american academy of arts & sciences summer 2007 Bulletin vol. lx, no. 4 Page 6 Stem Cell Challenges in Biology and Public Policy Douglas A. Melton

Page 13 Education in the Developing World David E. Bloom, Michael R. Kremer, and Gene B. Sperling

Page 23 A Poetry Reading by Galway Kinnell

Page 33 Stem Cells: Politics and Promise Irving L. Weissman

inside: The Future of the Media in Society, Page 1 Sloan and Teagle Foundations Support Academy Research Programs, Page 2 Hellman Fellowship in Science Policy, Page 5 Presentations by Academy Fellows Darlene Clark Hine and Barbara Newman, Page 26 Calendar of Events

Saturday, Wednesday, October 6, 2007 November 14, 2007 Stated Meeting and Induction Ceremo- Stated Meeting–Cambridge ny–Cambridge Contents Harvard University’s New Allston Campus Location: Sanders Theatre, Harvard Uni- versity Speakers: Stefan Behnisch (Behnisch Ar- Update chitekten) and Christopher Gordon (All- The Future of the Media in Society 1 Time: 3:30 p.m. ston Development Group, Harvard Univer- sity) Support for Academy’s Research Programs 2 Sunday, Location: House of the Academy October 7, 2007 Visiting Scholars Program 4 Time: 5:30 p.m. Stated Meeting–Cambridge Hellman Fellowship in Science Policy 5 Energy and Climate Change Tuesday, November 20, 2007 Speakers: Rosina M. Bierbaum (University Academy Meetings of Michigan), Richard A. Meserve (Carnegie Stated Meeting–Berkeley Institution of Washington), William K. In Cambridge Reilly (Aqua International Partners, LP), The World’s Energy Problem and What We Can Stem Cell Challenges in Biology and Richard L. Revesz (New York University) Do About It and Public Policy Location: House of the Academy Speaker: Steven Chu (Lawrence Berkeley Douglas A. Melton 6 National Laboratory) Time: 10:00 a.m. Education in the Developing World Location: University of California, Berkeley David E. Bloom, Michael R. Kremer, and Gene B. Sperling 13 Monday, Time: 5:30 p.m. October 15, 2007 A Poetry Reading by Galway Kinnell 23 Stated Meeting–Stanford Wednesday, An Evening of Chamber Music 25 December 12, 2007 Nuclear Power without Nuclear Proliferation In the Midwest Stated Meeting–Cambridge Speakers: Hans Blix (Weapons of Mass De- Presentations at Northwestern University struction Commission), Michael M. Performing the Passion: J.S. Bach and Darlene Clark Hine and May (Stanford University), William Perry the Gospel of John Barbara Newman 26 (Stanford University), and Scott Sagan Speaker: Margot Fassler (Yale University) (Stanford University) Gathering at the University Location: House of the Academy of Michigan 32 Location: Stanford University Time: 5:30 p.m. In the West Time: 5:30 p.m. Presentation at Stanford University Stem Cells: Politics and Promise Saturday, For information and reservations, contact the Irving L. Weissman 33 November 10, 2007 Events Of½ce (phone: 617-576-5032; email: Stated Meeting–Chicago [email protected]). Remembrances 39 The Disappearance of Species Noteworthy 41 Speakers: May Berenbaum (University of From the Archives 44 Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Neil L. Shubin (Field Museum and University of Chicago) Location: The Field Museum Time: 5:30 p.m.

american academy of arts & sciences Program Development The Future of the Media in Society

The role of a free and effective press in a service journalism? Can traditional consum- democracy and its impact on the formulation ers of news become more open to quality of public policy are at the center of two on- journalism presented in online formats? going Academy studies. The ½rst deals with Many of these questions served as the basis how information about science and technol- for discussion at an Academy meeting on the ogy is diffused through the media. It is led by “Future of News” at the Time-Life Building Donald Kennedy, former Stanford University in New York in December 2006. Hosted by President and Editor-in-Chief of Science maga- Time, Inc. Chief Executive Of½cer Ann Moore zine; and Geneva Overholser of the Univer- and chaired by former Time, Inc. Editor-in- sity of Missouri School of Journalism. The Chief Norman Pearlstine, the program in- second examines reporting on business and cluded a panel consisting of John Carroll, the economy and includes among the project former Editor of the Los Angeles Times; Jeff advisors Princeton University economists Jarvis, City University of New York journal- Alan Blinder and Alan Krueger. Both projects ism professor and blogger; Jill Abramson, take into account the impact of new tech- Managing Editor of the New York Times; nologies and evolving patterns of news con- Jonathan Klein, President of cnn/us; and sumption on economic models that have Geneva Overholser, Hurley Chair in Public long supported traditional print and broad-

Affairs Reporting at the University of Mis- Photo courtesy of University Northwestern cast media. souri School of Journalism. Loren Ghiglione As Ghiglione points out, the technological To advance the study, the Academy will part- Academy Fellow Loren Ghiglione, the Richard revolution and market forces present tradi- ner with universities and other institutions Schwarzlose Professor of Media Ethics at North- tional media with enormous challenges. On- with established journalism programs to spon- western University, spent six weeks this spring as a line advertising competitors devour major sor a series of workshops designed to assess senior visiting scholar at the Academy. He is devel- sources of revenue that have long been tradi- the transformation in journalism. According oping plans to expand the Academy’s work on the tional media’s lifeblood. With advertising and to Ghiglione, the Academy’s multidiscipli- evolving role that the media are playing in our soci- circulation revenues falling, traditional media nary membership makes it an ideal convener ety, and especially the changing nature of journal- shrink their news staffs, resulting in fewer of this project. Scholars and practitioners in ism in today’s digital world. resources for serious, investigative reporting. journalism, computer science, technology, Today, the future of journalism is best de½ned business, and other ½elds can advance our Elected to the Academy in 2004, Ghiglione edited by a set of dif½cult questions. Who will pro- understanding of the future of news trans- and published newspapers in New England for vide the costly news analysis and worldwide mission–its quality, speed, and form. The twenty-six years before directing journalism pro- coverage necessary to inform citizens? Will social sciences can provide guidance on how grams at Emory University, the University of traditional media keep reinventing them- to increase the accountability of those who Southern California, and Northwestern Univer- selves to meet the demands of the economic, report and analyze the news–to make their sity for a decade. He is former President of the cultural, and technological future? How can work more professional and transparent as a American Society of Newspaper Editors and for- business, government agencies, educational way of increasing public trust. The humani- mer Dean of the Medill School of Journalism at institutions, foundations, and other nonpro- ties can offer insights into such unchanging Northwestern. ½t organizations encourage needed changes human needs as community and personal in the media? Can the sense of excitement contact in a world where digital-age technol- and experimentation that surrounds journal- ogy may diminish as well as empower the in- ism on the web lead to new models of public- dividual.

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 1 Support for Academy’s Research Programs

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Awards Grant for Science Project

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has award- Public attitudes about science and technology Fellows interested in working on this topic ed the Academy a grant to bring together are complex, informed by a variety of sources are encouraged to contact Academy ceo leading scientists and engineers, former pub- and influenced by diverse ethical, religious, Leslie Berlowitz and Program Of½cer Katie lic of½cials, policy experts, ethicists, indus- and cultural values. In certain areas–for ex- Donnelly. try executives, and others from outside the ample, global warming, biomedical research, Fellows advising on this project include scienti½c community to discuss how scien- or research on dangerous pathogens–scien- Charles Vest (National Academy of Engineer- tists can better understand and appreciate ti½c progress and public policy concerns may ing), Neal Lane (Rice University), Hunter the public’s response to various aspects of come into conflict. their work. Rawlings (Cornell University), Paul Nurse Through a series of roundtable discussions, (Rockefeller University), Alan Alda (New Considerable attention has been focused on the Academy’s new study will focus on the York City), Greg Papadopoulos (Sun Micro- strengthening public education about science public’s attitudes about a number of issues, systems), Ralph Gomory (Alfred P. Sloan and technology. The communication gap be- such as the unintended social consequences Foundation), and Alan Leshner (American tween scientists and the lay public, however, of scienti½c and technological advances; the Association for the Advancement of Sciences). remains wide, and in some quarters is grow- short- and long-term safety of the work; and This study is part of the Academy’s Initiative ing. The two strategies that are generally of- the broader ethical, religious, and social im- on Science, Engineering, and Technology, fered to help close this gap are 1) raising pub- plications. Through this effort, the Academy which examines, in broad terms, how the lic understanding of science by improving hopes to foster a sustained and more effective world of science, engineering, and technolo- science education, communication, and lit- dialogue between scientists and the public. eracy at all levels, and 2) enhancing scientists’ gy is changing; how to help the public under- ability to communicate the signi½cance of “Science communication is commonly per- stand those changes; and how we as a socie- their work to the general public. Both strat- ceived to flow in only one direction, from ty can better adapt to those changes. More egies are necessary and important. scientists to the public,” said Neal Lane, Acad- information about the Initiative on Science, emy Fellow and Cochair of the Initiative for Engineering, and Technology is available on The focus on science education and better Science, Engineering, and Technology. “But the Academy’s website at http://www.amacad communication, however, overlooks an essen- if scientists can listen to the public’s concerns .0rg/projects/initSciTech.aspx. tial dimension of the problem: the scientists’ about their work, and if they have a better un- obligation to understand the broader social derstanding of the public’s unease about sci- and cultural context in which their work is ence and technology, the social contract upon received and to accept that sometimes the which their work depends will be strength- public’s concerns about science stem not from ened. We hope this Academy project will fos- ignorance but from legitimate worries. ter needed dialogue between scientists and the public.”

2 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 Teagle Foundation Supports Data Collection in the Humanities

With a grant from the Teagle Foundation, demic disciplines, including history, modern ate teaching takes (e.g., seminars, indepen- the Academy will advance work this fall on languages and literature, art history, religion, dent study); the distribution of teaching The Humanities Departmental Survey–The and linguistics. Working with national hu- loads (undergraduate versus graduate); the Template Project, an Academy effort to gath- manities organizations and disciplinary as- number of majors and minors; jobs secured er new information from college and univer- sociations, such as the Modern Language As- by graduates; and other areas of concern sity humanities departments. The data col- sociation and the American Historical Asso- that can be used to produce indicators of the lected will become part of the Humanities ciation, project participants have developed health of the humanities in higher education. Indicators Project–an ongoing effort to com- a survey instrument designed to bring con- The survey will be administered this academ- pile and categorize existing data in the hu- sistency to already existing data collection ic year. manities. efforts in the humanities. The Statistical Research Center, which con- In awarding the grant, Teagle Foundation Arnita Jones, Executive Director of the Ameri- ducts similar surveys within physics, astron- President and Academy Fellow W. Robert can Historical Association, summed up the omy, and allied ½elds, will administer the Connor noted that this project will address a project’s importance to humanities disci- survey and compile the data. The data will be “crucial need for data collection in the hu- plines: “With this project, the Academy has analyzed by the American Political Science manities.” Humanities scholars, foundations, provided the humanities community an op- Association, along with data collected inde- and educational policymakers lack important portunity to . . . work cooperatively toward pendently in 2006 from political science de- information about roughly one-third of the shared goals in the realm of data collection. partments. Results will be made available disciplines that form the core of a liberal arts Once the value of the departmental survey electronically. education. The absence of basic empirical data is demonstrated, I feel certain that other The Template Project is part of a larger Hu- data has become a particularly urgent prob- disciplinary associations will be eager to par- manities and Culture Initiative receiving ½- lem now, when new economic, curricular, ticipate. Its long-term implications are sig- nancial support from the Andrew W. Mellon and ideological pressures threaten support ni½cant.” Foundation, Walter B. Hewlett, the William for the humanities. The survey is designed to gather data, includ- R. Hewlett Trust, the William and Flora The Template Project is a collaborative effort ing the number and nature of faculty in each Hewlett Foundation, the Rockefeller Foun- to collect, compare, and analyze data from humanities discipline (tenured versus adjunct; dation, and the Sara Lee Corporation. More humanities departments across several aca- full-time versus part-time); the form gradu- information about the project is available on the Academy’s website at http://www.amacad .org/ projects/indicators.aspx.

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 3 University Af½liates Fellowship Programs A growing number of colleges and universities is collaborating 2008–2009 with the Academy by participating in its studies on higher education and by helping to support its Visiting Scholars Program. The Acad- Deadline: October 15, 2007 emy is grateful to these University Af½liates for their con½dence in its efforts to support interdisciplinary research and to expand oppor- tunities for postdoctoral scholars and junior faculty. Visiting Scholars Program American University–Cornelius Kerwin, President Boston College–William P. Leahy, S.J., President Boston University–Robert A. Brown, President Applications are being accepted for the Visiting Scholars Brandeis University–Jehuda Reinharz, President Program. Preference will be given to untenured junior facul- Brown University–Ruth J. Simmons, President ty, but postdoctoral scholars are also urged to apply. Mem- The City University of New York–Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor bers of the Academy are encouraged to inform students and Columbia University–Lee C. Bollinger, President junior colleagues about this year-long, residential fellow- Cornell University–David J. Skorton, President ship opportunity at the Academy. Dartmouth College–James Wright, President Duke University–Richard H. Brodhead, President The Academy is especially interested in applicants whose Emory University–James W. Wagner, President work relates to its research areas: Science, Technology & Glob- George Washington University–Steven Knapp, President al Security; Social Policy & American Institutions; Humanities & Harvard University–Drew Gilpin Faust, President Indiana University–Michael McRobbie, President Culture; and Education. Projects that address American cul- Johns Hopkins University–William R. Brody, President tural, social, or political issues from the founding period to Massachusetts Institute of Technology–Susan Hock½eld, President the present are welcome, as are studies that examine devel- Michigan State University–Lou Anna K. Simon, President opments in public policy. Proposals should take into account New York University–John Sexton, President the Academy’s emphasis on interdisciplinary work, as well Northwestern University–Henry S. Bienen, President as its interest in broadening public understanding of impor- Ohio State University–Gordon Gee, President tant intellectual trends and contemporary policy choices. Pennsylvania State University–Graham Spanier, President Princeton University–Shirley Tilghman, President Candidates should also consider the relationship of their Rice University–David W. Leebron, President work to archival, library, and other intellectual resources Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey–Richard L. McCormick, in the Boston area. President Smith College–Carol T. Christ, President Stanford University–John L. Hennessy, President Syracuse University–Nancy Cantor, Chancellor and President Hellman Fellowship Tufts University–Lawrence S. Bacow, President in Science Policy University of California, Berkeley–Robert J. Birgeneau, Chancellor University of California, Davis–Larry N. Vanderhoef, Chancellor University of California, Irvine–Michael V. Drake, Chancellor The Hellman Fellowship is open to scientists who want to University of California, Los Angeles–Norman Abrams, Acting Chancellor transition to a career in policy or acquire experience work- University of California, San Diego–Marye Anne Fox, Chancellor ing on science policy issues. For more information about University of Chicago–Robert J. Zimmer, President this fellowship opportunity, please see page 5. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign–Richard Herman, Chancellor University of Iowa–Sally K. Mason, President University of Maryland–C. D. Mote, Jr., President University of Michigan–Mary Sue Coleman, President University of Minnesota–Robert Bruininks, President All Scholars participate in conferences, seminars, and events University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill–James Moeser, Chancellor at the Academy while advancing their independent research. University of Notre Dame–Rev. John Jenkins, President For details about the Hellman Fellowship, please contact University of Pennsylvania–Amy Gutmann, President University of Pittsburgh–Mark A. Nordenberg, Chancellor Academy Program Of½cer Katie Donnelly: phone: 617-576- University of Southern California–Steven B. Sample, President 5008; email: [email protected]. For information University of Texas at Austin–William Powers, Jr., President about the Visiting Scholars Program, please contact its University of Virginia–John T. Casteen III, President Director Alexandra Oleson: phone: 617-576-5014; email: University of Wisconsin-Madison–John D. Wiley, Chancellor [email protected]. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University–Charles W. Steger, President Wellesley College–Kim Bottomly, President Yale University–Richard C. Levin, President

4 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 Hellman Fellowship in Science Policy

The Academy is pleased to announce a $1 amine, in broad terms, how the world of sci- million grant from the Hellman Family Foun- ence and technology is evolving, how to help dation to establish the Hellman Fellowship the public understand these changes, and in Science and Technology Policy. The fellow- how society can better adapt to these devel- ship will be open to scientists who want to opments. The topics of projects currently transition to a career in policy or to acquire underway include 1) alternative models for experience working on science policy issues. the federal funding of science, 2) scientists’ While in residence at the Academy in Cam- understanding of the public, 3) science in the bridge, the Hellman Fellow will work with liberal arts curriculum, 4) stemming nuclear senior scientists and policy experts on critical proliferation, and alternative paths to a more national and international policy issues re- secure nuclear future, and 5) the social and lated to science, engineering, and technology. technical requirements for Internet security.

In establishing this new opportunity at the In acknowledging the award, Leslie Berlowitz, Academy, Warren Hellman observed, Academy ceo, noted, “This generous gift “Through the Hellman Fellows program, our will enable the Academy to advance the dis- family for many years has supported young cussion of the vital role science and technol- scholars at various universities. Supporting ogy play in society today. The Academy is ex- scholarship on science policy at the Academy tremely grateful to the Hellman Family Foun- is to be encouraged, bringing the knowledge dation and to Warren Hellman, Fellow of the of leading scientists to bear on the process of Academy, member of the Academy Trust, policymaking at both the national and inter- and a director of the Hellman Family Foun- national level.” dation, for this grant.”

The Hellman Fellowship Program will pro- Hellman Fellows will be appointed for a one- vide a setting and resources for an individual year term (with the possibility of a one-year with training in science and engineering to renewal), with the ½rst appointment to be- develop expertise on issues of science, engi- gin on September 1, 2008. The deadline for neering, and technology policy; increase the applications is October 15, 2007. We encour- F. Warren Hellman (Hellman & Friedman LLC) cadre of science policy professionals who are age Fellows of the Academy to recommend engaged in substantive discussion of science candidates for this fellowship. A description and engineering research questions, with a of the fellowship, eligibility, and application broad understanding of their social implica- procedures are on the Academy website at tions; and expand the Academy’s capacity to http://www.amacad.org/hellman.aspx. conduct projects and studies focused on the challenges facing scienti½c research and sci- ence education.

Hellman Fellows will be assigned to one or more of the ongoing research projects of the Initiative for Science, Engineering, and Tech- nology. The mission of the Initiative is to ex-

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 5 Academy Meetings Stem Cell Challenges in Biology and Public Policy

Douglas A. Melton Introduction by Harvey F. Lodish

This presentation was given at the 1910th Stated Meeting, held at the House of the Academy in Cambridge on Febru- ary 7, 2007.

stem cell challenges in biology and public But more important, in that laboratory Doug policy. Being an Investigator at the Howard did some fundamental work on the develop- Hughes Medical Institute means that he has ment of the early frog embryo. It was inquiries access to private funds and can work on hu- into that basic science question that domi- man embryonic stem cells despite the prohi- nated his work when he moved to Harvard as bitions that our government has placed on an assistant professor in biochemistry and this research. molecular biology. There, he did some won- derful experiments on frog development. Doug grew up in Chicago, the son of a grocery- When the frog egg, which is very large, di- store manager, and earned his undergraduate vides, the two daughter cells have very differ- degree in biology from the University of Illi- ent fates: their descendents become very dif- nois at Urbana-Champaign. He received a ferent kinds of cells in the embryo and the Marshall Scholarship to study at Cambridge adult frog. A fundamental question in devel- University in England, earning an A.B. in the Harvey F. Lodish opmental biology is why? history and philosophy of science. Doug went Harvey F. Lodish is Professor of Biology and Bio- on to take his Ph.D. in molecular biology at What Doug showed is that a certain part of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- both Trinity College and at the Medical Re- the egg contains a high concentration of a nology and Member of the Whitehead Institute for search Council Laboratory of Molecular Bi- messenger rna called Veg1, which is not Biomedical Research. He has been a Fellow of the ology with Sir John Gurdon, the ½rst person found in other parts of the egg. When the cell American Academy since 1999. to create an adult animal by nuclear transfer– divides, Veg1 messenger rna goes into one that is, by cloning. One of the pioneers in ear- of the cells but not the other. That messenger Introduction ly embryonic development, Gurdon showed rna, in turn, encodes a secreted hormone in that, in frogs, it is possible to remove the dna the tgf beta family, which speci½es parts of It is a great personal and professional plea- from an egg, replace it with the dna from an the body axis in the frog embryo. In particu- sure to introduce Douglas Melton. Doug is adult frog cell, and have an egg that develops lar, it induces formation of the dorsal meso- an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Med- into a genetic duplicate of the frog from which derm. Doug also uncovered the segment of ical Institute, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Pro- the donor dna came. In a sense, this was the the messenger rna that caused it to be lo- fessor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard ½rst highly controversial experiment in de- calized in this section of the egg. University, and a founding Codirector of the velopmental biology, presaging all the cur- This research occupied him until the mid- Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He is uniquely rent discussions about embryonic stem cell 1990s, when personal reasons made him quali½ed to talk to us this evening about research and cloning.

