NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ANNUAL MEETING The National Academy of Sciences held its 108th which the Academy Awards were presented. Among the Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., on April 26-28, awards given was the first Benjamin Apthorp Gould 1971. To open the program, Frederick Seitz delivered a Prize. After the Academy's Annual Dinner on Tuesday commemorative address honoring the late Hugh L. evening, Edward E. David, Jr., Special Assistant to the Dryden. An outstanding feature of the first day's pro- President for Science and Technology, addressed the gram, the second Robertson Memorial Lecture, was assembled guests. The business sessions of the meeting presented by Paul Doty. On Monday evening the were extended to a day and a half. Three symposia and Academy dedicated its new auditorium in a program a program of contributed papers made up the scientific presided over by NAS President Philip Handler. sessions. Abstracts of the contributed papers are printed Detlev W. Bronk delivered the dedicatory address, after in this issue. Presentation of Academy Awards Benjamin Apthorp Gould Prize ELIZABETH ROEMER, University of Arizona The Gibbs Brothers Medal HENRY ADRIAN SCHADE, University of California, Berkeley U.S. Steel Foundation Award in Molecular Biology MASAYASU NOMURA, University of Wisconsin John J. Carty Medal JAMES DEWEY WATSON, Harvard University Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal RICHARD DALE ALEXANDER, University of Michigan J. Lawrence Smith Medal EDWARD ANDERS, University of Chicago Henry Draper Medal SUBRAHMANYAN CHANDRASEKHAR, University of Chicago Monday Morning In commemoration of Hugh L. Dryden, whose friends contributed generously to the funding of the new Auditorium ofthe National Academy ofSciences. FREDERICK SEITZ, Rockefeller University, New York, New York: A Tribute to the Life and Work of Hugh L. Dryden. 1385 Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 1386 National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting SYMPOSIUM ON ENERGY FOR THE FUTURE- PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS Chairman: HERBERT FRIEDMAN United States Naval Research Laboratory Washington, D.C. EDWARD E. DAVID, JR., Office of Science and Technology, Executive Office of the President, Washington, D.C.: Federal Policy for Power Development. MANSON BENEDICT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Fission Power. RICHARD F. POST, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Livermore, California: Fusion Power. ROLF ELIASSEN, Stanford University, Stanford, California: Power Generation and the Environment. PHOTOSYNTHESIS BICENTENNIAL SYMPOSIUM Chairman: KENNETH V. THIMANN University of California Santa Cruz, California EUGENE RABINOWITCH, Center for the Study of Science and Society, State University of New York, Albany, New York: From Priestley to Robert Meyer: An Unfolding Discovery. JAMES A. BASSHAM, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California: Photosynthetic Carbon Metabolism. RODERICK K. CLAYTON, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York: Physical Mechanisms in Photosynthesis: Past Elucidations and Apparent Problems. DANIEL I. ARNON, University of California, Berkeley, California: The Light Reactions of Photosynthesis. C. STACY FRENCH, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, California: The Distribution and Action in Photosynthesis ofSeveral Forms of Chlorophyll. JoHN H. RYTHER, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts: Photoywnthesis and Organic Production in the Biosphere. Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 National Academy of Sciences .Annual Meeting 1387 Monday Afternoon ROBERTSON MEMORIAL LECTURE Chairman: JESSE L. GREENSTEIN California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California PAUL DoTY, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts The Community of Science and the Search for Peace Wednesday Afternoon SYMPOSIUM ON PLATE TECTONICS Chairmen: CHARLES DRAKE, and WILLIAM R. DICKINSON CHARLES DRAKE, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire: Plate Tectonics and Geodynamics. LYNN R. SYKES, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York: Evidence for Present Movements from Seismology and Magnetics. LEON KNOPOFF, University of California, Los Angeles, California: Geophysical Constraints on Geodynamical Models. WILLIAM R. DICKINSON, Stanford University, Stanford, California: Rock Assemblages as Indicators of Plate Tectonic Regimes. WARREN HAMILTON, United States Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado: Geological Relations Along Active Continental Margins. JOHN DEWEY, State University of New York, Albany, New York: Old Mountain Systems and Plate Tectonics. Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 1388 National Academy of Sciences Annual Meet'~l Wednesday Afternoon CONTRIBUTED PAPERS Hidden Momentum for Non-Steady-State Defined Using a New Mass-Moment Operator Theoremfor Dirac's Equation: K. K. THORNBER and W. SHOCKLEY Shape of Random-Flight Chains: WALTER H. STOCKMAYER and KAREL SOLC (Read by title) Inter-related Effects of pH, Light, and Potassium on the Bio-electric Potential of the Marine Alga Halicystis (Derbesia) Osterhoutii: LAWRENCE R. BLINKS (Read by title) Efficient Transfection and Transformation of Escherichia coli Spheroplasts: ROLF BENZINGER, LARRY LAWHORNE, ROBERT HUSKEY, and INGRID KLEBER Regulation of Cell Division and Cancer: A. SZENT-GY-RGYI, J. A. MCLAUGHLIN and L. G. EGYUD Growth Inhibition by Keto-aldehydes: L. G. EGYUD and A. SZENT-GY-RGYI Nutritive Value of Single Foods: ROGER J. WILLIAMS, JAMES D. HEFFLEY, and CHARLES W. BODE Optimum Emphasis on the Individual and on its Group: JAY L. LUSH Hardy-Weinberg Law Generalized to Estimate Hybrid Variance for Negro Populations and Reduce Racial Aspects of the Environment-Heredity Uncertainty: W. SHOCKLEY Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 Abstracts of Papers Presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A.) Washington, D.C., 26-28 April 1971 Efficient Transfection and difference (PD) across the protoplasm of Transtormation ofE8cherichia coli Halicystis by 3 or 4 mV; so also may mod- Spheroplasts erate light (100 mc), probably by raising the pH of the sea water just outside the The addition of 25 ,g/ml of protamine cell. sulfate to lysozyme-EDTA spheroplasts The effects are greater in the presence of Escherichia coli enhances transfection of increased potassium concentration. of lambda phage DNA 10,000-fold, to A 10-fold increase (from the 0.012 M 10-1 infective centers per DNA molecule; K+ of sea water to 0.12 M) causes a large kX-174 replicative form 300-fold, to an transient decrease of PD, followed in 10 efficiency of 5 X 10-2; fd replicative form or 15 min by a recovery to normal (70- 300-fold, to 10-6; and T7 300-fold, to 3 X 80 mV). On return of the cell to sea water, 10-7. Three native phage DNAs were not a transient increase of PD to some 100 infective at all in the absence of prot- mV occurs, followed by recovery to nor- amine sulfate but were infective in the mal values. However, 5 or 10 min later presence of protamine sulfate, with the there is usually a strong depression of PD following efficiencies: T4, 10-5; T5, 3 X (the "post-potassium dip") which may 10-6; and P22, 3 X 10-9. The effect of carry the PD to as low as 30 mV, with protamine sulfate is specific for double- very slow subsequent recovery. Both light stranded DNA. Preliminary experiments and high pH speed this recovery, proba- indicate that protamine sulfate forms bly by the same mechanism. complexes with inhibitory DNA released High pH reduces the initial potassium from lysed spheroplasts. transient from 50 or 60 mV to about 20 Applications of the assay show that mV, which may represent the true ionic prophage lambda DNA is highly infec- potassium effect. Acidity seems impli- tive, that heteroduplex lambda DNA cated in the large transient, for sea water molecules yield mixed clones from singly at pH 5.5 (by NaH2PO4) can also reduce infected spheroplasts, and that T5 DNA the PD to low values, succeeded by re- can function normally after entering the covery. It seems possible that 0.12 M K+ cell in one piece. Transformation of E. may cause increased external acidity, coli spheroplasts by resistance transfer perhaps by exchange of K+ and H+ ions agent and F' gal DNA was also achieved across the plasmalemma, or by later ex- in the presence of protamine sulfate. cretion of organic acid. Rolf Benzinger Lawrence R. Blinks Larry Lawhorne Hopkins Marine Station Robert Huskey Stanford University Ingrid Kleber Pacific Grove, California 93950 University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia 22903 Growth Inhibition ofKeto-aldehydes A series of derivatives of a-keto-alde- Interrelated Effects ofpH, Light, and hyde has been prepared and tested for Potassium on the Bioelectric Potential growth inhibition in vivo and in vitro. ofthe Marine Alga Halicystis They showed inhibition of various de- (Derbesia) osterhoutii grees. L. G. Egyud Within physiological pH limits, the A. Szent-Gyorgyi effects of H+ ions on bioelectric potential Institute for Muscle Research are often negligible. Thus high pH (e.g., Marine Biological Laboratory 9.5) may increase the normal potential Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 1389A Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 1390A National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting Optimum Emphasis on the California Negro population; see T. E. Individual and on Its Group Reed, Science, 22 Aug 69) is determined from Reed's reported Caucasian pheno- Estimating an individual's future per- types that vary essentially as M2 for Gm formance (P) from a criteriaon (V) will and as M for the Duffy