York Time: 3:30 p.m. Times Preparing for Pandemics Location:Time-Life Building Barry R. Bloom and Monday, Howard Koh 28 October 30, 2006 Time: 5:30 p.m. Meeting–Cambridge Innovation: The Creative Blending of Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the U.S. Wednesday, Art and Science December 13, 2006 George Lucas, Rob Coleman, Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the and John Hennessy 36 People Can Correct It) Stated Meeting–Cambridge Speaker: Sanford Levinson, University Speaker: Ellen T. Harris, mit Threats to the Rule of Law: State Courts, of Texas at Austin Public Expectations, and Political Attitudes Location:House of the Academy Margaret H. Marshall and Respondents: Robert C. Post, Yale Ronald M. George 44 University, and Barney Frank, U.S. House of Representatives For information and reservations, contact Noteworthy 54 Location: House of the Academy the Events Of½ce (phone: 617-576-5032; email: [email protected]). From the Archives 56 Time: 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 8, 2006 Stated Meeting–Cambridge Location: House of the Academy Academy News New Of½cers and Councilor The results of the spring ballot for the election of Of½cers, Councilors, and Members of the Membership Committee have been tabulated. Brief biographies of the new Of½cers and Councilor are printed below. We thank the Fellows who participated in the election process. The positions open in 2007 are listed on page 4. in which the central nervous system gener- Vanderbilt University. After serving a resi- ates voluntary movement. His current re- dency and a National Institute of Health search centers on understanding how motor postdoctoral fellowship at Yale-New Haven skills are learned. Bizzi’s laboratory has de- Hospital, he continued his nih-sponsored veloped a theoretical and experimental research in metabolism and endocrinology framework to describe the way in which the at ucsd. During his tenure there, he served central nervous system transforms planned as Chief of the Division of Endocrinology movements into muscle activations. His and Metabolism, Chair of the Faculty of Basic work is of critical importance in the design Biomedical Sciences, Dean for Scienti½c of neuroprosthetics for amputees or in- Affairs, and interim Director of the Moores dividuals with motor disabilities. He has Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is received several honors for his research and presently Dean for Translational Medicine academic work, including the W. Alden and Director of the College of Integrative Spencer Award, the Hermann von Helmoltz Life Sciences. He has been a member of Award for Excellence in Neuroscience, and, numerous scienti½c boards and of the in 2005, the President of Italy Gold Medal editorial board of many professional Emilio Bizzi for achievements in science. journals. A member of the National Academy of Gill’s laboratory studies hormoneaction and President Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the signal transduction, the molecular mecha- Italian National Academy (Accademia nisms through which information is received Emilio Bizzi, a leading brain scientist Nazionale dei Lincei), Bizzi was elected to and translated into biological responses. As and Institute Professor at the Massachu- the American Academy in 1980. He served as a key participant in the growth of medical setts Institute of Technology, has been Secretary of the Academy from 1998– 2005 research at ucsd with a commitment to elected to serve as the 44th President of and is a member of the Academy Trust. In improving graduate medical education, Gill the Academy. He will take of½ce at the 2004, he organized a joint meeting of the has advocated efforts to strengthen the role Induction Ceremony in Cambridge on American Academy and the Lincei in Rome. of the physician-scientist and the active October 7, 2006. involvement of clinical investigators in Born in Rome, Bizzi received his M.D. and biomedical research. Ph.D. (Docenza) from the University of Vice President, Rome. He came to the United States in 1963 Western Region to conduct research at Washington Univer- Gordon N. Gill, a physician and researcher, sity in St. Louis and at the National Institute is the new Vice President of the Academy’s of Mental Health. In 1969 he joined the mit Western Region. A member of the Academy faculty where he has served as Director of for the past ten years, Gill has served as Chair the Whitaker College of Health Sciences, of the membership section for medicine and Technology, and Management (1983–1989) public health and as Cochair of the Western and as Chair of the Department of Brain and Region. Cognitive Sciences (1986–1997). Gill is Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Bizzi’s early career work included a study of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the of the neurophysiological mechanisms of University of California, San Diego. He sleep. Subsequently, he investigated the way received his B.A. and M.D. degrees from Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2006 1 Councilor In addition to teaching at ucla, and the Of½cers of the New Membership he was Dean of the Weinberg Academy: Committee Chairs: Eric Sundquist, a leading scholar College of Arts and Sciences at of American literature and cul- Northwestern University from President Patricia Meyer Spacks Edward A. Feigenbaum, I:6 ture and African American stud- 1997–2002. (University of Virginia) Stanford University ies, has been elected to the Acad- emy Council as a representative President-elect Emilio Bizzi Thomas W. Cline, II:2 of Class IV: Humanities and Arts. Members of the Council (mit) University of California, A Fellow of the Academy since include: Berkeley 1997, he is ucla Foundation Chief Executive Of½cer Professor of Literature and a Robert Alberty(mit) Leslie C. Berlowitz Michael Gazzaniga, II:3 member of the Department of University of California, English at the University of Cali- Gerald Early (Washington Vice President and Chair of the Santa Barbara fornia, Los Angeles. He received University in St. Louis) his B.A. from the University of Academy Trust Louis W. Cabot (Cabot-Wellington ) Jean D. Wilson, II:5 Kansas and his Ph.D. from Johns Carol Gluck llc University of Texas Hopkins University. (Columbia University) Treasurer John Reed Southwestern Medical Center Sundquist is the author or editor (New York City) Linda Greenhouse of nine books including Strangers Phoebe C. Ellsworth, III:1 (The New York Times) in the Land: Blacks, Jews, Post- Secretary Jerrold Meinwald University of Michigan Holocaust America (2005) and To Charles M. Haar (Cornell University) Wake the Nations: Race in the Mak- III (Harvard University) Alan Krueger, :2 ing of American Literature (1993), Editor Steven Marcus Princeton University which received the James Russell Jerome Kagan (Columbia University) Lowell Prize from the Modern (Harvard University) Kathleen M. Sullivan, III:4 Language Association for the Librarian Robert C. Post Stanford University best book published during the John Katzenellenbogen (Yale University) year and the Christian Gauss (University of Illinois at Jane A. Bernstein, IV:5 Award from Phi Beta Kappa for Urbana-Champaign) Vice President, Western Region Tufts University the best book in the humanities. Gordon N. Gill (University of Recognized for his breadth of Neal Lane(Rice University) California, San Diego) knowledge of both American history and literature, his other Richard Meserve (Carnegie Vice President, Midwest Region works include Home as Found: Institution of Washington) Geoffrey Stone (University of Authority and Genealogy in Nine- Chicago) teenth-CenturyAmerican Literature David D. Sabatini (nyu) (1979), Faulkner: the House Divided (1983), and The Hammers of Crea- Randy Schekman (University tion: Folk Culture in Modern African- of California, Berkeley) American Fiction (1992). His con- tribution to Volume 2 of the Eric Sundquist (University Cambridge History of American of California, Los Angeles) Literature (1995) has recently been reprinted as Empire and Slavery in American Literature, 1820–1865 (2006).