6 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 change the direction of his research toward leadership in explaining the importance of To biologists, stem cells are pancreas development, particularly the de- research on human embryonic stem cells to velopment of the insulin-secreting cells in the general public and to lawmakers. He does interesting for two reasons. the pancreatic islets. He recognized, far be- this privately and without a lot of flair. He fore any of us did, that the only rational way has spoken to former Massachusetts Gover- One, they can teach us a lot to treat juvenile diabetes, where the immune nor Mitt Romney, to President George Bush, system destroys normal islet cells, is by islet and to Vice President Cheney–all, I am sorry about how animals develop; transplantation. This, in turn, requires a to say, with little effect, but I give him enor- how cells work. Second, they source of islets that we can only obtain in mous credit for trying. He is an editor of Sci- large numbers by developing embryonic ence and has received many honors for his have the potential to help stem cells. work, including election to this Academy, the National Academy of Sciences, and the alleviate diseases from which Thus Doug embarked on a very impressive Institute of Medicine. series of studies concerning how the pancreas many people in our society is normally formed during development and how the body produces more islet cells dur- suffer. ing adult life. Many body tissues have stem cells; for example, there are stem cells in the diseases from which many people in our so- blood that make more blood cells; there are ciety suffer. But stem cells are probably in the stem cells in the liver that make liver cells. public’s mind for a different reason, namely, But rather strikingly, and just in the past few they touch on the question of what it means years, Doug showed that the insulin-secret- to be human, speci½cally on when life begins. ing cells in the pancreas do not seem to be formed from stem cells. Rather, they repro- There are a number of different aspects to duce by dividing: one insulin-producing cell this subject, all of which we could discuss, divides into two, and so forth. This is an ex- but I will begin with the biology. Then I will ample of the kind of important fundamental talk about how stem cell research affects or is science that Doug carries out to understand affected by public policy and politics, which is related to the philosophical or metaphysi- the genes, the cells, and the tissues that di- Douglas A. Melton rect organ formation. cal aspects of this work. This then brings us into what laws might or might not be passed Douglas A. Melton is Thomas Dudley Cabot Pro- In his talk, Doug will consider the practical to restrict it. I will say rather little about the fessor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard Univer- implications of his work: how one can coax long-term requirement that some commer- sity and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Med- undifferentiated embryonic stem cells into cialization will have to take place if this re- ical Institute. He has been a Fellow of the Ameri- forming insulin-secreting cells. This applica- search is ever going to bene½t patients. can Academy since 1995. tion is important not only to understand all the genes and the extracellular factors that Presentation To put stem cells in context, I am going to catalyze this process, which is of interest to show you a couple of slides about how biolo- the basic scientist, but also for potential ther- gists got to this point in their work. This slide When I started my stem cell research, I (see Slide 1) oversimpli½es the last century of apeutic purposes. For example, Doug has never imagined that it would create so much done some fundamental studies to try to biology by saying that it focused almost ob- interest in the public’s mind. On the one hand, sessively on dna, beginning with Mendel’s grow embryonic stem cells into insulin-se- scientists do like people to know what they creting cells that will respond to a rise in are doing and want others to pay attention to blood sugar as they normally should: by se- it, particularly young people. But I have to creting insulin. He is not there yet, but he is admit, I am surprised when the President and getting close. other public ½gures speak about stem cell re- What is fascinating about Doug is apparent search on the national stage and when it is by just looking at his lab website. If you look presented on television news programs and at the keywords for his research interests, even in various comedy acts. I might reflect, you will ½nd the expected terms: “pancreas,” for just a minute, on why that is the case. “diabetes,” “cell biology,” “chemical biolo- To biologists, stem cells are interesting for two gy,” “developmental biology,” “human em- reasons. One, they can teach us a lot about bryonic stem cells,” and “transgenic mice.” how animals develop; how cells work. Sec- SLIDE 1 But you will also ½nd “bioethics” and “law ond, they have the potential to help alleviate and public policy.” I think that reflects Doug’s

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 7 Academy Meetings work with peas and his ½nding that inherited on adult stem cells, that measure elements determine our character and ex- would more or less consign peo- tending to the discovery that dna was the ple with certain diseases to be in- chemical basis of hereditary material. The eligible for new therapies from results of the double helix experiment were stem cells. published in 1953, followed by the elucida- The ability of embryonic stem tion of the genetic code, the demonstration cells to make any part of the body that dna could be sequenced, and then the is fascinating to biologists be- sequencing of the whole genome. cause we can, as I said, begin to So the public might be forgiven for thinking study properties of self-renewal that all of biology is really dna: that dna is and differentiation; to determine destiny and that dna is all that biologists how a cell knows which genes to turn on and off to make different “do.” But I would suggest that we are now SLIDE 3 living in a century that will not be so much cell types. But the real reason it about dna, but instead will center on ½gur- gets so much public attention lies ing out how pieces of dna, or genes, interact after radiation. A bone-marrow transplant is in its potential for treating degenerative dis- to make the real unit of life, the cell. actually a transplant of adult hematopoetic, eases, particularly the diseases of neurode- or blood-forming, cells. generation, including Alzheimer’s, Parkin- For fun, I will say that this century will be the son’s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (als, Now, these two properties, self-renewal and century of cells and stem cells. Why stem sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s Disease), differentiation, are highlighted in a very spe- cells? In my view, stem cells are the most in- spinal muscular atrophy, cardiovascular dis- cial way in an embryonic stem cell. Embryon- teresting. Let me provide a short primer on ease, and diabetes. what stem cells do and why biologists ½nd ic stem cells can also self-renew and differen- them interesting. tiate, but interestingly, and most important- The biomedical community has largely failed ly, they can make any cell type found in the to make signi½cant advances in understand- body: blood cells, nerve cells, the cells of the ing these afflictions, but they will become pancreatic islet that make insulin, etc., etc. ever more important as our society ages. Just (see Slide 4) Adult stem cells, in contrast, are to put a number on this, I will cite data taken restricted. Adult blood stem cells, for example, from the year 2000: the number of patients make blood; they do not make fat, nerves, or who could bene½t from some new treatments pancreatic islets–they only make blood. for these diseases is 128 million in the United States alone, not to mention all over the world. Tying together stem cells and these diseases is relatively simple to do. SLIDE 2 While these diseases are multigenic, and interact with the environment A stem cell has two main properties. First, a or require an environmental stimu- stem cell can self-renew (see Slide 2)–that is, lus, they are, in general, the result of it can divide and make a copy of itself. “Self- a de½ciency in a particular cell type. renewal” should make you think of “repair,” Here are two examples. The ½rst is “regeneration,” “replenishment.” If we could cardiovascular disease. Since we can understand the genetic program, the basics make cardiomyocytes (heart muscle of how a cell makes an exact copy of itself, cells) from embryonic stem cells, that knowledge would strengthen our under- SLIDE 4 imagine how useful that will be to standing of how we can repair or replenish learning about how to repair the our bodies. Second, stems cells have the ca- The capacity of embryonic stem cells to make heart. Could one transplant those cells? Could pacity to make different kinds of daughter any part of the body is especially signi½cant one learn how they develop normally, how cells by means of a process called “differenti- because not all tissues in adults have a stem to keep them in better shape, and what caus- ation,” which signi½es to specialize, to become cell. The pancreas–particularly the pancre- es them to become dysfunctional or die? different from one another (see Slide 3). This atic beta cell–does not have an adult stem cell, slide shows that a blood stem cell can make which is important as we begin to talk about I want to say a bit more about the area in all the different kinds of cells found in the disease: if a person has lost a particular cell which I work–diabetes–to give a slightly blood. The adult stem cell for blood is known type, like a pancreatic beta cell, it no longer different example. In the case of diabetes, as to many of you: it is the cell found in the bone has the capacity to make more. Thus if this Harvey mentioned, the principal problem in marrow that is used to treat cancer patients nation were to say that we could only work Type 1 or juvenile diabetes is that the cells

8 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 that make insulin are absent. They are called We believe we can do that through pancreatic beta cells and they produce insulin the process of progressive differen- in response to glucose in the blood. Without tiation (see Slide 6). A cell does not those cells, a patient will not survive. The cells decide to become a muscle cell, or are destroyed by an autoimmune attack. It is a nerve cell, or a pancreatic beta obvious, then, that if you have a cell that can cell in just one step. As in the edu- make pancreatic beta cells, why not try to cation of a child, many steps are re- ½gure out how to make it at a scale so that quired. We have focused on each of you might transplant it into patients? these steps for the last few years, studying in normal animals how Here is a picture of the pancreas, which is next signals are sent to cells to tell them to the duodenum at the bottom of the stom- what to do. We have adapted meth- ach tube (see Slide 5). Inside the pancreas are ods for putting human embryonic islets, little islands of cells. The pancreas has stem cells into dishes that have lots about a million pancreatic islets in it: the pan- of little wells in them–kind of like SLIDE 6 creas is about the size of a banana, and the bingo cards with three hundred or islets are like a million little raisins peppered four hundred little wells in each of become. Having embryonic stem cells that through it. The key cell here is the pancreatic them. Next, we treat each well with a different beta cell, the one that makes insulin. can make any part of the body is an extreme- chemical, and we look for which chemicals ly powerful capability. However, several fac- tell the cell to move one tors make these degenerative diseases dif- step further. In this system- ½cult to study. First, all of them are complex atic way, we are able to genetic disorders. In other words, they are move forward step by step in directing the dif- ferentiation of cells into If we could understand the the type of cell we would genetic program, the basics like. This process takes several years. In some cas- of how a cell makes an exact es–and I will discuss mo- tor neurons in a few min- copy of itself, that knowledge utes– scientists are much further along than in oth- would strengthen our under- ers. Thinking ahead to the standing of how we can re- future, we have every rea- SLIDE 5 son to believe that we will pair or replenish our bodies. be able to make your fa- The blood vessels are next to the islet, so that vorite cell type. Let us say, for example, that not the result of a single genetic defect. An when you have a drink with sugar in it or eat you are concerned about getting a little bit example of a simpler disease is cystic ½brosis. a meal–and your stomach turns the food or too plump. If we make fat cells in a dish, we If a patient has a mutation in a gene called sugar into glucose–your body is able to make could begin to study much more easily what the cystic ½brosis transmembrane regulator use of that energy source because these cells makes them divide and what makes them (cftr), it does not matter what other genes secrete insulin. In the case of Type 1 diabetes, grow–and how we could control their divi- the patient has, or in what form, or in what however, the cells that make insulin are de- sion, or the amount of adipose tissue in a environment he or she grows up: that pa- stroyed, so the patient cannot make insulin person. And I could make the same argu- tient will have cystic ½brosis. That is a very and requires daily blood-glucose tests and in- ment for any type of cell in the body. simple–monogenic–type of disease; in sulin injections for survival. contrast, all of the degenerative diseases I But let us return to cases like heart disease or have mentioned are multigenic. Worse yet, The evidence in mice for the conclusion that diabetes. I want to emphasize that for these in every case, we do not know all the genes no adult stem cells exist for these beta cells is degenerative diseases, there is a single cell involved, so for almost every disease, we now quite convincing. Once all of the beta type that is missing or defective. In Alzhei- have very poor or inadequate animal models. cells expire–either killed by an autoimmune mer’s, the defective cell is a basal forebrain attack or otherwise removed– the mouse does neuron; in Parkinson’s, it is the dopamine- Also, in each of these cases, there is an envi- not have the capacity to make more beta cells. producing midbrain neuron; in als, it is the ronmental trigger that has yet to be identi½ed. To make more of these cells, we must turn to motor neuron. In each of these cases, scien- One way to think about this situation is to embryonic stem cells. How do we try to cre- tists are studying how to take this very potent envision identical twins–with the same ate beta cells using embryonic stem cells? embryonic stem cell and tell it what it should genes, of course–only one of whom has the

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 9 Academy Meetings disease. In such a case, there had to be an envi- cells. Remember, while we do not know all of ronmental trigger, whether it was the amount the genetic variants that cause the person to Exchanging genetic material of exercise they did, or the food they ate, or get the disease, we do know that all of the –by somatic-cell nuclear the length of time they spent sitting in the genes are inside the nucleus of every cell in sun. In most cases, we are not sure what the the patient’s body. Because of the work of transfer–enables us to reduce signal is, but we know that it has to exist. John Gurdon and others, we know it is possi- ble to remove this nucleus and inject it into the study of degenerative hu- Finally, these diseases are dif½cult to study an egg recipient–an unfertilized human because of the long gap between the primary oocyte–to create what are called patient- man diseases to a petri dish, cause and the effect. When a patient appears speci½c stem cells. with one of these diseases, the primary cause and thus to ½nd drugs that could have been something that happened For those of you who have read anything may slow or even stop the many years earlier. about this work in the newspapers, you prob- ably know that scientists want to make pa- progression of those diseases. tient-speci½c stem cells in order to trans- The ability of embryonic plant them back into people. I am not talking watched them develop into motor neurons about that tonight because I think such a that are distinctly different from the normal stem cells to make any part procedure is years away. I believe what is type of motor neuron. They observed a de- more important is to be able to make dis- of the body is fascinating to fective cell phenotype–the pathology of the ease-speci½c–patient-speci½c–stem cells– human disease–in a petri dish. biologists because we can not ones that we would put back in a patient, but ones that we would use to understand Again, I want to be clear about why we want begin to study properties of the root causes or mechanisms of these dis- to do this, because if we make defective mo- self-renewal and differentia- eases. Let’s see how that is actually done. tor neurons, they are of no use for transplan- There are two people involved in making dis- tation back into a patient. We make defective tion; to determine how a cell ease-speci½c (als) embryonic stem cells. neurons because we want to do what is called First, beginning with an als patient, a skin “pharmaceutical” or “chemical” screening, knows which genes to turn biopsy is performed to get skin cells that will where we look for chemicals that prevent the on and off to make different serve as the nuclear donor. Separately, a fe- cells from dying, from having these so-called male oocyte donor is required–here using amyloid inclusion bodies. This screening, if cell types. the same procedures that in-vitro fertiliza- it works well, could lead us to ½nd chemicals, tion (ivf) clinics use to obtain an unfertil- and eventually drugs, that do not necessarily ized egg or oocyte. The nucleus is removed cure or reverse the disease, but at least slow With these challenges in mind, I want to out- from that oocyte and replaced with the skin down the degeneration. In the ideal case, they line why we want to do somatic-cell nuclear cell nucleus from the als patient. This trans- might even stop the disease from progressing transfer, or, as it’s more popularly known, hu- planted cell will divide several times to form further. man cloning. Let’s take the case of als, which a blastocyst, a very early stage of embryonic Exchanging genetic material–by somatic-cell involves a degeneration of the motor neu- development, from which an embryonic stem nuclear transfer–enables us to reduce the rons. This disease occurs at an unfortunately cell can be derived. study of degenerative human diseases to a high frequency in our population; most peo- petri dish, and thus to ½nd drugs that may ple with als do not survive for more than Why would one want to create a diseased slow or even stop the progression of those three years, although some people survive stem cell? One reason is to study its develop- diseases. This outcome is quite different from for as many as ½ve years. There is no treat- ment alongside that of normal cells, to ask the cellular transplantation you read about in ment and no cure, and we do not really know the simple question of what goes wrong? the media, which, in my opinion, is still years the primary cause. Why do motor neurons in patients who have Lou Gehrig’s disease screw up? Why do these away. At the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, we are cells die? As we can all appreciate, it is im- So you might reasonably ask, “How could any- trying to remove the study of this disease possible to study these questions in people one object to this?” I have made primarily a from patients and reduce it to examining very effectively, but if we watch the develop- scienti½c argument about what we want to cells in a petri dish. In this way, we can com- mental process unfold in a petri dish, we can do, what the cells can do, and why we want bine the potential of stem cell biology with begin to understand what is going on. Sig- to do it. The tricky part is the intersection of somatic-cell nuclear transfer. ni½cant progress has been made using this this subject with religion and politics. I would approach through the work of my colleagues For a patient suffering from als,we would like to take this opportunity at the end of my Kevin Eggan and Lee Rubin, who made ge- normally do a skin biopsy, with the intention talk to outline my views on this matter. netically altered stem cells, using the genetic of isolating the nucleus from one of the skin alteration in cells found in als patients, and

10 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 The problem centers on the source of the Our nation does not seem to be very good at gotten into this paradox: when you ask the cells. As you know, there are two kinds of having inclusive, well-informed discussions question, “Could you use that same material stem cells: adult and embryonic stem cells. about matters such as this, even though near- to treat these diseases?” the answer seems to The controversy surrounds embryonic stem ly a decade has passed since the issue was ½rst be no. To me, this is very puzzling. Why is it cells that come from an early stage of develop- discussed in the halls of Congress and else- permissible to use procedures that result in ment called the blastocyst. In early develop- where. While we wait, other nations are mov- the loss of human eggs and embryos to treat ment, after the egg is fertilized, cell division ing ahead. infertility, but not for the treatment of de- proceeds to form eight, then sixteen, then generative diseases? In my view, the problem is twofold, and it is thirty-two cells in a ball. At this early stage, related to the question of when life begins. Furthermore, if this type of research is wrong the solid mass of dividing cells is sometimes To a biologist, that is not really the right –if it is unethical and morally wrong to do called a morula, after the Latin word for mul- question, because life began eons ago. It is this work–we should not be discussing berry or raspberry, because that is pretty much better to ask, “When does a person begin?” whether to use federal dollars or private dol- what this state of embryo development looks When does a cell or a fertilized egg become lars; we should just not be doing it. But if it like on the outside: they have little bumps a person? is right, why do it with so many restrictions? like a raspberry, though of course, it is much Why make it so dif½cult for scientists to do smaller than a raspberry, more like the peri- First, let me be clear that I consider this to be things that have the potential to help people? od at the end of a typed sentence. The cells a metaphysical, not a scienti½c, question and continue to divide to form a ball with more in my view all citizens have a right to reach One of my favorite quotes, related to the sec- cells called the blastocyst. At this stage of an answer about this question. Society should ond main point I want to make, comes from embryonic development the cells are unspe- not look to science for an answer, because my–as Harvey nicely said–ineffective trips cialized, or undifferentiated; there are no tis- the question is unanswerable in terms of the to Washington. What I have discovered is sues or organs nor even any specialized nerve experiments that we might do. I think it is that no matter how and when I try to discuss or muscle cells. The question is, what is the possible to have respect for a fertilized egg, this issue, it is inextricably bound to the tor- moral status of this ball of cells that has the tuous politics of abortion. So this inclined me potential to become a human being? to read the Roe v. Wade decision, which has a This research has become wonderful line from Supreme Court Justice We derive embryonic stem cells by taking Harry Blackmun: “We need not resolve the the cells out of the middle of the blastocyst controversial because of dif½cult question of when life begins. When and growing them in a culture dish–this is those trained in the respective disciplines of the creation of a stem cell line. For those who questions arising about the medicine, philosophy, and theology are un- are not biologists, I want to make clear that moral status of the frozen able to arrive at any consensus, the Judiciary, this is not something that has a brain or arms at this point in the development of man’s or a heart–it is not at all what you might embryos. knowledge, is not in a position to speculate normally think of as an embryo or a fetus as to the answer.” I do not need to remind that has form and patterned tissues. or a four-cell embryo, and not consider it to you of how many years our nation has been How do we obtain these blastocysts for re- be the same thing as a baby. I could give you a “arguing” or “debating” the Roe v. Wade deci- search? Currently, we get leftover or excess number of ways of thinking about this, but sion. I fear that we will ½nd ourselves in a blastocysts from ivf clinics, and we have one sort of operational de½nition is that a fer- similar position over stem cell research. tilized egg can be kept in the freezer for ten been doing so for some years now. In collab- What is the way forward? If I could be so bold years and retain the potential or capacity to oration with Dr. Douglas Powers at Boston as to make some suggestions, the ½rst would ivf make a person, and a baby cannot. , we have isolated about thirty-two human be to try to have an informed public discus- embryonic stem cell lines, and we continue Of course, the real question is whether they sion and establish a federal–not a state–pol- to derive cell lines, using this excess or left- are morally equivalent, and what rights or icy. I think our nation has taken the wrong over material. When a couple goes in for in- laws should be applicable to the treatment of path in creating state funding and regulations. fertility treatment, more human eggs are fer- eggs. I mentioned that during the treatment This approach ties the hands of scientists in tilized than are implanted in nearly every of infertility, in ivf clinics, human eggs and terms of the free dissemination of reagents case. The leftover fertilized eggs are usually embryos are present, and that there is always and ideas, which is not good for the science frozen or discarded. There are estimated to egg and embryo loss. So when a couple at- nor, ultimately, for patients. Moving away be four hundred thousand frozen embryos in tempts to have a baby by ivf treatment, the from establishing state policies, of course, the United States today; we have used about process always involves the loss or destruc- would mean we would have to explore stem three hundred to derive our human embry- tion of embryos. They are either frozen or cell potential with federal funding and feder- onic stem cell lines. thrown away, or they die during the proce- al regulatory oversight. As I have indicated, this research has become dure. Our society has concluded that to treat While numerous states, including Massachu- controversial because of questions arising infertility, it is acceptable to suffer the loss of setts, California, and others, are passing leg- about the moral status of the frozen embryos. those eggs and cells. But somehow we have islation that governs these “experiments,”

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 11 Academy Meetings other states, like Texas, have no regulations, which means that scientists there are doing whatever they like. In the absence of federal policy, we will end up with an unsatisfactory situation, with people arguing over who owns the rights to what research. If someone does an experiment in Texas and creates a stem cell line, can it be transferred across state borders? To a scientist, this seems like an odd question to be asking if what you are trying to do is to understand the basic properties of these cells.

