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Editor-in-Chief
ARTICLE This
issue marks the beginning of a new feature of the
Proceedings: "From the Academy." The primary goal of
this feature is to inform the readers of our journal about the
structure and activities of the National Academy of Sciences of the
United States of America (NAS). Although most scientists learn early in
their careers that the United States has an academy of sciences, its
actual operations are not widely known even though it is often the
leading representative of American science. The Academy serves as an
advisor to the Federal Government on science and recognizes leading
scientific advances and scientists. The institution of "From the
Academy" culminates efforts of the past year and a half to make the
Proceedings more informative of its parent organization. The
new NAS members elected in 1996 were announced in the April 30, 1996 issue, and the subdivisions of the Academy that they joined were listed
in the September 3, 1996 issue. This was accompanied by a brief
description of the organization of the NAS division into classes and
sections. The series of "Inaugural Year Articles" will each year
introduce the newest members of the Academy via their research. A
complete list of members of the NAS appeared in the January 7 issue of
this year. The Academy regularly bestows a number of prizes. In the June 25, 1996 issue, nomination forms for these awards were presented. The winners of the prizes and their contributions to science will be
announced this spring. Papers from Academy-sponsored colloquia and
symposia have been a feature of the journal for several years. Since
January 1996, the topics have been "Vision: From Photon to
Perception," "Earthquake Prediction: The Scientific Challenge," "Biology of Developmental Transcription Control," "Genetic
Engineering of Viruses and Virus Vectors," "Frontiers in Plant
Biology: How Plants Communicate," "Science, Technology, and the
Economy," "Memory: Recording Experience in Cells and Circuits,"
and "Symmetries Throughout the Sciences." Jack Halpern,
NAS Vice-President, leads off the first "From the Academy" feature
on page 1606 with an overview of the history, organization, and
activities of the NAS entitled "The U.S. National Academy of
Sciences
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Vol. 94,
pp. 1605-1605,
March 1997
From the Academy
e-mail: cozzlab{at}mendel.berkeley.edu
In service to science and society." "From the Academy"
will focus on the most important function of the Academy, shaping
science policy. This is carried out in large part by a series of
commissioned reports on a wide variety of scientific issues by the
National Research Council (NRC). The NRC is the joint investigative arm
of the National Academy of Science, the Institute of Medicine, and the
National Academy of Engineering. On page 1609, a member of the
Proceedings Editorial Board, Ronald L. Phillips, has written
a perspective paper entitled "Opportunities await" on a recent NRC
report: "Colleges of agriculture at the Land Grant Universities:
Public service and public policy." To accompany this perspective, a
portion of the Executive Summary of that report and a list of members
of the Committee on the Future of the Colleges of Agriculture in the
Land Grant University System are given on page 1610. This premiere
"From the Academy" also highlights the Workshop on Schizophrenia held at the NAS. A report of the workshop by Barondes et al.
appears on page 1612. Upcoming installments of "From the
Academy" will highlight other NRC reports and NAS functions. They
will also contain a list of the titles of recent NRC reports and how
the complete documents or summaries can be obtained. The NRC depends upon volunteers from all areas of science, and we hope that wider dissemination of its reports will stimulate broader participation. We
will soon publish summaries of the Frontiers of Science symposia. Held
under NAS auspices, they are run by young scientists at the leading
edge of their fields. "From the Academy" will be presented occasionally as new NRC reports appear and as essays on the NAS are
prepared. This feature is something of an experiment for the journal,
and I invite your comments on how it can be made more useful.
0027-8424/97/941605-1
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