My last suggestion is one that could help clari- fy issues: a clear and complete federal ban on Alan Lightman (MIT), Jamshed Bharucha (Tufts University), and so-called human reproductive cloning. You Lawrence Bacow (Tufts University) notice that I used the word “cloning” when I talked about somatic-cell nuclear transfer, and it is the right term. But in general, people tend to think of cloning as making genetic copies, replicas, of babies. No scientist I know thinks that is a good idea. It would help us reach a federal policy if everyone just agreed that it was a bad idea and passed a law that banned it. My own opinion is that the law has not been passed because some groups want to use that confusion to try to stop all research in this area.

Now, this might make you think that I am a pessimistic person, which is not true. I want to ½nish by telling you about a good thing that is going on in Boston. With the help of a large number of hospitals and all of the different Herman Chernoff (Harvard University), Bertram Malenka (North- schools within Harvard University, we creat- eastern University), and Benoit Mandelbrot (Yale University) ed the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. People from many disciplines, who agree that this problem is both important and dif½cult, have come together to establish common rules, common institutional review boards, and common funding for work not supported by federal funding. We are also collaborating with colleagues at neighboring institutions, particularly mit, to try to move the science forward. At the moment, there are about 40 principal investigators, which means almost 600 people are involved in this venture. Every six weeks we have interlab meetings that bring together hundreds of students and postdocs. Federal restrictions do not mean that scien- tists are sitting on their hands. Of course, Gerald Holton (Harvard University), Howard Hiatt (Brigham and we would make faster and better progress if Women’s Hospital), and Irving London (MIT) our government clari½ed the rules and pro- vided federal funding, but work is proceed- ing at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute never- theless.

© 2007 by Harvey F. Lodish and Douglas A. Melton, respectively.

12 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 Academy Meetings Photo by Sonali Reddy Bloom Photo by Sonali Reddy Education in the Developing World

David E. Bloom, Michael R. Kremer, and Gene B. Sperling

This panel discussion was given at the 1912th Stated Meeting, held at the House of the Academy in Cambridge on March 14, 2007. It is part of the Academy’s major project on Universal Basic and Secondary Education (ubase), cochaired by David E. Bloom and Joel E. Cohen. This project has collected new data and new thinking on the long-term value of education in the developing world. The meeting provid- ed an opportunity for Fellows, other experts, and the media to learn about a major Academy program. The ubase project is supported by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Golden Family Foundation, and the Sergei S. David E. Bloom Zlinkoff Fund for Medical Education and gifts from John and Cynthia Reed and David E. Bloom is Clarence James Gamble Profes- Paul Zuckerman. sor of Economics and Demography and Chair of the Department of Population and International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was elected to the American Academy in 2005.

I am pleased to have this opportunity to share with you some of the work that I’ve been doing on education for the last few years. I’ve done a great deal of this work with Joel Cohen of Rockefeller and Columbia Univer- sities. Joel and I direct the Academy’s project

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 13 Academy Meetings on Universal Basic and Secondary Education In 2000, one-sixth of the lion children of secondary-school age are not (ubase), an initiative that focuses on the attending school–or 30 percent of 12- to 17- rationale, means, and consequences of pro- world’s children of primary- year-olds worldwide, and a slightly higher viding a quality education to all of the chil- percentage of 12- to 17-year-olds in developing dren in the world. The project is obviously school age, 97 million in all, countries. The global shortfalls I’m speaking quite ambitious, and perhaps that’s why it about are equally striking if one looks at the took us ½ve years to produce our latest publi- were not enrolled in school; tertiary level. People living in developing cation, Educating All Children: A Global Agenda. and more than half of those countries account for 85 percent of the world’s population but little more than 50 percent of I have also conducted studies on higher educa- the world’s university students. tion, primarily with Henry Rosovsky of Har- 97 million were girls. vard University and Matthew Hartley of the These enrollment de½cits at all levels are quite University of Pennsylvania. for action in 2000 at the Dakar World Educa- consequential. On the basis of historical and tion Forum. The 164 representatives present comparative analysis, countries that exhibit To begin, I’d like to comment on the different at the meeting again declared their commit- sluggishness in the expansion of schooling ways in which the world is falling short in pro- ment to universal primary education, but this ½nd it dif½cult to advance both economically viding educational opportunities in develop- time by 2015. In 2000, the international com- and socially. Part of the problem is that these ing countries. Then, I’d like to spell out the munity was also reinvigorating its collective countries have a thin and fragile skill base. various justi½cations for addressing these de- educational goal by including the universal For example, women who don’t make it to ½ciencies and to argue that we’re not dealing completion of primary education by 2015 secondary school tend to have more children with an insurmountable problem. among the United Nations Millennium De- than those who do, and they tend to give their H. G. Wells once described human history as velopment Goals. I would note here that, in children childhoods that are materially spar- a race between education and catastrophe. addition, the Millennium Development Goals ser, thereby building a much weaker founda- Looking at the state of global education over call for the elimination of gender disparity in tion for future economic progress. the last few decades, I ½nd the image of a race primary and secondary education, preferably Low enrollment rates at the tertiary level also quite apt. by 2005, which has come and passed, and in all levels by 2015. All 191 member nations of suggest that developing countries are forgo- Many of the world’s aspirations for education the United Nations pledged to meet those ing the massive economic and social bene½ts are reflected clearly in a series of United Na- goals. of higher education. Some of the forgone tions declarations, programs of action, and bene½ts are the unrealized productivity and conventions and covenants. I’d like to draw It is important to note that all four of these earnings of those who don’t make it to college. your attention to four documents in particu- statements pertain to education at the primary A study by labor economist Enrico Moretti, lar. The ½rst is the Convention on the Rights level. None mention secondary or tertiary and another study that I conducted with of the Child, which was drafted between 1975 education, and none refer to the quality of Henry Rosovsky and Matt Hartley, found and 1990. Signed by 195 countries and rati½ed education, but these are also areas in which that workers who are surrounded by college by 193, it is the world’s most nearly universal- the world is experiencing severe de½cits. graduates earn more, whether or not they ac- ly accepted human-rights treaty. The only two tually attended college. In other words, even In 2000, one-sixth of the world’s children of countries that haven’t rati½ed this convention the earnings of high-school dropouts or just primary-school age, 97 million in all, were are Somalia and the United States; this may high-school graduates are higher if they’re not enrolled in school; and more than half of be the only thing these two countries have in working in a labor market with a higher pro- those 97 million were girls. It’s also quite ap- common. Article 28 of the Convention states portion of college graduates, after taking parent now that the 2015 deadline for univer- that primary education should be compulso- into consideration numerous other factors sal primary education will not be met. Even ry and available free to all. that are commonly believed to affect earnings. if countries continue to enjoy the same rate The second statement emerged in 1990 at the of increase in educational access that they In another study, we analyzed the G.I. Bill in World Conference on Education for All, held have experienced since 1990–the year of the the United States and found that enrollment in Jomtien, Thailand. The 155 delegates in at- Jomtien conference–we estimate that 114 rates are very responsive to public subsidies. tendance declared their interest in universal- million primary-age kids will still be out of Taken together, these two ½ndings indicate izing primary education and dramatically re- school in 2015. Educational access is not ex- that by boosting enrollment rates public sub- ducing illiteracy by the year 2000. The dele- panding fast enough to keep pace with the sidies for higher education bene½t society at gates left that meeting greatly energized. Their increase in school-aged population, and the large because they promote earnings growth countries made quite respectable education- shortfall in primary education is only the tip for both graduates and the rest of the work- al advances in the 1990s, but by 2000 it was of the iceberg. force. clear that the goal of universal primary edu- The story of our global educational de½cits cation was nowhere close to being achieved. Another piece of the puzzle relates to the becomes even more bleak when you shift the quality of education. Enrollment statistics The global community granted itself an ex- focus to secondary education. As part of the aren’t everything. Enrollment doesn’t neces- tension when it adopted a new framework ubase project, we’ve estimated that 226 mil- sarily mean attendance. Attendance doesn’t

14 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 necessarily mean receiving an education. in a sense they’re absolutely surmountable. The totals for primary and Receiving an education doesn’t necessarily So what’s to be done? One major action in- mean receiving a good education. In many volves, not surprisingly, devoting greater secondary education amount developing countries, educational experiences resources to education. The World Bank, at all levels–primary, secondary, and tertiary unesco, and unicef have estimated that to somewhere between $34 –are characterized by outdated curricula and it would cost between $6.5 and $35 billion an- learning materials and by uninspiring, under- nually to get 97 million children who are cur- and $69 billion annually . . . quali½ed teachers. rently not in school into primary school. In Even the upper end of that one chapter of our book, Melissa Binder, an Let me focus for a moment on India. Most of economist in New Mexico, estimates that an us think of India as a real powerhouse in the range, $69 billion, is just two- additional $27 to $34 billion would make it realms of math and science, but the founda- possible to achieve universal secondary edu- thirds of annual U.S. outlays tion for that perception, at least at the primary cation. The numbers are higher here because and secondary level, seems to be rather shaky, secondary education is more expensive per in Afghanistan and Iraq. on the basis of a recent study of students in pupil than primary education and because 142 of the top private schools in the ½ve metro there are more kids who would need to be the kinds of investments we’re speaking about areas in India. According to that study, a taken into school. At any rate, the totals here will pay for themselves through the returns shocking proportion of Indian students at the primary and the secondary level basi- they yield. Therefore, it’s really just a question couldn’t demonstrate anything beyond the cally amount to somewhere between $34 and of ½nding a way to ½nance the necessary in- capacity for memorization. For example, $69 billion annually. vestments. If we do that, we will realize the bene½ts in the future. Educational access is not I will be the ½rst to acknowledge that this is a great deal of money, but I also believe that it’s In thinking about these investments, we also expanding fast enough to within our capacity to generate that funding. have to keep in mind the various arguments Even the upper end of that range, $69 billion, that we have for undertaking them. Let me keep pace with the increase is just two-thirds of annual U.S. outlays in sketch them briefly. The ½rst set of arguments Afghanistan and Iraq. If the poor countries is moral, ethical, and humanitarian. Devoting in school-aged population, of the world, the developing countries, were resources to education is the right thing to and the shortfall in primary to cover that $69 billion, it would take be- do; it’s a good thing to do; it’s a fair thing to tween 0.5 and 1 percent of their national in- do; it’s the just thing to do. The second argu- education is only the tip of comes. But if the rich countries paid for it, it ment is that education is a fundamental hu- would take about 0.25 percent of their in- man right. The opportunity to be educated is the iceberg. comes. That amount would effectively dou- a legally just claim to which all human beings ble the amount of overseas development as- are entitled by virtue of the fact that they are three-quarters of the students in the fourth sistance coming from the wealthy industrial human beings. I’ve mentioned the Conven- grade were unable to use a ruler to determine cities, but it would still leave them well below tion on the Rights of the Child, which embod- the length of a pencil, if the starting point for the 0.7 percent standard that all these coun- ies this principle; the Universal Declaration the pencil was not zero but rather one cen- tries agreed to in writing just a couple of years of Human Rights, which was signed and is- timeter. They weren’t able to ½gure out that ago. Britain has actually taken a major step in sued in December 1948, also very much es- you had to take the total amount and subtract that direction. It’s committed to spending pouses this principle. one to get the answer. Among sixth-grade stu- $15 billion on education between 2005 and Argument number three is economic. Educa- dents, only one in six recognized that steam 2015. tion improves the productivity and the eco- is nothing more than gaseous water, and half These needs are by no means trivial, but there nomic well-being of individuals and also ad- of the students in grades four and six showed are a number of creative mechanisms for de- vances the technological and institutional in- very little understanding of even the simplest velopment ½nancing. In particular, Gordon novation and the economic performance of use of decimal points. Now from this study, Brown, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, societies, capturing not just the earnings gains recently published in India’s version of Time (now Prime Minister), has proposed some- of the people who are educated but also the magazine, it would be fair to conclude that thing known as the International Finance Fa- spillovers that I mentioned before. Some of India has become a math, science, and engi- cility. This plan is a very simple and straight- the spillovers take the form of higher earnings neering powerhouse in spite of, and not be- forward, but quite imaginative, merger of for people who don’t get educated, higher cause of, the quality of its education system. classic development ½nance, which is done rates of entrepreneurial activity, better gov- The various educational de½cits to which I’ve on a year-by-year basis by bilateral and mul- ernments, and the like. drawn attention, both those relating to access tilateral organizations, with principles of com- A fourth argument involves the social bene½ts and those relating to quality, are consequen- mercial ½nance. It has the potential to help of education. The idea here is that education tial problems from a multitude of perspec- ½nance the investments that are needed, but promotes the building of cohesive, equitable, tives. But they are also rather pathetic because ultimately–and I think this is important–

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 15 Academy Meetings and strong societies. Finally, we have the po- provement, in part because many countries litical bene½ts of education. Educational pro- have abolished school fees. The proliferation gress mitigates inequality both within and of conditional cash-transfer programs like between nations, and in that way supports progressa in Mexico, in which parents political stability and global security. There’s earn rewards for keeping their children in also the idea that democracies function bet- school, have also positively contributed to ter when people have more access to informa- school enrollment. tion and the ability to process it as well as to What more can be done in this area? Let me communicate more readily. just mention one very cost-effective measure. I’ve painted a picture that’s a bit of doom and The Jameel Poverty Action Lab at mit has gloom, but we have some promising news. compiled a short document that compares Many global leaders with both political and the cost-effectiveness of various approaches 3 economic muscle, ranging from Gordon Michael R. Kremer to ensuring children are in school. One high- Brown to Bill Gates, recognize that global ly cost-effective measure is school health education isn’t what it could be or what it Michael R. Kremer is Gates Professor of Developing programs to treat students for worms. This should be. They understand that we’re not Societies and Professor of Economics at Harvard program costs pennies per dose, and for every doing that well in the race against catastro- University and Senior Fellow at The Brookings $3.50 such a program spends, it keeps an ad- phe, and they’re starting to view the issue Institution. He has been a Fellow of the American ditional child in school for a year. not as whether to act but rather as what to do. Academy since 2003. Raising the quality of education is increasing- The focus is starting to shift to identifying ly going to be the challenge. Children in many and comparing the options we have for edu- avid considered the challenge of increas- developing countries are more and more fre- cational development. In other words, should D ing the quantity of education. I’d like to focus quently in school, but their performance on we focus our attention on better curricula, on the quality of education. Before I do that, standardized tests and other measures of teacher training, or incentivizing teachers? though, let me say a few words on the topic learning remains abysmal. Should we be building more schools or equip- of quantity. As David pointed out, almost 100 ping the schools that we have with comput- Some insights on educational quality can be million children of primary age are not in ers and libraries? Latrines are another aspect gleaned from international tests such as school.1 But we have some grounds for hope of the educational infrastructure that is espe- timss (Third International Mathematics on the quantity front. In fact, if you look at cially important for girls at the secondary- and Science Study), pirls (Progress in Inter- school level. Julia Chandler, a Harvard un- national Reading Literacy Study), and pisa dergraduate, is completing her senior thesis Raising the quality of edu- (Programme for International Student As- on the extent to which the inadequacy of la- sessment). Unfortunately, most poor devel- trines at schools is responsible for the much cation is increasingly going oping countries do not participate in inter- sharper fall-off in enrollment rates of girls at national testing, although a few, mostly mid- the secondary level than those of boys. to be the challenge. dle-income countries, have begun to do so. On the 2003 pisa, 26.0 percent of children We must also ask whether we should be look- in Indonesia scored below level 1 (the lowest ing outside the bounds of education in order the number of years of education that people level) on the reading test, 26.9 percent in to improve education. Maybe we should be in the developing world have attained, it has Brazil, 24.9 percent in Mexico, 6.5 percent in building roads so that kids can get to school consistently risen at approximately the same the United States, 6.3 percent in France, and more easily, or maybe we should be working rate as in the developed world.2 This is not 1.1 percent in Finland. in the area of health, in particular children’s primarily because of what rich countries are health, so kids will miss less time in school doing, but because of factors internal to de- On a survey of rural children aged 11 and over and get more out of each day that they spend veloping countries themselves. India and in Bangladesh, 58 percent of children failed to in school. Then, of course, we must also look other countries are growing rapidly and have identify at least seven of eight letters that were at what combinations of interventions are par- made tremendous progress. Africa is lagging presented to them.4 In Brazil, 78 percent of ticularly effective. In any case, we’ve reached behind, but even there we have seen some im- children cannot answer simple math prob- the stage where we’re being asked to address the questions that relate to just how wide and deep the information base is for taking action 1 unesco, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2006: 3 Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, “Fight- in this area. I’m very heartened by this shift Education for All: Literacy for Life (Paris: unesco ing Poverty: What Works?” (Cambridge: mit, in the focus of our inquiries. I think it holds Publishing, 2006). 2005). the best hope for human history to keep up in 2 Robert Barro and Jong Wha Lee, “Internation- 4 Vincent Greaney, Shahidur R. Khandker, and the race against catastrophe. al Measures of Schooling Years and Schooling Mahmudul Alam, Bangladesh: Assessing Basic Quality,” The American Economic Review 86 (2) Learning Skills (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, (1996): 218–223. 1999).

16 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 lems.5 In India, when given the sentence, 1.3 times the per-capita gdp; in sub-Saharan One approach to the problem of teacher ab- “The dog is black with a white spot on his Africa the ratio is 6.7.9 There are some very sences is to enact some sort of formal incen- back and one white leg,” 28 percent of sixth legitimate reasons for that level of salary. tive system for teachers. A second approach graders could not correctly answer if the color Teachers with a secondary or postsecondary involves local control or local teachers. And of the dog was mostly black, brown, or gray.6 education have much more education than a third approach involves school choice or the average person in a developing country competition among schools. The reasons for these low levels of learning does; thus they should be paid more relative Given the way incentive systems typically are numerous, but an important factor is to the average worker. teacher absence. A recent survey by Nazmul work, it seems the simplest step would be to Chaudhury et al. investigated teacher atten- However, this is not the full story. In India, for reward teachers only if they show up at school. dance at schools in a variety of developing example, a recent study found that salaries of However, a Kenyan program that attempted countries. In Bangladesh, 16 percent of teach- teachers in rural private schools are about one- to do this was a failure. A study of this pro- ers were absent; in Ecuador, 14 percent; in ½fth the salaries of teachers in public schools.10 gram found that the headmasters who were Peru, 11 percent; in Indonesia, 19 percent; in And while these rural private schools are not charged with monitoring teacher attendance India, 25 percent; and in Uganda, 27 percent.7 paragons of virtue, absence rates in these were reluctant to penalize teachers for not This means that on any given day a child might schools are actually somewhat lower than in showing up, even if the school was able to go to school, a quarter of the teachers might public schools, despite the much lower sala- keep the money that was not paid as bonuses 11 not be present. ries. This suggests that there is more to the to the teachers. teacher-absence problem than just low Esther Duflo and Rema Hanna have evaluat- Teacher attendance does not necessarily en- salaries. tail teaching, however. In India, for example, ed a different kind of incentive program in only about half of the teachers in the class- India in which teachers in informal schools The reasons for these low ngo room were actually teaching.8 The other half run by an were asked to take pictures were on tea break, sitting in the classroom levels of learning are numer- of themselves with their students in school. reading a newspaper, or otherwise occupied. Each picture has a time and date stamp. Un- Advancing past rote learning is certainly an ous, but an important factor like the program in Kenya, this measure ac- important issue, but in some ways even get- tually had a major effect on teacher absence. ting to rote learning in some schools would is teacher absence . . . on any Teachers started showing up so that they be progress. would receive bonuses. Moreover, it led to a given day a child might go to signi½cant increase in test scores as well as a Many people believe that teachers will not school, a quarter of the teach- 43 percent increase in the number of children improve their attendance records until they who went on to regular primary schools.12 are paid well. Certainly some countries under- ers might not be present. pay their teachers, or of½cially give them rea- In this program, the incentives were linked to showing up. But economists often argue that sonable salaries but pay them late or neglect By focusing on studies with randomized eval- incentives should not be graded by their in- to pay them entirely. But many other countries uations, one can see the effectiveness of dif- puts but by their output–what one really pay teachers much more than the typical work- ferent approaches to addressing this problem cares about. What is the impact of these in- er receives or much more than is necessary of teacher absences. In these types of studies, oecd centives linked to student test scores? An to attract people to the position. In a government or an ngo introduces a pro- obvious danger is teaching to the test. On countries, the typical teacher makes about gram in such a way that it randomly assigns the other hand, it could be argued that one some schools or regions to be a treatment should not worry about teaching to the test group and others to be a comparison group; 5 when one cannot even get teachers to show Deon Filmer, Amer Hasan, and Lant Pritchett, alternatively, it phases in the program over “A Millennium Learning Goal: Measuring Real up to school. In effect, teaching to the test is time and the order of the phase-in is random. Progress in Education,” Center for Global De- a second-order problem. On theoretical Randomizing makes it possible to isolate the velopment Working Paper No. 97, August 2006. grounds, it is possible to argue either way. impact of the program in a rigorous way. 6 Marlaine E. Lockheed and Adriaan M. Ver- Analysis of a program in Kenya, which re- spoor, Improving Primary Education in Developing warded teachers based on student test scores, Countries (Washington, D.C.: Oxford University 9 J. Eicher, “Educational Costing and Financing Press, 1991). in Developing Countries: With Special Reference 7 Nazmul Chaudhury, Jeffrey Hammer, Michael to Sub Saharan Africa,” World Bank Staff Work- 11 Michael Kremer and Daniel Chen, “An Interim Kremer, Karthik Muralidharan, and F. Halsey ing Paper No. 665, 1984. Report on a Teacher Attendance Incentive Pro- Rogers, “Missing in Action: Teacher and Health gram in Kenya,” Mimeo, Harvard University, 10 Karthik Marlidharan and Michael Kremer, Worker Absence in Developing Countries,” 2001. “Public and Private Schools in Rural India,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20 (1) (2006): forthcoming in Paul Peterson and Rajashri 12 91–116. Esther Duflo and Rema Hanna, “Monitoring Chakrabarti, eds., School Choice International, Works: Getting Teachers to Come to School,” 8 Ibid. mit Press. nber Working Paper No. 11880, May 2006.

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 17 Academy Meetings suggests teacher attendance did not improve, and monitored by parent committees were cided to lottery the vouchers. This, in turn, nor did other indicators of teacher behavior, more likely to be in class and teaching.15 set the scene for a randomized evaluation. such as assigning homework or otherwise Another related avenue is to hire teachers A study of this program followed both the changing pedagogical techniques. What was from the local community. These local teach- winners and losers of the lottery and found found was an increase in test preparation ses- ers might not have as much formal training, that the winners scored higher on exams and sions.13 Kenya, like many other developing but because they are from the area, they pre- were less likely to repeat grades. In fact, a few countries, has a national exam system. These sumably feel more loyalty to, or social pres- years into the program, they were scoring exams are very important, and schools hold sure from, the community to perform their about 20 percent of a standard deviation high- test preparation sessions called “preps” to job well. In the same Kenyan program, the er than those who lost the lottery.17 This is get students ready. Teachers held these ses- parent committees were empowered and equivalent to the difference between the ½f- sions more often. Thus, teachers were respond- funded to hire credentialed, local teachers to tieth percentile and the ½fty-eighth percentile ing to the incentive, but not necessarily on accommodate increased enrollment. These in a distribution. The effect seems to have the dimensions that one would have hoped, teachers, whether for reasons of local famil- been somewhat greater for girls. Joshua An- suggesting that the problem of teaching to iarity or because they were hired on a renew- grist et al. then looked at the long-run effects the test is real even in developing countries. of this program–for example, on high-school What happened to test scores under this pro- completion. About 32 percent of the losers of gram? Generally, scores increased while the If we can build up a base the lottery ½nished secondary school. The program was in place, but after the program completion rate for the winners of the lottery was over, test scores for the same students of evidence and rigorously was about ½ve to seven percentage points declined. Thus it does not appear that the higher. program was that successful. evaluate a variety of ap- Some very important questions arise from Karthik Muralidharan and Venkatesh Sun- proaches, then policymakers these results. One involves generalizability. daramanan have examined a similar pro- can help ensure not only that The school-choice program appears to have gram in India and interpret the results in a worked well in Colombia. The results on much more positive light.14 Their assess- children are in school but vouchers in the United States are not quite ment is based on the increase in test scores so promising. Perhaps this is because in U.S. on conceptual questions as well as on what that they are actually learn- public schools, despite all the complaints they call mechanical questions. But, as in about them, teachers are generally not ab- Kenya, the incentive did not result in an in- ing something. sent a quarter of the time. It remains to be crease in teacher attendance, and it remains seen if the results can be generalized from to be seen whether the effect on test scores Colombia to other developing countries. able contract, had better attendance records will be permanent. than their counterpart civil service teachers Another issue relevant to school choice is its 16 Another approach involves providing infor- and their students performed better on tests. impact on the system as a whole. The Colom- mation to local decision-making bodies and bia study suggests that the students who were Yet another approach worth considering is local teachers. Many have argued that once able to participate in the voucher program using school-choice programs as a way to parents and communities are informed of bene½ted. But, of course, an important ques- improve student achievement. Colombia’s what is going on in the schools, they will de- tion is the effect of the program on both stu- secondary-school voucher program is a mand reform. One program in India took dents who stayed in the public-school system prime example of this. In order to receive a this approach. Tentatively, the outcomes in- and on students who started out in the pri- voucher, a student had to attend a public pri- dicate that information, by itself, does not vate-school system. mary school and come from one of the poor- make a big difference. Another program in est neighborhoods. The voucher paid for Given the terrible quality of education in many Kenya showed that teachers who were trained these students to go to private schools–not developing countries, it is worth experiment- elite private schools but private schools for ing with a range of different initiatives, from relatively poor people. Because the program hiring local teachers to involving the private was oversubscribed, Colombia’s leaders de- sector to a greater degree. If we can build up 13 Paul Glewwe, Nauman Ilias, and Michael Kremer, “Teacher Incentives,” Mimeo, Harvard University, 2004. 15 Esther Duflo, Pascaline Dupas, and Michael 17 Joshua Angrist, Eric Bettinger, Erik Bloom, 14 Karthik Muralidharan and Venkatesh Sun- Kremer, “Peer Effects, Class Size and Teacher Beth King, and Michael Kremer, “Vouchers for dararaman, “Teacher Incentives in Developing Incentives: Evidence from a Randomized Experi- Private Schooling in Colombia: Evidence from a Countries: Experimental Evidence from India,” ment in Kenya,” Unpublished Paper, May 2007. Randomized Natural Experiment,” American Harvard University Department of Economics, Economic Review 92 (5) (2002): 1535–1558. Unpublished Paper, November 2006. 16 Ibid.

18 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 a base of evidence and rigorously evaluate a The goal of achieving universal primary edu- variety of approaches, then policymakers can cation is ambitious. As David and Joel demon- What incentives can we pro- help ensure not only that children are in strate in Educating All Children, 250 to 400 mil- vide to empower education school but that they are actually learning lion kids do not attend secondary school, and something. 80 to 100 million are out of primary school. reformers and champions Michael provided a slightly dark view, but many positive projects are out there, too, as in developing nations, and well as examples of people who are doing great things to get kids learning in school. what must they establish to

Finally, universal primary education is the win the con½dence of donor world’s most pathetic goal. Every once in a partners to step up to the while I speak to sixth graders. The ½rst ques- tions they ask every single time are: why are plate? you only trying to get kids to elementary school, and why are you waiting until 2015? basic or secondary education. The ½rst point, Those seem like very good questions to me. which both speakers touched upon, is school The Millennium Development Goal of hav- choice. In the United States, the school-choice ing every child go to school through ½fth or debate is about private schools and vouchers. sixth grade is in some ways pathetic. One of In the developing world, school choice means the great things about this new book from Gene B. Sperling ubase whether or not parents can send their child the project is that it is willing to take to school at all, particularly their daughters. Gene B. Sperling is Director of the Center for Uni- a leap and say, even when we have so far to go It is clear that education is good for children versal Education at the Council on Foreign Rela- to achieve universal primary education, that and for countries. What is at times less clear tions and serves as U.S. Chair of the Global Cam- shouldn’t be our aspiration. At minimum, our is whether sending a child to school is per- paign for Education. aspiration should be universal basic education, which most people think of as at least eight ceived as good for the parents–the ones who years, at least part of a secondary education, are the ultimate decision makers in most cas- Universal primary education is simultane- and at least on its way to the more ambitious es. For parents who live in extreme poverty ously the world’s most important, ambitious, vision of universal secondary education. and believe they need the help of their chil- and pathetic goal. An overwhelming weight dren to manage day-to-day chores or to help of evidence suggests that education, particu- I have written a lot on the notion of a global support their family, they may believe that larly girls’ education, has an impact across compact. All major national education plans, school is not always the best choice. So a lot the board. For example, education has a fun- of course, have to be consistent with the no- of what sound policy tries to do is align damental influence on the size and health of tion that the most sustainable initiatives have what’s best for the parents with what’s best families. David mentioned a study in Brazil to come from the ground up. But those of us for the child and what’s best for the country. that examined girls who went to secondary who live here have to ask ourselves, “What’s school versus girls who never went to school: our responsibility? What’s our role?” When These incentives address three broad cate- the difference was 2.5 versus 6 offspring. people like me talk about development assis- gories of costs. The ½rst is direct fees. When Whether or not a girl is in school when she’s tance, it’s not to ignore in any way the im- parents have to pay fees, which make up a 16 or 17 years old can also have dramatic ef- portance of what happens on the ground, or high percentage of their income, they usually fects on the likelihood of her contracting the incentives or social pressures that make end up sending only their oldest son to school. hiv/aids. Thus education is vital to wo- teachers or students show up for school. It’s If you want to discourage poor people from men’s empowerment in developing coun- simply to say that this is where we are, and to sending their kids–especially their two tries and within their family structures. ask what our role is in ful½lling some of the youngest daughters–to school, then charge human rights charters that we’ve signed. a fee per child. Eliminating fees has indis- People may not grasp the crises of poor edu- When I think of a global compact, I don’t putably had a dramatic impact. When Kenya cation in developing nations because they mean a compact in a simplistic sense. I mean eliminated fees, it went in one year from hav- may never turn on cnn and see someone it in a dynamic sense. What incentives can ing 5.9 million to 7.2 million children in dying from a lack of education. But make no we provide to empower education reformers school. In Uganda, the number went from mistake about it: when you look at the effect and champions in developing nations, and 3.4 million to 6.5 million, and in Tanzania, of education on family structure, health, in- what must they establish to win the con½dence from 1.5 to 3 million. fant mortality, and maternal mortality, there of donor partners to step up to the plate? is no question that every day thousands of We also have to consider the indirect costs children die from a lack of education. Let me discuss ½ve points we need to under- of education. Michael did a study on school stand to reach universal primary education, uniforms, transportation fees, and commut- or the even more ambitious goal of universal ing hours. These are all examples of indirect

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 19 Academy Meetings costs, which also discourage parents from attend school, I don’t think my idea would In contrast, the Gordon Brown approach is sending their children to school. go very far. So for moral as well as other rea- not just to give $1.5 billion to a developing sons, the idea of improving quality by slow- country next year, which is a huge jump in Finally, we have to take into account oppor- ing the matriculation of children into school funding for a G8 country. His message has tunity costs. Parents who must weigh the op- should not even be on the table. been that if a developing nation provides a portunity costs of educating their children ten-year plan, we should try to assure that On the topic of development assistance, over are not simply those who rely on the income country that the money will be there over the the last four or ½ve years, I have seen educa- their children receive from working for some- long haul, so that it can plan a scaling-up of tion ministers lay out their “education for body else. In situations of extreme poverty, teachers, textbooks, and other factors that all” plans. Yet, since ½nance ministers have children often help their families directly by affect quality without fearing that the sup- not seen proof that donor nations will provide gathering water or wood and taking care of port will suddenly come up dry. There are signi½cant long-term and predictable fund- young children. many problems in implementation, but the ing, they are usually unwilling to approve basic understanding is that with teachers In Brazil, Bolsa Escola, now called Bolsa Fa- plans to do what they often most need: hire comprising 75 percent of the cost of education milia, conditions their version of the earned new teachers. Why? They use the money for virtually everywhere, and with that being an income tax credit on sending one’s kids to building schools or other one-time costs, but ongoing cost, you cannot expect to get this school and the kids having 90 percent atten- what they do not do–take Kenya, for exam- other half of kids into school unless you have dance. Policies and programs like Bolsa Fa- ple–is hire the teachers they need to keep milia’s, which align incentives for the parent a plan that gives ½nance ministers the con½- with what is best for the child, have proven dence that they can have the funding going successful–even in the face of cultural or re- It is clear that education is forward. Rwanda’s minister of education ligious barriers. Let me be anecdotal here. I once told me, “We have an expression for it. have spoken to many people in the ½eld who good for children and for We call it ‘aid shock.’ I will never use devel- say, “The religious leaders in this community opment assistance money for teachers be- were against sending the girls to school, but countries. What is at times cause if it runs out they’ll be outside my win- when we built the school there, when we dow throwing rocks. They won’t be outside less clear is whether sending usaid built a well nearby, when it was easier to edu- the World Bank’s or ’s windows.” cate their children, when the costs of doing a child to school is perceived A third issue is how to build mutual trust if it decreased, the resistance tended to fade.” as good for the parents. you have this compact. I already described When you reduce the cost in the cost-bene½t the trust we need to build from the develop- analysis, parents will often choose what’s ing country’s perspective–the trust that the best for their child’s future. class sizes from exploding because they do resources will be there in a signi½cant and Second, how do we avoid trade-offs between not trust that the money will last long enough long enough way to expand educational ac- access and quality? Uganda is everybody’s to bear the recurrent costs of their salaries. cess. But there’s something else. Everybody favorite success and failure story. It attained This is a huge issue in the ½nancing of quality in this room will tell you that really high- tremendous success in getting kids into basic education. As one who had to work on quality universal preschool in the United school, but it failed a bit on the quality side. eight U.S. budgets, I understand their concern: States has high rewards. There’s very little What you see in many places is that as kids you are not supposed to try to pay for a recur- dispute that if we spent enough money and come to school, class sizes explode and rent cost like salaries with a one-time sale. I did it right, it would work. Yet we don’t even teacher-student ratios go up dramatically. can’t tell you how many times somebody in come close to doing it. Meanwhile, every I visited a school in Tanzania with 140 kids one of our departments, a cabinet member, year, mysteriously, there’s enough money for for one teacher. I’ve been in a school in Ethio- has called me and said, “I have a great idea. the transportation budget. There’s enough pia with 170 kids for one teacher. In the Tan- We can do the spectrum sale and use the money for that extra project for a member of zanian class that I saw, all but 10 or 15 students money to fund Head Start.” I always reply: Congress to name. The point is, in the Unit- were sitting on the floor. “You know that money for Head Start has to ed States, a rich country, people focus much go on forever, whereas you can only sell that more on things they can do immediately and Now, many people would propose solving park or asset once.” That’s the situation a lot get immediate credit for, such as creating this problem by not scaling up as fast. In oth- of developing countries confront. If you were jobs or naming that bridge. er words, don’t try to accomplish these am- to ask the minister of education from Kenya When you go to a developing country and say bitious goals. I always feel that people would why they don’t even try to penetrate their the goals for your presidency, for your moment only recommend that solution for children most nomadic region, where only 17 to 18 in history, should be to try to get all your 5- they don’t love or see every day. If I told the percent of the kids are in school, he would year-olds in school, you are asking that leader superintendent of the Washington, D.C., tell you that by the time he ½gured out a way to do something that is going to help the econ- schools that I have an excellent idea for how to give teachers an incentive to move there omy of his successor, and his successor’s suc- to improve the quality of education for 60 and then trained them, the three-year World cessor, and so on. When heads of state de- percent of the children in the schools as long Bank funding cycle would be up. as we deny the other 40 percent the ability to cide that they want to make their legacy uni-

20 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 versal primary education, the one thing the ductive. I say this based on conversations I rest of the world should not do is make them The best way for the United have had repeatedly. In Bahrain, three women look like they stepped up to the plate and no States to win hearts and who sought to improve science education one supported them. If that happens, then there said they were reluctant to take any other nations’ presidential advisors are go- minds anywhere is to be kind of assistance from the United States be- ing to tell the next president not to try to ac- cause people have now started to ask whether complish universal education: “Don’t do it. the world leader that seeks they are tools of the U.S. government. When Look what happened. Everybody was excited I was asked to speak at the U.S. Muslim Con- for two years. The development assistance to get all children into school ference on Universal Education, the number flowed; it raised expectations; and now peo- everywhere. one comment I heard was, “You never cared ple aren’t happy.” about our kids before 9/11, why do you care about them now?” From a donor nation’s perspective, the most In nations affected by conflict, we need to important issue for establishing mutual trust build trust that funds will not be wasted or Here is my bottom line: If you want to win is the assurance that the dollars are going to diverted to war or used to promote ethnic hearts and minds, you don’t do that by show- the right place, that the money won’t go to tension. We must reduce the trust gap. We ing people that you care about their children teachers who don’t show up or to cronies. have to try to distribute aid in a way that em- only to the extent that they don’t grow up to From the donor country’s perspective, a de- powers the state the most, but if you have a blow up your children. If you want to show veloping country has to understand that ac- Taliban situation and you have to go through people that you care about their children, the countability and transparency matter. Kenya ngos, then you do the best you can and ½gure simple answer is that you should care about worked out an agreement with dfid, in out a plan to reinstate the state’s authority their children regardless of where they live. which the money went directly to local banks. over time as the political situation improves. The best way for the United States to win Headmasters picked up the money by bring- Of 80 to 90 million kids not in school, 20 to hearts and minds anywhere is to be the world ing a voucher. That kind of creative measure 25 million are in places of conflict and in leader that seeks to get all children into school gives people the con½dence that the dollars refugee camps. These children have been everywhere. In other words, we need to show are, at least, going to where they are critically through the greatest hardship in the world, the world not a calculated foreign policy mind needed and designed to go. and education could make a dramatic differ- but a big U.S. heart. I believe that if people in ence in turning their lives around. a Muslim country saw that we were expend- In development assistance, we look at two ing the same effort in Rwanda or places that I’ll just mention the fourth point very briefly. models. One is the global compact: there are were not important to us strategically, they When you’re calculating the cost of univer- some governments that are making sure that would interpret the actions we take in their sal primary education, one view holds that their kids are in school, that there is a nation- country as more genuine. ally owned plan, and that donor countries ½guring out the cost of just ½ve or six years is are supporting them. This is the model be- enough. Even if you thought that was the The last sentence in my contribution to Edu- hind the Monterey Consensus, the Millenni- right goal, which I don’t, it is absolutely in- cating All Children is something President um Challenge account, and the Education sane to price out 100 percent completion of Clinton said when he was trying, in the ½nal Fast Track Initiative. sixth graders and not factor in the additional months of his administration, to achieve cost that a lot of those sixth graders will now peace in the Middle East. His team told him The other model, which David talked about, want to go to seventh, eighth, and ninth that the chances of peace looked pretty low, focuses on the rights of a child. We have to grades. That may seem obvious, but I have to which he responded, “Well, this is so im- acknowledge a basic tension here. Under the been to a place in Egypt where our govern- portant that there are really only two options. Millennium Challenge idea, you don’t give ment helped get 95 percent of rural girls One, we have to succeed, or two, we have to money to a country if you don’t trust its gov- through sixth grade only to neglect to pro- be caught trying.” So I honor this Academy ernment. You don’t give money if you don’t vide a dollar for them to go to seventh grade. project because I think that you’ve certainly believe there is a trustworthy compact. But if been caught trying. I believe it will make a Finally, I want to explain why this issue is now you believe that every child has a right to go real difference in the lives of a lot of poor receiving a little bit more attention in D.C.: to school, then why would you do less for a children who have many of the same aspira- people are starting to see a connection be- child who has the double or triple misfortune tions and dreams that our children do. to be in a poor developing country and to be tween education and the ½ght against global a refugee or to be internally displaced and liv- terror. There are certainly some fundamen- ing in a fragile state? If we’re really serious talists–not a huge number but some–that © 2007 by David E. Bloom, Michael R. Kremer, about the rights of children, we have to ½g- teach hate and terrorism and violence. Some and Gene B. Sperling, respectively. ure out how to get money to children in situ- of the children that attend those schools ations where either we do not trust the gov- would not go if they had a better alternative. ernment, as in Zimbabwe, or we think the But the notion that the right way to do this is leader is wonderful but we question his ca- to have a targeted Muslim education initia- pacity, as in Liberia. tive from the United States is counterpro-

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 21 Academy Meetings

Visiting Scholars Taylor Fravel, Anthony Mora, and Anne Stiles Francis Bator (Harvard University) and Louis W. Cabot (Cabot-Wellington, LLC)

Henry Rosovsky (Harvard University) and Rose Frisch (Harvard University) Bruno Coppi (MIT), Laszlo Tisza (MIT), and Academy President Emilio Bizzi (MIT)

Robert A. LeVine (Harvard University) and Howard Gardner (Harvard University)

22 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 Academy Meetings A Poetry Reading by Galway Kinnell

Introduction by Rosanna Warren

This presentation was given at the 1913th Stated Meeting of the Academy and Joint Meeting with the Boston Athenaeum, held at the House of the Academy in Cambridge on March 27, 2007. Two of the poems that Galway Kinnell read that evening are reprinted below.

Kinnell has never shied away from the sub- For subtlety, for economy of means, for a lime, or the elemental. In his earlier days his sublimity by implication, listen to this three- ambition took an almost psalmodic form: line poem from The Past, all torqued on its “. . . the oath broken, syntax, which is a form of knowledge in ac- the oath sworn between earth and water, tion, a kind of Lord’s Prayer: flesh and spirit, broken, “Prayer” to be sworn again, “Whatever happens. Whatever over and over, in the clouds, and to be what is is is what broken again, I want. Only that. But that.” over and over, on earth.” (“Under the Maud Moon,” The Book of Kinnell is now an artist so fully a master of Nightmares, 1971). his means, he can reinvent the sublime, in large or small format, in basso profondo or

Photo by Mike Minehan He inhabited animals as a shaman–the bear, in a whisper. Watch him do it here, in “Oat- famously; the sow; the gray heron; he pried meal,” from the book When One Has Lived a Rosanna Warren into birth, into dying, grandly, kabbalistical- Long Time Alone (1990): ly: “I thought suddenly / I could read the “Maybe there is no sublime; only the shining cosmos spelling itself.” Rosanna Warren is Emma MacLachlan Metcalf of the amnion’s tatters.” (“The Hen Flower,” The Book of Nightmares). Professor in the Humanities at Boston University. His new book, Strong Is Your Hold, is a triumph She has been a Fellow of the American Academy And as a side effect of this visionary exuber- of unflinching matter of fact, the erotic, the since 1997. ance, Kinnell’s Selected Poems won both the mortal, the generous, in which spit and spirit Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award Introduction mingle as they did in the book of Genesis and in 1982, compounded by a MacArthur Fellow- as they do again in Kinnell the snake shaman ship and his Erich Maria Remarque Professor- who inadvertently burns a snake in a brush- You can see a portrait of Galway Kinnell in ship at nyu. But prizes are by the by. He has ½re and pulls it out, “. . . a small blackened his poem “The Past”: always been out for the big prize, the prize of snake, the rear half / burnt away, the forepart “A chair under one arm, vision, which humbles us over and over. alive . . . .” This unbearable, important poem a desktop under the other, brings life out of death, brings live words out the same Smith-Corona What began happening in his next book, The of a language sleeping if not dead, and pro- on my back I even now batter Past, in 1985, is a tougher story, the story where vides us with an ars poetica for this poet seer words into visibility with . . .” art compresses itself, endangers itself in new ways, exposes itself to greater psychic risk, and of the real. Battering words into visibility: that is what ½nds new form and tone in that risk. Here is he has been doing now through eleven books another self-portrait from that period: © 2007 by Rosanna Warren of poems. Did you think you knew the Eng- “What about the man splitting wood in the lish language? Think again. Some of the daybreak, words Kinnell batters into sight are not even oed who looked strong? That was years ago. That in the –or if they are, only under “ob- was me.” solete,” or “origin unknown.” Like shinicle, (“The Man Splitting Wood in the Daybreak,” clart, hirple, drouk, scummage, and dunch, The Past). all from just two poems in the blazing new book, Strong Is Your Hold.

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 23 Academy Meetings

“The Room”

The door closes on pain and confusion. The candle flame wavers from side to side as though trying to break itself in half to color the shadows too with living light. The andante movement plays over and over its many triplets, like farm dogs yapping at a melody made of the stylized grati½cation-cries of cocks. I will not stay long. Nothing in experience led me to imagine having. Having is destroying, said my version of the vow of impoverishment. But here, in this brief, waxen light, I have, and nothing is destroyed. The flute that guttered those owl’s notes into the waste hours of childhood joins with the piano

Photo by Bobbie Kinnell and they play, Being is having. Having may be nothing but the grace of the shell Galway Kinnell moving without hesitation, with lively pride, down the stubborn river of woe. At the far end, Galway Kinnell, a Fellow of the American Academy since 1997, has been a door no one dares open begins opening. a MacArthur Fellow and the state poet of Vermont. For many years he was To go through it will awaken such regret the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Creative Writing at New York as only closing it behind can obliterate. University. He is currently a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. The candle flame’s staggering makes the room wobble and shift – matter itself, laughing. Reading I can’t come back. I won’t change. I have the usual capacity for wanting “Everyone Was in Love” what may not exist. Don’t worry. One day, when they were little, Maud and Fergus That is the dew wetting my face. appeared in the doorway naked and mirthful, You see? Nothing that enters the room with a dozen long garter snakes draped over can have only its own meaning ever again. each of them like brand-new clothes. Snake tails dangled down their backs, Reprinted by permission of Galway Kinnell. The poem appears in and snake foreparts in various lengths When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone, published by Alfred A. Knopf. fell over their fronts. With heads raised and swaying, © 1990 by Galway Kinnell. alert as cobras, the snakes writhed their dry skins upon each other, as snakes like doing in lovemaking, with the added novelty this time of caressing soft, smooth, moist human skin. Maud and Fergus were deliciously pleased with themselves. The snakes seemed to be tickled, too. We were enchanted. Everyone was in love. Then Maud drew down off Fergus’s shoulder, as off a tie rack, a peculiarly lumpy snake and told me to look inside. Inside the double-hinged jaw, a frog’s green webbed hind feet were being drawn, like a diver’s, very slowly as if into deepest waters. Perhaps thinking I might be considering rescue, Maud said, “Don’t. Frog is already elsewhere.”

Reprinted by permission of Galway Kinnell. The poem appears in Strong Is Your Hold, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. © 2006 by Galway Kinnell.

24 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 Academy Meetings An Evening of Chamber Music

Members and guests were treated to an Evening of Chamber Music at the Academy’s 226th Annual Meeting and 1914th Stated Meeting, held on May 9, 2007, at the House in Cambridge. The Arron Chamber Ensemble performed works by Fellows John Corigliano and William Bolcom as well as pieces by Pleyel and Brahms.

Musical Program

Pleyel: Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello Opus 10 No 2 I. Allegro II. Rondo, Allegretto

John Corigliano: Fancy on a Bach Air for Solo Cello (1996)

William Bolcom: Graceful Ghost Rag for Solo Piano (1970)

Brahms: Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello in g minor Opus 25 I. Allegro II. Intermezzo, Allegro ma non troppo III. Andante con moto IV. Rondo alla Zingarese, Presto. Sharl Heller and Eric Heller (Harvard University)

Members of the Arron Chamber Ensemble: Abraham Appleman, violin; Jeewon Park, piano; Edward Arron, cello; and Ronald Arron, viola

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 25 ‘‘ length of time,you wouldthinkthatI length of in for about twenty-½veyears.Giventhat aproject thatIhaveing titleof beenengaged T The BlackProfessional Class elected totheAmericanAcademyin2006. atNorthwesternUniversity.History Shewas of African American StudiesandProfessor of Darlene ClarkHineisBoard ofTrustees Professor Darlene ClarkHine Students outsideUniversityHallontheNorthwesternEvanston campus 6Bulletin oftheAmerican AcademySummer 2007 26 Academy Meetings he BlackProfessional Class”isthework- of of Writing in1908, T. Thomas Fortune, editor ground thetwentiethcentury. atthedawn of andradicals sharedcommon conservatives sional menandwomen.”Onthispointblack itsownprofes-have anincreasingnumberof as largelysegregatedtheNegro ismust learning. Itis evidentthatarace branches of theprofessionsthe exclusion of andother Negro to education shouldbegiventoevery therace wouldadvocatethatindustrial of clared, “No oneunderstandingtherealneed agricultural andindustrialeducation,de- from hisinsistenceontheprimacyof parture ple. In1905,Washington, inanapparentde- trial andagricultural educationfor blackpeo- indus- primarily for hisstaunchadvocacyof Tuskegeeton, theheadof Institute,known I beginwithaquotefrom BookerT. Washing- to possibleresolutions. Iinviteyou toshareyourdrum. thoughtsas the end,butatmomentIaminaconun- have completeditbynow. Well, Iamnearing of racial redemption.” of deeming themtobe“vitalforces inthework call for moreprofessional menandwomen, The NewYork Age , echoedWashington’s Photo courtesy of Northwestern University coming issue of the coming issueof Medicine, alsospoke.Hisremarkswillappearinaforth- for theFeinberg MedicalAffairs, Schoolof andDeanof S. CutterProfessor Medicine,Vice President Irving of guests tothemeeting. Jameson, At thismeeting,J. Larry Academy Bienenand Northwestern UniversityPresidentHenry on theNorthwestern UniversitycampusonMay 7, 2007. This presentationwasgivenatanAcademy meetingheld University Fellows atNorthwestern Presentations byAcademy Darlene ClarkHineandBarbara Newman ceo Leslie Berlowitz welcomedFellows and Leslie Berlowitz Bulletin Bar Association(1925). (1909), andlawyers establishedtheNational Association for ColoredGraduate Nurses al sociation (1895),nurseslaunched theNation- physicians founded theNationalMedicalAs- were analogoustowhite-onlyorganizations: array blackprofessional of organizationsthat skills, theemergentgeneration founded an munities whiledevelopingandhoningtheir impoverishedandexploitedblackcom- serve andtobetter tion. Inordertoadvanceitself required tofacilitate professional reproduc- clinics, nursingschools,andlaw schools– stitutions–medical schools,hospitalsand ly andcollectivelytofound theessentialin- professionalsgeneration of actedindividual- cians, andlawyers. This½rst,oremergent, al menandwomen,speci½callynurses,physi- profession-Americans hadtocreateaclassof andprogress, African ties. Inordertosurvive to employmentandeducationalopportuni- equalaccess denial toAfricanAmericansof whiteseparatism andthelegal sequences of during theJimCrow era, Iexaminethecon- theBlackProfessionalIn thisstudyof Class . In order to survive and Many of the proprietary hospitals and schools ses, newspapers, drug stores, funeral homes, did not survive the economic devastation of and transportation services. They frequently progress, African Americans the Great Depression. While hospital beds mediated between the white and black com- for African Americans remained in short munities. This work within their respective had to create a class of pro- supply, the opportunities for medical educa- communities enhanced their social status, tion were limited to the two black medical and their economic autonomy freed them fessional men and women, schools: Howard University School of Medi- from dependence on white people. The black speci½cally nurses, physi- cine (founded in 1868) in Washington, D.C., professional class laid the ideological founda- and Meharry Medical School (founded in tion for racial solidarity and self-suf½ciency. 1876) in Nashville, Tennessee. None of the cians, and lawyers. Black professionals balanced precariously on white medical schools in the south accepted the thin line separating oppositional activism black students and most of the northern in- One of the preeminent physicians of the emer- that challenged the separate but unequal sys- stitutions restricted their admission. gent generation was Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, tem of racial apartheid and the militant em- Northwestern University’s ½rst black med- Several black medical schools, such as the brace of Black Nationalist thought–that is, ical graduate. In 1891, Dr. Williams founded Leonard Medical School at Shaw University advocacy of the creation and maintenance of Provident Hospital and Nursing Training in Raleigh, North Carolina, had become ca- a “nation within a nation.” While physicians School in Chicago–the ½rst black hospital sualties of the 1910 Flexner Report. Its author, and nurses focused attention on the medical operated solely by African Americans. In 1894, Abraham Flexner, had concluded that of the and health-care needs of black communities he went to Washington, D.C., to help estab- ten or so black medical schools founded in during the Great Depression decade and the lish a Hospital and Nursing Training School, the closing decades of the nineteenth century, resultant migrations of hundreds of thousands later af½liated with Howard University. By only “Meharry at Nashville and Howard at 1900, Dr. Williams–already renowned for his Washington are worth developing and until surgical skills–acquired a national reputa- considerably increased benefactors are avail- Black professionals helped tion as a forceful proponent of autonomous able, efforts will wisely concentrate upon black health-care and training facilities. He them.” He elaborated further: “The Negro to spur the establishment was a revered member of the National Med- needs good schools rather than many schools. ical Association. Its charter pledged that the of real estate businesses, nma Schools in which the more promising of the would “effect a strong organization race can be sent to receive a substantial edu- newspapers, drug stores, among Negro physicians, dentists and phar- cation in which hygiene rather than surgery macists . . . in order that they may have a for example is strongly accentuated.” White funeral homes, and trans- voice in matters of public health and medical philanthropic foundations, including the legislation in general, and in such matters as General Education Board and the Rosenwald portation services. may affect the Negro race in particular. . . .” Fund, heeded Flexner’s recommendations. It is this ½nal charge that upon ½rst reading Foundation support was essential to the sur- of dispossessed farm workers to urban areas, gave me pause: “. . . and to develop a pro- vival of Meharry and Howard. From 1919 to African American lawyers began a concerted, found race consciousness.” What is a “pro- the advent of the modern civil rights move- decades-long assault against the legal founda- found race consciousness?” ment, Howard and Meharry produced ap- tions of Jim Crow segregation and discrimi- A tireless lecturer, Williams enjoined black proximately 90 percent of all black physi- nation. Their efforts helped to shape the mod- communities to create their own hospitals cians in the country. ern civil rights movement. Indeed, in 1993, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Mar- and nursing training schools. He explained The second generation of black professionals shall insisted that “long before the Civil Rights why black institutions were necessary, declar- concentrated efforts on alleviating or ameli- Movement ever crystallized the plight of ing, “In view of the cruel ostracism, affecting orating the devastating social costs of educa- African-Americans, Negro lawyers had iden- so vitally the race, our duty seems plain. Insti- tional segregation, economic discrimination, ti½ed the inequities in the legal order and be- tute Hospitals and Training Schools. Let us and political disfranchisement that African gun to lay the foundation for social change.” no longer sit idly and inanely deploring exist- American communities collectively paid. In- ing conditions. Let us not waste time trying dividual professionals provided leadership in Black lawyers inhabited a different profes- to effect changes or modi½cations in the in- the community-building process that includ- sional universe. Those able to become ap- stitutions unfriendly to us, but rather let us ed their service as of½cers of improvement prentices by either reading or working in the seek to promote the doctrine of helping and associations and mutual aid societies. They law of½ces of a practicing attorney or secur- stimulating our race.” By 1912, there were 63 also helped by raising funds and investing ing admission into law schools were allowed black hospitals. By 1920, the number had their own resources in community centers to practice in the court system. Actually, most doubled to 118. By 1929, there were 300 black and schools. Black professionals helped to black lawyers had to augment their work with hospitals and nursing training schools. spur the establishment of real estate busines- other jobs if they were to secure enough mon-

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 27 Academy Meetings ey to make a living by practicing law. By 1910, Professional black men and sicians in this country. Is this the model we there were approximately 700 black lawyers– should revisit and embrace–that is, the es- only a dozen of whom were women. By the women, working through tablishment of an array of black professional 1940s, the number of black lawyers had more schools as the answer to the dire need for sig- than doubled to approximately 1,700. There medicine, law, and nursing, ni½cantly more black nurses, physicians, and were approximately 3,500 black physicians lawyers? What are the lessons to be derived and 7,000 black nurses attending to a black essentially, helped to lay a from this study of the history of the black population of over 11 million. foundation for the modern professional class? Did integration as social policy fail? Is a variant of nationalism, in the Clearly, I am talking about a very small num- sense of Black Nationalism creating au- ber of professionals. Many of the prominent civil rights movement. tonomous separate institutions, still a viable black lawyers who would become engaged in ideology and strategy for acquiring parity social justice and civil rights struggles, in as- were unconstitutional. The fourth was the and facilitating greater entry into main- sociation with the National Association for 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. The stream American society? It is hard to know the Advancement of Colored People, were, civil rights lawyers worked together on these where to come down on these questions. I ironically, educated at elite white institutions cases. Indeed, Brown was a composite of re- anticipate that readers of my book, whenev- in the north. Charles Hamilton Houston and gional cases. That was the legal triumph. er it is published, will think about new ways William H. Hastie were both graduates of As far as physicians were concerned, their to improve training and expand professional Harvard Law School; James A. Nabrit, a future major triumph occurred during World War educational opportunities for African Ameri- president of Howard University, was a gradu- II, when, collectively, the nurses and the doc- cans by evaluating the methods that worked ate of Northwestern University Law School. tors mobilized to force the desegregation of most effectively during the era of Jim Crow These men spearheaded the revitalization the Medical Corps and laid the foundation when black survival and progress depended and transformation of Howard University for Harry S. Truman’s Executive Order that on Howard and Meharry and other black in- Law School during the 1930s, and they were would desegregate the United States military. stitutions that produced the black profession- responsible for training a special cadre of civil These professional black men and women, al class. We need to reason together. rights lawyers, of which Thurgood Marshall working through medicine, law, and nursing, would become the most renowned and rep- essentially, helped to lay a foundation for the resentative. modern civil rights movement. The black professional class Let me conclude by saying something about the conundrum that I ½nd myself in. A mem- laid the ideological founda- ber of the ½rst President Bush cabinet, Louis W. Sullivan served as Secretary of Health and tion for racial solidarity Human Services. From 1970–1975 he was Dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine. and self-suf½ciency. In 1985, the school became a four-year, fully accredited medical school. Dr. Sullivan con- Beginning in 1938, black physicians, nurses, ½ded that he worked to establish this school and lawyers entered the last premodern civil because “The idea of starting a medical school rights movement phase, one of class consoli- to increase the number of black physicians dation. naacp lawyers Charles H. Houston, not only in Georgia but elsewhere in Ameri- William H. Hastie, and Thurgood Marshall, Barbara Newman ca” was something that intrigued him. The along with members of the National Bar As- establishment of the school makes me won- sociation and faculty at Howard Law School, Barbara Newman is Professor of English, Religion der how far have we progressed in terms of masterminded the legal assault against Jim and Classics and John Evans Professor of Latin making opportunities available to all Ameri- Crow segregation and discrimination. Black Language and Literature at Northwestern University. cans on a fair and judicious basis if in 1985 lawyers won four important United States She was elected to the American Academy in 2005. Dr. Sullivan–one of the preeminent black Supreme Court cases. One was the 1938 Gaines physicians of our generation– successfully decision, which essentially set in motion the Frauenlob’s Song of Songs: creates a new black medical school. process of desegregating professional schools. Translating a Medieval A second was the 1944 Smith v. Allwright Su- To be sure, Morehouse School of Medicine is Performance preme Court decision, which declared the not a Jim Crow school. But it makes me ask Democratic white primary unconstitutional whether the predominantly white medical and opened up the arena for African Ameri- schools have failed to recruit and train black For a period of three or four years beginning cans to retrieve the right to vote. The third physicians in the past half century. There are around 2001, I found myself spending my was the 1948 Supreme Court ruling that hous- now four black medical schools, and they have leisure time in a rather unexpected way. To ing discrimination or restrictive covenants the great responsibility for training black phy- divert myself from stacks of ungraded papers

28 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 and to pass the long hours of insomniac nights ings to the sepulchre with loud lamentation Frauenlob traveled through and transatlantic flights, I took to singing duets and great mourning, on account of the in½nite with a poet who had been dead for seven hun- praises that he heaped on the whole feminine the courts of northern and dred years. This is the way I see the art of verse sex in his poems. Moreover, such copious liba- translation, for unlike prose, a poetic transla- tions of wine were poured on his tomb that it central Europe, composing tion can never attain transparency. In other overflowed through the whole cloister of the words, the translator’s voice cannot modest- church. He composed the Cantica canticorum and performing topical po- ly lose itself within the author’s, to be cited [or Song of Songs] in German, known in the ems, religious verse, and the only by unusually scrupulous bibliographers. vernacular as Unser Frowen laich, and many No, the art of verse is at once so playful, so other good things.” occasional love song. demanding, and so irreducibly personal that Frauenlob is the most famous of a neglected the best one can hope for is a duet of compat- group of poets who ½ll a key place in medieval ible voices. In the brief time that we have to- welcomed by all social strata, such perform- German literature. Traditionally called Spruch- day, I’d like to tell you why I decided to trans- ers could be skilled information gatherers. dichter–an umbrella term for “lyric poets late the German minstrel Frauenlob, and let Finally, at important festivals such as knight- who were not minnesingers”– these itiner- you hear a little of both the translation and ings, weddings, and coronations, a seasoned ant artists composed and performed songs the original. Frauenlob’s long poem, known entertainer would be given the role of “min- on a wide variety of subjects: religious, polit- as the “Song of Songs,” is not just a text but a strel king,” responsible for devising ensem- ical, and moral. Unlike minnesingers or love complex musical piece, its melody composed ble performances and serving as master of poets, who were for the most part noble am- by the minstrel himself. ceremonies. ateurs, the Spruchdichter were professional traveling minstrels, usually of bourgeois ori- It may be in such a role that Frauenlob appears I took to singing duets with a gin, who embraced the arts of poetry and in the illuminated Manesse codex from around poet who had been dead for song as a vocation rather than as a polite ac- 1340. Or perhaps his author portrait shows complishment. Since they made their living him at the “singing school” he is said to have seven hundred years. by their art, contemporaries called them sing- founded in the town of Mainz. In either case, ers who “took guot for êre,” that is, received the artist depicts Frauenlob presiding from a A contemporary of Meister Eckhart and payment in money and in kind for the praise lofty chair at an outdoor music lesson or per- Dante, Frauenlob enjoyed a public career of their patrons. The willingness of nobles to formance. Over his striped tunic he wears a spanning four decades. Admired equally for support such traveling artists shows how high- cloak of ermine and a coronet trimmed with his gifts as musician and poet, he became the ly they valued them for both the prestige and the same fur, usually reserved for high nobil- acknowledged master of the so-called geblümter the entertainment they could offer. ity but here representing the gift of a particu- Stil or “flowery style.” Like other performers larly lavish patron. With his right hand raised Unlike such court poets as Geoffrey Chaucer, of his age or, for that matter, like rappers to- in a stylized teaching gesture, the singer-poet Frauenlob and his German contemporaries day, he adopted a stage name. Born Heinrich holds in his left hand what looks–anachro- could not expect stable long-term patronage, von Meissen, our minstrel chose a sobriquet nistically–like a conductor’s baton. On a car- but moved frequently, settling for a time at that can mean either “praise of ladies” (as in pet below, stretched out by a piper on the right any court where they found a warm welcome courtly love) or “praise of Our Lady” (mean- and a drummer on the left, a ½ddler performs and a solvent prince. This itinerant lifestyle ing the Virgin Mary). The ambiguity is in- while other musicians listen, holding a vari- was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it tended. From the mid-1270s until his death ety of instruments including flute, psaltery, rendered poet-singers marginal and highly in 1318, Frauenlob traveled through the courts and shawm. The meister’s identity is con½rmed suspect to the arbiters of morality. Like go- of northern and central Europe, composing by a symbolic coat of arms representing his liards or wandering students, they traveled and performing topical poems, religious verse, Lady, the crowned Virgin, who extends her too much to be trusted, for they seldom stayed and the occasional love song for patrons rang- mantle over his shield in a gesture of protec- in one place long enough to become perma- ing from the kings of Bohemia and Denmark tion and favor. The poem I have translated nent members of parishes, households, or to the archbishops of Bremen and Mainz. was probably meant for the kind of lavish other stabilizing institutions. If accused of By the time of his death, he was a highly musical performance illustrated in the Man- any crime, they lacked family connections acclaimed and much imitated though con- esse miniature. and long-term acquaintances to vouch for troversial ½gure, whose talents and connec- them. On the other hand, the minstrel’s Celebrated during his lifetime and for cen- tions merited the privilege of burial in Mainz wandering ways enhanced his value to his turies afterward, Frauenlob’s fame suffered a Cathedral. According to the chronicler Al- patrons. Court records and account books rapid eclipse around 1700. Although a few of brecht von Strassburg, “on the vigil of St. show that, when they were not performing, the Romantics appreciated him, most mod- Andrew in the year 1318, Heinrich, called poet-minstrels ½lled a variety of useful and ern critics had little use for his hermetic and Frauenlob, was buried in Mainz, in the cathe- remunerative roles as messengers, heralds, immensely learned poems, which in their dral cloister near the school, with exception- watchmen, interpreters, and spies. Well- view savored too much of the intellect and al honors. Women carried him from his lodg- traveled, versed in a range of dialects, and too little of the heart. Protestants tended to

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 29 Academy Meetings

½nd his fervent Marian piety blasphemous, Frauenlob’s hallmark is the you knew his greeting, and rationalist scholars even questioned his you felt his touch. How much, sanity. In 1913, the ½rst editor of his Song of unique blend of learning, fair maid, did you dally? Songs, Ludwig Pfannmüller, lavished tremen- We do not envy the wine of bliss dous erudition on Frauenlob’s text, but he Biblical allusion, dense word- you drank there with sweet, sweet milk. was hardly an admirer of the poet. In fact, he I know well his own tongue should tell you devoted much of his introduction to diagnos- play, and lush sensuality. . . . the toll— ing “inadequacies of the style and the man,” why the watchmen took whom he branded a Strudelkopf (“noodle- The Song of Songs takes the form of a vision- your cloak, head”). Thus ill-served by his editor, Frauen- ary dialogue between the poet-speaker and a asking what do you seek, lob continued to languish in obscurity until Lady who is conventionally identi½ed as the fair maid, so late 1972, when Karl Stackmann paved the way for Virgin Mary. But she is also much more–not in these alleys? “Never cease, a new critical edition with an essay arguing only the mother of Jesus but also a celestial we must seize the radical thesis that Frauenlob’s poems goddess, the eternal partner of the Trinity, the beloved!” Deep in your wounds were, and were meant to be, comprehensible: identical with divine Wisdom as well as the he’s branded his threefold mark. neither the ravings of a madman, nor empty goddess of Love, Frau Minne–a kind of Chris- rhetoric composed merely “to please the ear tianized Venus. In celebrating this composite Strophe 9 and intoxicate the senses,” nor oracles whose ½gure, “Frauenlob” fully earns his sobriquet. interpretive key is lost beyond recovery. His hallmark is the unique blend of learning, I am the great and chosen Lady, Having begun my career by studying Hilde- Biblical allusion, dense wordplay, and lush my will is ripe, my desire is mighty. gard of Bingen–another quirky, brilliant, sensuality he offers as homage to his Lady For fervent love I must unbar esoteric poet-composer in the same religious and places in her mouth. I will end by citing the lattice of my cloister door— tradition, but a century and a half earlier–I three strophes of the poem, the ½rst two in my love all passionate drew near. recognized a kindred spirit in Frauenlob. the seer’s voice, the third in the Lady’s. His hand caressed me, wet with dew— O taste of honey through and through! Strophe 3 I ate the comb The Lady is not only the and drank the foam Fertile maid and favored lady, then came back home. mother of Jesus but also a ce- your meadow wet with heaven’s dew My God, such bliss! flowers in resplendent show. What’s the harm in this? lestial goddess, the eternal Hear the turtledoves singing their song, partner of the Trinity. loud-ringing, I the weasel bore the ermine a song of longing that bit the snake. With morning dew for sweet May’s treasure. I split the hard rock of the curse. Drawn to the intricate beauty of his verse as Winter’s ordeal is over: My divining rod, unforked, well as the challenge of his thought, I juggled your vineyards blossom crushed the heads of hell’s black vermin. rhyme schemes and prowled through Middle with fruit so wholesome. When the palm tree of the Cross High German dictionaries in my off-hours saw me, it reddened without dye. until I had a passable translation of twenty Your beloved calls from the vineyard, from Speak, wise Adam, noble friend, double strophes in just over ½ve hundred lines. the garden and tell how I But whatever was I going to do with them? where hallowed grapes ripen: have come to end Much to my consternation, I realized that I “Come, love, come!” He is waiting your ancient blight— would have to write a whole book about on the mountain of myrrh where lions stalk. I the Maid, by a mother’s right. Frauenlob to accompany the translation, Your way cannot err since the sum total of Anglophone scholar- should he wish to talk ship on my author amounted to less than among roses. Listen with love Translations from Barbara Newman, ½fteen pages. Happily, though, my book pro- most tender, daughter, Frauenlob’s Song of Songs: A Medieval Poet vided an occasion for the North American mother, maid, you must go! and His Masterpiece (Penn State University release of a cd by the premier early music Press, 2007). ensemble, Sequentia, which had recorded Strophe 4 Frauenlob’s masterpiece some years earlier. © 2007 by Darlene Clark Hine and Barbara Tell no lie, never try to deny: I hope that the Gesamtwerk will now make Newman, respectively. this hitherto obscure but magni½cent poet you alone were meeting not only available to scholars, but teachable with the king in the classroom, whether of medieval litera- in his cellar— ture, religion, or early music.

30 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 J. Larry Jameson, David Austen-Smith, Lauren Pachman, Robert Porter, and Mark A. Satterthwaite (all, Northwestern University)

Xenia Semenova and Yuri I. Manin (Northwestern University) Former Visiting Scholar Jay Gross- man (Northwestern University)

Northwestern University President Henry Bienen and Robert A. Lamb (Northwestern University)

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 31 Academy Meetings Gathering at the University of Michigan

Academy Fellow Bernard Agranoff organized a meeting and re- ception on the University of Michigan campus on May 14, 2007. Recently elected Fellows of the Academy were recognized, and Teresa A. Sullivan, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, led a discussion about “Debt as Metaphor.” An authority on consumer debt, she explored the history of per- sonal bankruptcy, noting the important role it played in the lives of immigrants in nineteenth-century America. She also considered the effect of debt, or potential debt, on the educa- tional plans of many segments of the U.S. population today.

Fellows Arlene Saxonhouse and Joseph Vining (both, University of Michigan)

University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman (far left) with recently elected Academy Fellows from the University: Robert L. Greiss, Jr., Judith Temkin Irvine, Richard Charles Murray Janko, Robert K. Lazarsfeld, Rosina Bierbaum, Rowena Green Matthews, Arthur Lupia, and David Ginsburg, with speaker Teresa Sullivan and Academy host Bernard W. Agranoff

32 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 Academy Meetings Stem Cells: Politics and Promise Irving L. Weissman Introduction by John L. Hennessy

This presentation was given at the 1911th Stated Meeting, held at Stanford University on February 26, 2007. Stanford University President John Hennessy and Academy ceo Leslie Berlowitz welcomed over one hundred Fellows and guests to the meeting.

Microphotograph of an early mouse embryo derived from 4 different colored embryonic stem cells (green, blue, red, and uncolored). The colored cells came from injected mouse embryonic stem cells, while the uncolored cells came from the mouse blastocyst (pre-embryo) into which the colored cells were injected. One can see the earliest stages of formation of the primitive cell layers that will later form tissues and organs. Above the embryo proper (bottom portion of the image) are a few colored cells migrating into an uncolored tissue. The migrating cells include the first blood-forming stem cells and also blood vessel–forming stem cells; they will make blood islands in the yolk sac. Photo and experiments by Hiroo Ueno and Irv Weissman.

disciplinary discussion than stem cell research ing stem cells; the following year, he report- –a subject that involves issues not only in ed the results in Science, informing research- science but also in ethics and politics. Stan- ers of this highly signi½cant breakthrough. ford University is committed to being a leader In 2002, he was named California Scientist of in stem cell research. Our speaker today, Irv the Year. He has received numerous honors: Weissman, and his colleague Paul Berg have our own Linus Pauling Medal for Outstand- convinced me of the importance of this re- ing Contributions to Science, the Alan Cran- search, and I ½rmly believe that universities ston Award from the Alliance for Aging Re- should take a stand and support work in this search, the Medal for Distinguished Contri- area. butions to Biomedical Research from the Irv, of course, has been a pioneer in the study New York Academy of Science, and the Bass of stem cell biology and cancer research. He Award from the Society of Neurological Sur- came to us from the remote and underrepre- geons. He also holds numerous memberships John L. Hennessy sented state of Montana. As a boy, Irv became in key academies. interested in science by reading about the John L. Hennessy is President of Stanford University. work of Ehrlich and Pasteur in Paul De Kruif’s Irv has several appointments at Stanford. He He was elected to the American Academy in 1995. Microbe Hunters. From an early age, he knew is professor of pathology and of developmen- that science was something he wanted to do. tal biology, but by courtesy he is also in the Introduction In high school he began working in a lab, and neurosurgery and biological sciences depart- as an undergraduate at Montana State Uni- ments. The Weissman laboratory has a group One of the remarkable characteristics of versity he began publishing. Irv has been at of researchers at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine the American Academy is its ability to reach Stanford since 1960, ½rst as a medical student Station in Paci½c Grove, and Irv has also across disciplinary boundaries, and there is and then as a member of the faculty. In 1987, managed to ½nd time to be an entrepreneur perhaps no topic more appropriate for a cross- he succeeded in isolating the ½rst blood-form- in two different companies.

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 33 Academy Meetings

Since 2003, Irv has also been serving in lead- If we gave blood-forming ership roles in the university. One of the re- markable things about him is his capacity to stem cells from a nondiabet- take on these administrative positions while continuing to spend considerable time in the ic parent or sibling mouse to lab pursuing basic science. Irv directs the In- stitute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenera- the mouse that was getting tive Medicine here at Stanford. He is also the diabetes, we could stop that Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Cen- ter and the Director of the Ludwig Center for reaction forever and cure Cancer Stem Cell Research and Medicine, a wonderful new institute that probes the fas- the disease. cinating interaction between cancer and stem cells. Irv has helped pilot this research Irving L. Weissman This discovery spurred scientists to try to lo- here and, equally importantly, has built an cate that cell rather than just be aware of its incredible faculty. existence. That’s where we came in, begin- Irving L. Weissman is Virginia and D. K. Ludwig ning in the early 1980s. We discovered a way Stem cell research is a critical topic not only Professor for Clinical Investigation in Cancer Re- to isolate these cells, a general approach that because it holds great potential for medicine search; Director of the Comprehensive Cancer allows one to isolate stem cells in the brain, but also because it has become so politicized. Center; Director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biol- in other tissues, and from cancers. These Of course, we live in a state that is far more ogy and Regenerative Medicine; and Director of blood-forming stem cells are rare cells, about progressive in its support than are many oth- the Ludwig Center for Cancer Stem Cell Research one in twenty thousand, in the bone marrow. er parts of the country. In 2004, California and Medicine at the Stanford University School of voters approved Proposition 71, authorizing Medicine. He has been a Fellow of the American In mice we found that we could isolate these $3 billion in bonds for stem cell research. But Academy since 1990. cells as a pure population of cells, free of all as you may know, repeated attempts to repeal other marrow cells, and that by transplanting it or delay it have largely stymied its imple- Presentation these cells we could save mice, even geneti- mentation. The ½rst grants were just made, cally unrelated mice, from radiation damage. and Stanford led California’s universities in I put the beginnings of stem cell research at Those stem cells regenerated the bone mar- receiving awards. the bombing of civilian populations in Hiro- row, the blood-forming organ, and replaced shima and Nagasaki. The people who perished themselves, all in a different host. So, for ex- Irv’s work–from the identi½cation of blood- ample, if both John and I were mice, and if forming stem cells in mice to debating the at the lowest lethal dose of radiation died about ½fteen days after their exposure. When my stem cells were growing in his body, they federal government’s position on embryonic would produce my blood-forming system and stem cell research and championing the Cali- experiments were done on mice and dogs to replicate that effect, the animals died because my immune system in him. We eventually fornia State Ballot Initiative–demonstrates ½gured out that the donor stem cells, grow- his vision and boldness. To quote one of his radiation destroyed their blood-forming sys- tems–a result that intrigued hematologists ing up in the host’s body, would tolerate the former students: “One thing you can say about host. The cells of the immune system would Irv is that he’s fearless. If it’s important, he and experimental biologists. At higher doses, the victims died much faster and the radiation not react against him because, as they grew wants to work on it.” Please join me in wel- up from the primitive cell, they would accept coming our colleague Irv Weissman. affected other body systems. So a communi- ty of scientists began to try to ½gure out why him as self. But because they came from me the bone marrow–the blood-forming organ genetically, they would express all of my –was destroyed at lower radiation levels. genes and tolerate me as self, too. One of the key experiments was done in 1961 So, in 1986, I did this experiment in which I in Toronto, where, indirectly, James Till and irradiated a mouse and transplanted our can- Ernest McCulloch showed that a certain type didate blood stem cells from another mouse. of cell likely existed in the bone marrow. When I actually did this experiment for the ½rst time this cell divided into two daughter cells, it in 1957 when I was in high school in Great gave rise to one cell just like itself–a stem Falls, Montana. I found that I could trans- cell–and another cell that started to form plant skin from the donor into the bone mar- blood. We now know that a single mouse row–transplanted host without any further blood-forming stem cell can end up making treatment, indicating that skin transplants over thirty thousand stem cells in the body. could be accepted. I went home and told my It does this for the life of the animal, after mom at lunch that in a matter of just three or which we can transfer a stem cell to another four years, people would be transplanting animal for its life, and so on. bone marrow and hearts and skin and lungs.

34 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 As we know, that kind of transplant is just That concept, tested at a company I cofound- be ½ned $1 million and sentenced to ten years barely getting started now. I learned a big les- ed in 1998 (StemCells, Inc.), involved trans- in jail for conducting this type of experiment. son in how long it takes to translate a discov- planting human brain stem cells into children We have used these brain stem cells to study ery into medicine. Now, hopefully, things with Batten disease, a genetic disease that is not only neurodegenerative diseases but also will go a lot faster, but then again, I was sure always fatal. The brains of children with this some cases of spinal-cord injury, like Christo- of my prediction in 1957 and my mom is still disease build up a toxic substance that they pher Reeve’s. In these cases, the cells that are waiting for it to happen. She’d actually like can’t degrade because they lack one enzyme located in the part of the body that’s crushed some bone-forming stem cells right now. and the one part of a gene that would make die from lack of blood supply. The cells in the that enzyme. Kids with Batten disease are At the time we were able to isolate those cells, brain, however, do not die nor do the cells normal until ages one to ½ve, when cells in I was working with a Stanford medical stu- below the crushed part, which send pain sig- the eye and the optic cortex build up a fatty dent, Judy Shizuru, who was interested in di- nals to the brain. But because the cells die in protein deposit that pops the cells and causes abetes. In the 1970s, Stanford’s Hugh McDe- the crushed area, people with these injuries them to die. This process continues in the vitt had shown that diabetes was neither a don’t have the cellular insulator (myelin) cerebellum, which governs balance and coor- disease of the pancreas nor a disease of in- that allows the quick electrical transmission dination. So the kids have what’s called cerebel- sulin-producing cells. It was a disease of the of pain or motor-control impulses. When lar ataxia. They start losing iq because the pro- immune system. The genetic predilection of Nobuko Uchida and Aileen Anderson put cess begins working on the part of the brain the diabetic mouse or diabetic human meant human brain stem cells just above and below that involves learning, namely, the hippo- that instead of censoring the kinds of immune that lesion in mice, they remyelinated the campus. Finally, they go into a coma and die. cells that would react against self, the system nerve cells in that area, which enabled the allowed them to escape, proliferate, and ma- animals to walk. ture. So juvenile diabetes, or Type One dia- The blood-forming stem During a Senate committee meeting, Senator betes, turned out to be an autoimmune dis- Brownback questioned the morality of using ease–a disease where the body destroys its cell experiment was a way such cells, and I asked him which of these own insulin-producing cells. Using the mouse diseases should not be worked on as hard as model of the disease, Judy and I went on to forward for us: we knew we can. His question demonstrated the dis- show that if we gave blood-forming stem cells that at least pancreatic tis- connect between M.D.s who pledge to give from a nondiabetic parent or sibling mouse our utmost to cure these diseases and people to the mouse that was getting diabetes, we sues could be regenerated who have different points of view. Of course, could stop that reaction forever and cure the everyone is allowed a point of view. A year disease. However, if we waited until the dia- from stem cells. ago, President Bush, in the State of the Union betes had killed off all of the insulin-produc- address, called this kind of transplantation ing cells, then we needed to give both blood- Brain stem cells isolated by Nobuko Uchida of human brain cells into a mouse’s brain the forming and insulin-producing stem cells that had been taken from a human and put most egregious kind of experiment a scien- from the donor. into the brain of an immunode½cient mouse tist could do. with this genetic mutation stopped the dis- That’s where we ran into dif½culty. We did ease in its tracks–by making the missing en- Now, the research we were doing on normal not have a lot of extra insulin-producing cells. zyme. The stem cells transport the enzyme blood-, brain-, lung-, and breast-cell devel- When it ½nally became known that there was out into the fluid that bathes the brain, where opment–all of these tissues that have stem a class of cells–embryonic stem cells–that the cells that are missing the enzyme take it cells to regenerate them–led us to think about could make any tissue in the body, we thought up and break down this potentially toxic what goes wrong when someone gets a can- we could ½nd such things as pancreatic pre- product. cer or a leukemia or a lymphoma. About sev- cursors, or pancreatic stem cells, which could en years ago, my colleague Mike Clarke, for- be grown from these very primitive embryon- I’m detailing this process because we were merly of Michigan and now at Stanford (with ic stem cells. These ideas led us to the kind of transplanting human brain cells into the Sean Morrison and Tannishta Reya), and I investigations that began to get us into trou- brains of mice. This excited a lot of people hypothesized that, in the development of a ble with the public, because we were working but not all in a good way. All sorts of images cancer, a couple of genetic changes take place with cells in a way that some people consid- from the book Metamorphosis come to mind, in a normal stem cell. Because the only cell in ered immoral. including the idea of a human brain stuck in a tissue that makes more of itself and stays at the body of a mouse. We accomplished the The blood-forming stem cell experiment was that stage of differentiation is the stem cell, engraftment of maybe 1 percent of the neu- a way forward for us: we knew that at least it’s the only cell that can accumulate the ge- rons and the supporting cells, with the other pancreatic tissues could be regenerated from netic and other changes that lead to cancer. greater than 99 percent of brain cells coming stem cells. Later, we went on to ½nd brain- So we proposed that cancers would be like from the mouse. Senator Sam Brownback in forming stem cells and to show that those normal tissues generated by their own can- Kansas introduced legislation to criminalize cells, unlike blood-forming cells, could actu- cer stem cells, each one speci½c to the cancer. this research. If it had passed, a scientist would ally be propagated outside of the body.

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 35 Academy Meetings

We have used these brain hundred ½fty cells that help implant it in the from mainly white, mainly well-to-do, and uterus and start to form the placenta. Inside always infertile people. So if we were going stem cells to study not only are twenty or so cells that eventually form the to learn something about development from embryo and then the fetus, but it has not yet those cells, we’d be learning from a limited neurodegenerative diseases been determined what tissue each of those source in our society. It is possible that those but also some cases of cells will make. It’s only after implantation cells could encompass the genes of all the that differentiation begins. diseases–sickle cell disease or Mediterranean anemia or other kinds of genetic disorders– spinal-cord injury. Before this political era, most of the embry- that we would like to understand and treat, ologists called the blastocyst after implanta- but it is unlikely. And that has turned out to be the case. We’ve tion an embryo, and the blastocyst before demonstrated it in human leukemias, in implantation a pre-embryo. Nevertheless, So it was with some excitement when several breast, brain, and head and neck cancers. it’s common parlance to call a blastocyst be- scientists, including Rudy Jaenisch at the Now we’re moving as fast as we can because fore implantation an embryo, and if I tried Whitehead Institute at mit and others in once we discovered that each of those cancers to say in Congress that it’s not an embryo, Hawaii and in Japan, found that, in mice, one self-renews–like a normal cell does, but out they’d say you’re just trying to fool us by could take a skin-cell nucleus–a cell that’s of control–it meant we could go after those changing the word. So we say what people determined to be skin–from one mouse and tiny, rare cells within a cancer and ask what commonly use. put it into an egg of another mouse, remov- went wrong. It doesn’t do any good to look at ing the chromosomes from that mouse egg The cells in the very middle of the blastocyst the daughter cells they make because the genes ½rst so that the only genetic information can be removed and cultured. Gail Martin at that the daughter cells express have nothing ucsf to do with the rare cancer stem cells. and Martin Evans in Wales did it ½rst in mice in the 1980s. Their work proved to be The research we were doing In a report just published in the New England extremely important for the study of mouse on normal blood-, brain-, Journal of Medicine, Clarke shows that by look- development and of genetic diseases–at least ing at a patient’s breast-cancer stem cells and the ones we could study in mice. In 1998, James lung-, and breast-cell devel- the genes they express, one can predict the Thompson at the University of Wisconsin patient’s outcome with high accuracy, regard- modi½ed the technique and did it for the ½rst opment . . . led us to think less of the therapy he or she gets. This predic- time with human cells–a very important tive capacity extends to lung and prostate can- technical advance. about what goes wrong when cer as well as some other cancers. We know that it happens in brain cancer, and (again Now we can have these cell lines growing to someone gets a cancer or a countering the Brownback Bill) we found very large numbers, starting with this undif- leukemia or a lymphoma. that human brain-cancer cells, glioblastomas ferentiated cell. The important thing to re- and medulloblastomas, are the only cells that member, though, is that these cells remain at transfer the disease from the human brain to that early stage of development. If you remove comes from the adult skin cell. In a low but the mouse brain. They require something in the factors that make them grow so rapidly, signi½cant fraction, the nucleus was repro- then they start turning on their own, willy- grammed back to the earlier time point, and that brain environment to keep them grow- rna ing. Because we can get those cells out and nilly, into different cell types of the body– it was the egg’s components and pro- look at the genes they express and at the ab- some blood cells, some teeth cells, some hair- tein components that did it. This is called normalities that occur, we think we can be- follicle cells that some of us could use. It’s so nucleus transfer pluripotent (several poten- gin to attack brain cancer. As an immunolo- important to study these kinds of cells be- cies) stem cells. cause they have the genetic instructions, gist, I believe we can ½nd new ways to diag- We don’t know yet how that process works, somehow, to make every known cell type in nose or treat it. I know this sounds like a lot but it meant that we could get an embryonic the body. Studying development, therefore, of hope and hype, but that’s where stem-cell stem cell line from a prede½ned donor mouse with human embryonic stem cells would be thinking is taking us. through that reprogramming process. Rudy straightforward. Earlier I mentioned a class of cells called em- did a terri½c experiment. He took skin cells Human embryonic stem cells come mainly bryonic stem cells. That’s actually a misnomer. from a mouse with a genetic immunode½cien- from in vitro fertilization clinics. The sperm The embryologists of the nineteenth century cy so that it had no immunity lymphocytes. and the egg are put together in a test tube, and most of the twentieth century didn’t la- He put the nucleus in and got out a cell line: it development occurs, and then a few blasto- bel a fertilized egg in the ½rst stages of devel- made brain cells, skin cells, hair cells, but it cysts–usually two or three at most–are put opment an “embryo.” After the egg pops out could not make the cells of the immune sys- in the mother. About eight to ten blastocysts of the ovary, a sperm fertilizes it. As it travels tem. So the genetics of the skin-cell donor read are made, and the remainder are frozen. Up down the Fallopian tube, it divides seven, true in the cell line: the pluripotent stem cell until 2001, scientists who wanted to work on eight, nine times until it forms an entity we line had a disease that recapitulated itself. those cell lines started with the in vitro fertili- call a blastocyst. On the outside of the blas- When George Daley and Rudy got the blood- zation clinic. The cells from these clinics come tocyst there are about one hundred to one forming skin cells from that line and put them

36 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 back in the mouse, they retained that disease- ½guring I was the only person who hadn’t transfer so that we could learn about human genetic immunode½ciency. Then they did an- made up his mind at that time, asked me to diseases and treat them. other beautiful experiment. They ½xed the head the panel.) We examined all of the ani- Unanimously we asked for this kind of stem gene in the stem cell line; although it wasn’t mal experiments that involved taking the nu- cell research to go forward, but because it a perfect experiment, they ½xed the disease cleus, let’s say, from a skin cell and putting it impacted so many aspects of society, we said by transplanting the “½xed” blood progenitors into the egg. When the egg got to that blasto- there should be a panel of experts in law, from the line into the immunode½cient mice. cyst stage and was actually implanted in the ethics, and medicine to help advise leaders in uterus of an animal of the same species, it was Now, that is what you hear when people talk Congress, the medical ½eld, and elsewhere found that 99.2 percent of those fetuses died. about therapeutic cloning: a therapeutic at- about whether this would be a good thing to They didn’t die as they do in a regular miscar- tempt to change a person’s genetic de½cien- do. We didn’t presume that we knew the an- riage. They didn’t die just a few days to a few cy in which somatic cells are used to make a swer to that. weeks after they were implanted; those that pluripotent stem cell line in which scientists didn’t die right away died in mid- and late But in the middle of our deliberations, and ½x the gene, which is then transplanted back pregnancy. And in cows, mice, and other ani- right after we had a public workshop on the into their own cells. If that’s all it were, it mals, they would quite often kill the mother. issues, President Bush, on August 9, 2001, would be terri½c, but, in fact, I think it’s much said that we should go forward with human more important. If we had the genetics of Lou embryonic stem cell research using cell lines Gehrig’s disease, or Parkinson’s disease, or Now we’re moving as fast as made before that date but not afterward– Huntington’s disease–or any of a large num- we can because once we dis- and that we should not undertake nuclear ber of genetic disorders in cell lines that re- transfer at all. Of course, as President, he capitulated the developmental defect, or the covered that each of those could and did issue an executive order relat- pathogenesis, of the disease–the biomedical ed to federal funding. This research was not community could begin to understand these cancers self-renews–like a criminalized. Congressman David Weldon diseases. normal cell does, but out of of Florida then introduced a criminalization In biomedical research universities, we really control–it meant we could bill in the House (with Senator Brownback want to begin to understand how these dis- in the Senate), proposing a $1 million ½ne eases work. The sequencing of the human go after those tiny, rare cells and ten years in jail if a scientist did this re- genome has led us to many of the genes that search. It passed after two hours of debate in we knew had to be inherited to cause these within a cancer and ask the House, but it got stuck in the Senate, large- diseases. But the disconnect is between know- what went wrong. ly through the bipartisan efforts of Orrin ing what the gene is and how a combination Hatch, Arlen Specter, Ted Kennedy, Diane of genes leads to a particular disease. Lou Feinstein, and Tom Harkin. They blocked My panel was made up of scientists, including Gehrig’s disease involves motor-neuron de- this legislation after holding hearings with a medical ethicist and a reproductive biologist, generation. Even today we don’t know if the us, whereas the House did not have hearings. who had all agreed before we met that we’d genetic defect is in the motor neurons, or in ½nd out the facts about this ½eld before we The political debate came to California next. the cells that nourish them, or in the connec- made a judgment–and we’d keep our mouths A group of people, mainly in Hollywood, tions to the muscle, or in something else we shut until we had argued the facts. So we could mainly parents of diabetic children, wanted haven’t even thought of yet. In order to un- say, unanimously, on the basis of these facts, to see whether this research could help their derstand disease development, we need to ½x that reproductive cloning was not ready for children. I have never seen anything like par- one of the three or four or ½ve genes in a cell prime time. Even if you had no objection to ents of kids with juvenile diabetes; unlike line and say, ‘OK, what does that do?’ That’s cloning humans, nobody after the Nuremberg relatives of people with other diseases, they why understanding how genetic defects lead Trials would submit a person to that kind of are the most aggressive, most committed in- to disease is interesting, not only for us in the medical experimentation, where the fetus dividuals. Eventually, Robert Klein, now Chair biomedical research industry but also, and could die and over half the mothers that take of the Independent Citizens Oversight Com- that’s a long time coming, for the pharma- it beyond mid-gestation could die. We asked mittee of the California Institute of Regener- ceutical and biotech industries. for a legally enforceable ban on human re- ative Medicine, became involved with this Now, you may have thought that this would productive cloning, but said we would come nascent group. He asked scientists to help be the kind of triumph that everybody would back in ½ve, six, seven years to see if things write the legislation, which we did, to assure applaud. I was the head of a National Acade- had improved in the animal experiments to that if we received funding from the state, my of Sciences/National Academy of Engi- the same safety level as in vitro fertilization, the reviews of the science would be expert. neering panel, at the National Research Coun- so that we could contemplate it–without We also included the proviso that nobody on cil and the Institute of Medicine, on human giving our own particular judgments about the review panel could be from California or reproductive cloning and nuclear transfer to whether we liked or didn’t like the outcome have a close connection or receive funds. make stem cells. (Bruce Alberts, the president of reproductive cloning. From the experiments Then we suggested that the reviewers get at of the National Academy of Sciences, perhaps of Jaenisch and others, it was clear that it was least enough money to do their work. a different thing to make a cell line by nuclear

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 37 Academy Meetings

So the campaign began and ended with 59 percent of Californians voting in favor of set- ting aside $3 billion to be spent over ten to thirteen years. One of the key events took place a few weeks before the 2004 election when George Schultz met with and advised Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, in- stead of staying out of the debate, came out in favor of Proposition 71–further evidence that this was not a partisan issue. It was an is- sue about the right of people in California to enjoy the best that could come from this very long-term research in terms of the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The proposition was immediately held up to question by law- John Brauman (Stanford University) and Leslie Berlowitz (American suits on constitutional grounds, but the ma- Academy) jor opposition was from a well-known reli- gious organization.

The basis of the debate is whether a nuclear- transfer blastocyst is a person. Is it a person with the same rights as an individual that is born? The President is very clear: he believes it is a person and that nuclear transfer would, therefore, be a form of research intended to kill a person. He came out in favor of the Brownback Bill, which states that this re- search should not go forward.

When Congress started looking at these is- sues again, the tide had turned dramatically, perhaps as a result of the California vote. Now, the majority in the House and in the Senate are in favor of funding at least expanded em- George P. Shultz (Stanford University) and Gerhard Casper (Stanford bryonic stem cell research, if not nuclear- University) transfer research. But this support was not enough to overcome a veto: last year, the Castle-DeGette Bill was passed in Congress but vetoed by President Bush. Later that day, Governor Schwarzenegger loaned $150 mil- lion from the state budget to the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine: it is be- cause of that loan that the funding has be- gun. Now, ½nally, we can move at least Cali- fornia forward in all aspects of stem cell re- search. Hopefully, it will eventually be per- mitted and funded throughout the United States.

© 2007 by John L. Hennessy and Irving L. Weissman, respectively. David Kennedy (Stanford University) and Gordon Moore (Intel Corpo- ration)

38 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 Remembrances

tions reflect his wide-ranging interests, in- Greater communication within the member- cluding his early work in chemistry and en- ship was also one of Hogness’s goals. As docrinology, a year at Los Alamos preparing chair of the Western Center and a member of reports on tracer techniques and beta-ray the Council, he guided us in developing a burns at Eniwetok, and his involvement in model for Fellows’ gatherings in other parts medical education, administration, and health of the country. During the past year, we held policy, particularly the relationship between over forty meetings and workshops, includ- government and medicine and the social and ing a joint meeting of the Academy and the ethical aspects of medicine. American Philosophical Society in Washing- ton, D.C., focusing on several of the most In the midst of his university service, Hogness pressing issues facing the nation–from the was appointed the ½rst President of the In- independence of the courts to energy choices stitute of Medicine. The iom was not born and global warming. easily, but he recognized that if this new or-

Photo courtesy of the University of Washington ganization were to become a major presence He is survived by his wife, Margaret; nine in the medical world, it would have to be children and stepchildren; ten grandchildren; John R. Hogness more than an honorary society. It would have and his brother, David S. Hogness, also a Fel- to stake its reputation on marshalling the ex- low of the Academy. His contributions to the John R. Hogness, who passed away in Seattle pertise of its members to produce impartial, medical community and to the Academy on July 2, 2007, was a statesman of thought authoritative studies. It would have to speak represent a living legacy for those who will and action in the world of medicine. As a Fel- out on matters of national policy and bring always value his innovative spirit, his extra- low for over thirty years, he was an admired emerging health issues to public attention ordinary insight, and his abiding good humor. mentor and dedicated colleague who worked well before they reached a crisis stage. Hog- to advance the Academy as a national institu- ness stepped up to this daunting responsibil- tion committed to serving scholarship and ity and, in his own words, promised “one hell society. of a show.” Educated at Haverford College and the Uni- To those who worked with Hogness at the versity of Chicago, he began his career with a Academy, this institutional commitment has private medical practice in Seattle before particular meaning. In the late 1980s, the joining the faculty at the newly established Academy set out to create a new blueprint University of Washington School of Medi- for its future; Hogness was one of the principal cine in 1950. Throughout a long career at the architects of the strategic plan that emerged University, he served as Dean of the School from a series of discussions involving over of Medicine from 1964–1969, as University eighty Fellows. Recognizing that it was criti- of Washington Executive Vice President and cal for the Academy to strengthen and expand Vice President of the University of Washing- its research program, he saw its honorary ton Health Sciences from 1969–1971, and as membership as an invaluable intellectual re- President of the University from 1974 to 1979. source. In his view, the Academy’s conven- In the 1980s, he returned to the University of ing power–its ability to draw on members Washington as professor of health sciences. representing diverse ½elds and perspectives His more than seventy papers and publica- –was the key to developing long-term analy- ses of important social and scholarly issues that would inform policymakers and the broader intellectual community.

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 39 Remembrances

A professor in the University of California, He is survived by his wife, Yvonne; three Berkeley’s Department of Molecular and Cell daughters; two sons, including Douglas Kosh- Biology since 1965, Koshland never con½ned land, a Fellow of the Academy; and an ex- himself to bench science. In the 1980s, he re- tended family. In his scienti½c work and his organized the biological sciences program service to the Academy, he was always open on campus, consolidating eleven small de- to discussion and debate. His integrity, gen- partments into three–plant biology, integra- erosity, and sense of purpose inspired all tive biology, and molecular and cellular biol- those he touched. ogy–that reflected the changing nature of re- search. While continuing his work at Berke- ley, he accepted another responsibility that would establish him as an eloquent spokes- man for science. From 1985–1995, he served as editor of Science, improving the peer-review Photo credit: Robert Holmgren Photo credit: Robert process, upholding the highest standards for Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. the publication of pioneering research, strengthening the editorial board to include more scientists with the background needed As this issue of the Bulletin went to press, to evaluate content, and introducing tech- we learned of the death of Daniel Koshland, nology-based production processes. Under Jr. Visionary biochemist, skilled administra- his creative leadership, the journal began to tor, brilliant editor, and noted philanthropist, exert a major influence on public policy and he was widely recognized as a preeminent became the voice of science in the nation. leader of the scienti½c community. Koshland’s research led to major advances in the under- A Fellow of the American Academy for forty standing of enzymes and protein chemistry. years, Koshland served as a Councilor in the Always searching for scienti½c insights that 1970s when he provided advice and guidance would bene½t society, he later focused on the on a number of issues that continue to con- chemical reactions involved in Alzheimer’s cern us today–from questions of nuclear pro- disease and on the emerging ½eld of bioener- liferation to the future of the humanities. gy, with its potential for using cyanobacteria Both Dan and his late wife, the distinguished to produce methane as an alternative energy immunologist Marion Koshland, were mem- source. He received many honors through- bers of the Council and strong advocates of out his career: the National Medal of Science the interdisciplinary research that is at the in 1990, the Albert Lasker Award for Special center of the Academy’s work. In the late Achievement in Medical Science in 1998, and 1980s, Koshland participated in a strategic the Welch Award in Chemistry in 2006, planning effort that set the future direction among others. of the Academy’s work; with his insight and experience as an editor, he helped to trans- form Dædalus into a more effective publica- tion that communicates with Academy mem- bers and the broader intellectual community.

40 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 Noteworthy

Select Prizes and Awards Shaw Prize, 2007 Theda Skocpol (Harvard Univer- Paul L. Joskow (Massachusetts sity) has been awarded the 2007 Institute of Technology) has been Peter Goldreich (Institute for Ad- Johan Skytte Prize in Political elected President of the Alfred P. vanced Study) National Medals of Science, Science. Sloan Foundation. 2005 Robert P. Langlands (Institute for Gabor Somorjai (University of Paul LeClerc (New York Public Advanced Study) California, Berkeley) was award- Library) has been elected to the Biological Sciences ed the 2008 Priestley Medal. Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Robert J. Lefkowitz (Duke Univer- Anthony S. Fauci (National Insti- Getty Trust. tutes of Health) sity) Charles P. Thacker (Microsoft Corporation) received the John Mary Patterson McPherson (An- Torsten N. Wiesel (The Rockefel- Kiel Prize, 2007 von Neumann Medal for Out- drew W. Mellon Foundation) has ler University) standing Achievements in Com- been named Executive Of½cer of Helmut Schmidt (Die Zeit) puter-related Science and Technol- the American Philosophical Soci- Chemistry ogy, given by the Institute of Elec- ety. Amartya Sen (Harvard University) Tobin J. Marks (Northwestern trical and Electronics Engineers. Richard A. Meserve (Carnegie University) Other Awards Institution) has been elected to the Board of Overseers of Har- Engineering New Appointments James Roger Prior Angel (Univer- vard University. Jan D. Achenbach (Northwestern sity of Arizona) was awarded the Ernest Beutler (Scripps Research mfs University) 2007 Joseph Fraunhofer Award/ Robert Pozen ( Investment Institute) has been appointed to Management) will chair a new Robert M. Burley Prize by the the Scienti½c Advisory Board of Physical Sciences Securities and Exchange Com- Optical Society of America. Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. Ralph A. Alpher (The Dudley mission advisory committee to Observatory) Norman E. Borlaug (Dallas, TX) Mary Schmidt Campbell (New study how to make the U.S. was awarded the Congressional York University) has been nomi- ½nancial reporting system less Gold Medal, America’s highest nated to serve as Chair and mem- complex and costly. National Medals of Science, civilian honor. 2006 ber of the Board of the New York Neil L. Rudenstine (ARTstor) John Groves (Princeton Universi- State Council on the Arts. has been elected to the Board of merit Biological Sciences ty) is the recipient of the Thomas Carew (University of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Rita R. Colwell (Canon U.S. Life award from the National Insti- California, Irvine) was elected Trust. tutes of Health. Sciences, Inc.) President of the Society for Neu- Virginia Sapiro (Boston Univer- roscience. Nina V. Fedoroff (Pennsylvania Thomas Kailath (Stanford Univer- sity) has been named Dean of sity) is the recipient of the 2007 Boston University’s College and State University) ieee Carol T. Christ (Smith College) Medal of Honor, awarded has been elected to the Board of Graduate School of Arts and Sci- Lubert Stryer (Stanford Univer- by the Institute of Electrical and Directors of Merrill Lynch & Co., ences. sity) Electronics Engineers. Inc. S. Shankar Sastry (University of Chemistry Toni Morrison (Princeton Univer- Ching-Wu Paul Chu (University California, Berkeley) has been sity) was awarded the 2007 Rad- of Houston) has been named to named Dean of the College of Marvin H. Caruthers (University cliffe Institute Medal, given by the Engineering at the University of of Colorado, Boulder) the Advisory Board of Aurora Im- Radcliffe Institute for Advanced aging Technology, Inc. California, Berkeley. Study. Peter B. Dervan (California Insti- Kay Kaufman Shelemay (Harvard tute of Technology) Nina V. Fedoroff (Pennsylvania Maynard Olson (University of State University) has been named University) has been appointed Robert S. Langer (Massachusetts Washington) is the winner of the Science and Technology Advisor Chair of Modern Culture in the Institute of Technology) 2007 Gruber Prize in Genetics. to U.S. Secretary of State Condo- John W. Kluge Center at the Li- brary of Congress. Saul Perlmutter (University of leezza Rice. Mathematics/Computer Science California, Berkeley) is among Frances Daly Fergusson (Vassar Subra Suresh (Massachusetts In- Hyman Bass (University of the recipients of the 2007 Gruber College) has been elected to the stitute of Technology) has been Michigan) Prize in Cosmology. Board of Trustees of the J. Paul appointed Dean of the School of Getty Trust. Engineering at the Massachusetts Physical Sciences Condoleezza Rice (United States Institute of Technology. Daniel Kleppner (Massachusetts Department of State) is the recip- Jeffrey S. Flier (Beth Israel Dea- wnba Lewis T. Williams (FivePrime) Institute of Technology) ient of the 2007 Inspira- coness Medical Center) has been tion Award. named Dean of Harvard Medical has been appointed to the Board School. of Directors of Juvaris BioThera- National Medal of Technology, Joseph L. Sax (University of Cali- peutics, Inc. 2006 fornia, Berkeley) was awarded M. Judah Folkman (Harvard the 2007 Blue Planet Prize. Medical School) has been ap- Charles M. Vest (National Acad- pointed to the Scienti½c Advisory emy of Engineering) Board of Predictive Biosciences.

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 41 Noteworthy

Select Publications Thomas Bender (New York Uni- Michael J. Graetz (Yale Law Diane Ravitch (New York Uni- versity) and Wilson Smith (Uni- School). 100 Million Unnecessary versity) and Chester E. Finn, Jr. versity of California, Davis), eds. Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Compet- (Thomas B. Fordham Institute), Poetry American Higher Education Trans- itive Tax Plan for the United States. eds. Beyond the Basics: Achieving a formed, 1940–2005: Documenting Yale University Press, January 2008 Liberal Education for All Children. Geoffrey Hill (Boston University). the National Discourse. Johns Hop- Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, A Treatise of Civil Power. Yale Uni- kins University Press, September Gertrude Himmelfarb (Washing- July 2007 versity Press, January 2008 2007 ton, D.C.), ed. The Spirit of the Age: Victorian Essays. Yale University Jeffrey D. Sachs (Columbia Uni- Fiction Floyd E. Bloom (Scripps Research Press, November 2007 versity). Common Wealth: Econom- Institute), ed. Best of the Brain from ics for a Crowded Planet. Penguin Woody Allen (New York, NY). Scienti½c American. Dana Press, Robert Hollander (Princeton Uni- Press, August 2007 Mere Anarchy. Random House, June 2007 versity) and Jean Hollander, trans. June 2007 Paradiso by Dante. Doubleday, Jeffrey D. Sachs (Columbia Uni- Leon Botstein (Bard College). The August 2007 versity), Macartan Humphreys Ha Jin (Boston University). A Free History of Listening. Basic Books, (Columbia University), and Joseph Life. Pantheon, November 2007 July 2007 Jerome Kagan (Harvard Univer- E. Stigliz (Columbia University), sity). What is Emotion?: History, eds. Escaping the Resource Curse. Tom Brokaw (nbc News). Garrison Keillor (Prairie Home Measures, and Meanings. Yale Uni- Columbia University Press, June BOOM! Random House, Novem- Companion). Pontoon: A Lake versity Press, November 2007 2007 Wobegon Novel. Viking, Septem- ber 2007 ber 2007 Nikki Keddie (University of Cali- Oliver Sacks (New York, NY). William J. Clinton (New York, fornia, Los Angeles). Roots and NY). Giving: How Each of Us Can Musicophilia: Tales of Music and Jim Lehrer (Public Broadcasting Results of Revolution. Yale Univer- the Brain. Knopf, October 2007 System). Eureka. Random House, Change the World. Knopf, Septem- sity Press, August 2006 October 2007 ber 2007 Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr. Anthony T. Kronman (Yale Law Sheldon H. Danziger (University (Brennan Center for Justice) and Alan Lightman (mit). Ghost. School). Education’s End: Why Our of Michigan) and Cecilia Elena Aziz Z. Huq (Brennan Center for Pantheon, October 2007 Colleges and Universities Have Giv- Justice). Unchecked and Unbalanced: Rouse (Princeton University), eds. en Up on the Meaning of Life. Yale The Price of Independence: The Eco- Presidential Power in a Time of Ter- Ian McEwan (Oxford, United University Press, September 2007 ror. New Press, March 2007 Kingdom). On Chesil Beach. Dou- nomics of Early Adulthood. Russell bleday, June 2007 Sage Foundation, December 2007 Paul MacAvoy (Yale University). Jonathan D. Spence (Yale Univer- The Unsustainable Costs of Partial sity). Return to Dragon Mountain: Philip Roth (New York, NY). Denis Donoghue (New York Uni- Deregulation. Yale University versity). On Eloquence. Yale Uni- Memories of a Late Ming Man. Exit Ghost. Houghton Mifflin, Press, July 2007 Viking, September 2007 October 2007 versity Press, January 2008 Guillermo O’Donnell (Universi- Peter Stansky (Stanford Universi- William Trevor (London, United Freeman J. Dyson (Institute for ty of Notre Dame). Dissonances: Advanced Study). A Many-Colored ty). The First Day of the Blitz. Yale Kingdom). Cheating at Canasta. Democratic Critiques of Democracy. University Press, November 2007 Viking, October 2007 Glass: Reflections on the Place of University of Notre Dame Press, Life in the Universe. University of September 2007 Yi-Fu Tuan (University of Wis- Virginia Press, August 2007 consin-Madison). Coming Home Non½ction Stanley G. Payne (University of Martin Filler (New York, NY). to China. University of Minnesota Rolena Adorno (Yale University). Wisconsin-Madison). Franco and Press, April 2007 Makers of Modern Architecture. Hitler: Spain, Germany, and World The Polemics of Possession in Span- New York Review Books, July 2007 ish American Narrative. Yale Uni- War II. Yale University Press, Jan- John Updike (Boston, Massachu- versity Press, December 2007 Joel L. Fleishman (Duke Univer- uary 2008 setts). Due Consideration: Essays sity). The Foundation: A Great and Criticism. Knopf, October 2007 Alan Alda (New York, NY). Things James Peacock (University of American Secret–How Private North Carolina, Chapel Hill). Helen Vendler (Harvard Univer- I Overheard while Talking to Myself. Wealth is Changing the World. Pub- Random House, September 2007 Grounded Globalism: How the U.S. sity). Our Secret Discipline: Yeats lic Affairs Books, January 2007 South Embraces the World. Univer- and Lyric Form. Harvard Universi- Francisco J. Ayala (University of Saul Friedlander (University of sity of Georgia Press, July 2007 ty Press, October 2007 California, Irvine). Darwin’s Gift California, Los Angeles). The Years Norman Pearlstine (The Carlyle J. Craig Venter (J. Craig Venter to Science and Religion. Joseph of Extermination: Nazi Germany Henry Press, June 2007 Group). Off the Record: The Press, Institute). A Life Decoded: My and the Jews, 1939–1945. Harper- the Government, and the War over Genome, My Life. Viking, Septem- Thomas Bender (New York Uni- Collins, April 2007 Anonymous Sources. Farrar, Straus ber 2007 versity). The Un½nished City: New & Giroux, August 2007 Frank F. Furstenberg (University Alice Waters (Chez Panisse York and the Metropolitan Idea. of Pennsylvania). Destinies of the nyu Press, September 2007 Steven Pinker (Harvard Universi- Foundation). The Art of Simple Disadvantaged: The Politics of Teen- ty). The Stuff of Thought: Language Food: Notes and Recipes from a Deli- age Childbearing. Russell Sage as a Window into Human Nature. cious Revolution. Clarkson Potter, Foundation, November 2007 Viking, September 2007 October 2007 Al Gore (Nashville, Tennessee). The Assault on Reason. Penguin Press, May 2007

42 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 Theodore Ziolkowski (Princeton Billie Tsien (Tod Williams Billie University). Modes of Faith: Secu- Tsien Architects) and Tod Wil- lar Surrogates for Lost Religious Be- liams (Tod Williams Billie Tsien lief. University of Chicago Press, Architects) will design the Reva June 2007 and David Logan Center for Cre- ative and Performing Arts at the University of Chicago. Exhibitions, Performances, Bill Viola (Bill Viola Studio). and Commissions “Ocean Without A Shore” at the San Gallo Church, San Marco, John Baldessari (University of Venice, Italy, June 10–November California, Los Angeles). “Ways 24, 2007. of Seeing” at the Hirshhorn Mu- seum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, July 26– September 20, 2007. We invite all Fellows and Eric Fischl (New York, NY). Four- For eign Honorary Members teen new, previously undisplayed to send notices about their bronze sculptures as well as large- recent and forthcoming pub - scale drawings, at the Kestnerge- lications, scienti½c ½ndings, sellschaft, Germany, November exhibitions and performances, 30, 2007–February 3, 2008. and honors and prizes to bulletin@ama cad.org. Frank Gehry (Frank O. Gehry & Associates) is designing a play- ground in New York, in Battery Park on the southern tip of Man- hattan. Jasper Johns (Sharon, CT). “Gray” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 5–May 4, 2008. Brice Marden (New York, NY). “12 Views for Caroline Tatyana” at the San Jose Museum of Art, June 9–October 14, 2007. Bruce Nauman (Galisteo, NM). “One Hundred Fish Fountain” at the Kestnergesellschaft, Ger- many, September 27–November 4, 2007.

Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 43 cêçã=íÜÉ=^êÅÜáîÉë

Since 1780, the Academy’s sponsorship of exploration and innovation has made it a natural place for both Fellows and members of the public to present, discuss, and publish new ideas in science and technology. The Academy’s archives hold many communications, both practical and philosophical, some of which were published in the Memoirs or Proceedings. H. Strait of Rensselaer County, New York, in a letter to the Academy dated December 10, 1832, submitted his plan for the construction and motion of wings for human flight. Mr. Strait was not a member of the Academy.

Having given considerable attention to the study of Aeronauticks and discovered a principle, which I deem will be emi- nently useful and applicable; if put in practice, to that noble and neglected Branch of rational Science, and being myself unable from want of suf½cient money and mechanical skill to give it a complete investigation by Experiment I am con- strained either to solicit assistance or drop it where it is. Having therefore examined its Reasons with Care and Attention, I chose what I deemed to be the most advisable alternative and resolved immediately to send you my plan with the Rea- sons in its support in order to solicit your assistance. The importance of the Object, if it shall prove to be universally ap- plicable, the eminent utility it will be to the Geographer, the Traveller, the Philosopher, and to Posterity: the Sublimity it will present to the inspired Poet and Observer of the Beauties of Nature; nay more a sincere desire to advance and pro- mote the Happiness of the whole human Family, and to make them at once alive to the noblest feelings of the Heart and conscious of the high Powers with which they are intrusted to improve and control for the most exalted purposes. . . . Is now high time that the Reasons of Flying which have as yet stood unrefuted and uninvestigated, should receive a rational demonstration of their solidity or fallacy by the established laws of natural Philosophy.

H. Strait’s eight-page letter to the American Academy describing his design for wings for human flight included two illustrations, this one for “The round Representation.” The Aeronaut was to place himself in Car C, “take hold of the handles H,H,” and “raise them up and down as fast as he can.”

44 Bulletin of the American Academy Summer 2007 american academy of arts & sciences Norton’s Woods, 136 Irving Street, Cambridge, ma 02138 telephone 617-576-5000, facsimile 617-576-5050, email [email protected], website www.amacad.org academy officers

Emilio Bizzi, President Leslie Cohen Berlowitz, Chief Executive Of½cer Louis W. Cabot, Chair of the Academy Trust and Vice President John S. Reed, Treasurer Jerrold Meinwald, Secretary Steven Marcus, Editor John Katzenellenbogen, Vice President, Midwest Gordon N. Gill, Vice President, West Robert C. Post, Librarian publications advisory board

Jesse H. Choper, Denis Donoghue, Jerome Kagan, Steven Marcus, Jerrold Meinwald, Emilio Bizzi editorial staff

Alexandra Oleson, Editor Phyllis S. Bendell, Director of Publications Esther Y. Chen, Assistant Editor Scott Eaton Wilder, Layout & Design Initial design by Joe Moore of Moore + Associates

Bulletin Summer 2007 Issued as Volume lx, Number 4 © 2007 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

The Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (issn 0002–712x) is published quarterly by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Periodicals rate postage paid at Boston, ma, and at additional mailing of½ces. Post master: Send address changes to Bulletin, American Acad- emy of Arts & Sciences, 136 Irving Street, Cambridge, ma 02138.

The views expressed in the Bulletin are those held by each contribu- tor and are not necessarily those of the Of½cers and Fellows of the American Acad emy of Arts & Sciences. photo credits

Steve Rosenthal inside front cover Martha Stewart pages 6–7, 12, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25 Jennifer Girard pages 26, 28, 31 University of Michigan Photo Services page 32 Rod Searcey pages 33, 34, 38 AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES

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