I read Billy Goodman '80's article on Professor Bonnie Bassler's research
on luminescent bacteria (cover story, February 23) with a great deal of
interest, as I had completed my bachelor's thesis on the very same bacteria.
Letters - April 5, 2000
I read Billy Goodman '80's article on Professor Bonnie Bassler's research
on luminescent bacteria (cover story, February 23) with a great deal of
interest, as I had completed my bachelor's thesis on the very same bacteria.
One of the bacterial species highlighted by Professor Bassler's work is Vibrio harveyi, named for Princeton professor and bioluminescence pioneer E. Newton Harvey.
One of Dr. Harvey's protégés was the late Dr. Frank Harris Johnson '30 *36, my thesis adviser, himself a leader in bioluminescence and its application to kinetic studies. The luminescent pathway in these bacteria was also studied by two of Dr. Johnson's graduate students, J. Woodland Hastings *51, who went on to chair Harvard's biochemistry department, and William McElroy *43, later chairman of the National Science Foundation and president of the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Johnson retired in 1977, making me his last student, but he's more remembered by generations of Princetonians for his microbiology class that featured a field trip to the Budweiser brewery. I'm glad to see that bioluminescence research continues to flourish at Princeton, and am happy to contribute yet more Princeton trivia to the archives.
Terence E. Ryan '77
Danbury, Conn.
I recall that in 1942 biology professor Frank Johnson had applied chemistry professor Henry Eyring's reaction rate theory to research in bioluminescence. I did not observe biological research after 1942.
Professor Eyring's subsequent research on liquids theory was at least as profound; it came much later. He was the most dynamic individual I've ever known. In 1968 he told me he had guided 150 people to their doctorates. He was active for many years after that and was graduate school dean at Utah. He was truly a friend to many (and to me).
Princeton and Utah were fortunate to have enjoyed his presence. He was a great American.
Richard A. Hord '43
Alliance, Nebr.
Paw's cover story on antibiotics and glowing bacteria took me back nearly six decades to my Princeton premed years, my senior thesis, and some research I did in the biology department's basement lab. The department faculty had been using luminescent bacteria for some years as a research tool to study the basic bioscience of microorganisms.
In the real world of patient care in the early '40s, the "miracle" sulfa drugs had recently been introduced to treat human infections (penicillin would not appear on the scene for another couple of years). Biology professor Frank Johnson, my thesis adviser, proposed that I devise a way to see if sulfanilamide could demonstrate its usefulness, at least in the lab, by testing its antimicrobial power on luminous bacteria.
I said "yes," thereby committing me to many hours, in late 1941 and early 1942, of lab work involving the then high-tech Van Slyke apparatus. The machine could hold many vials of luminous bacteria, to which I added gradually increasing doses of sulfanilamide, using a darkroom photometer to measure the degree to which luminescence was suppressed. To my surprise, the scheme worked: Increasing doses of sulfa caused increased inhibition of the bacteria and consequent decreased luminescence. The results of many such tests were displayed in my
thesis, entitled "The Inhibitory Effect of Sulfanilamide on Luminescent Bacteria In Vitro."
My effort was tiny in comparison with the modern use of similar bacteria in quorum sensing. But the two projects at least share the linking of luminescence and antimicrobials. My thesis got a 1 mark, and helped me earn honors in biology. And later, during 38 years of practice as a primary care internist, I used antibiotics a lot, always remembering that they were useful in putting out the luminous lights.
William Campbell Felch '42
Carmel, Calif.
At some point during the 1950s, there appeared a pitch-black paw cover in the middle of which was a luminous Princeton seal. Dr. Frank Johnson, my mentor in bacteriology in 1943, was working with luciferin and luciferase in some bacteria. He perfectly inoculated an agar plate in the design of the Princeton seal and after incubation took a timed photo in absolute darkness. He was a bald, Southern gentleman and chose to give his cooperating bacteria center stage. To have denied the alumni the opportunity of seeing associate professor Bassler at work would have been a shame indeed!
Karl Rugart '45
Philadelphia, Pa.
You did not mention another Princetonian who is also a key player in the Human Genome Project (feature, February 23): Bob Waterston '65 is head of the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University School of Medicine, where roughly one-third of the genome is being sequenced. All in all, a nice representation on such an awesome undertaking.
Gavin P. Dunn '98
St. Louis, Mo.
I enjoyed reading the speculations by Dr. Lee Silver on the future of human germline genetic engineering (feature, February 23). Having an A.B. in biochemistry, a Ph.D. in neuropharmacology, and having fathered identical twin boys, I thought I might have some authority to comment on the article.
Most of us divide developmental factors into two groups: genetic (nature) or environmental (nurture). However, I have been struck by the dramatic differences between my two boys, despite their identical DNA and upbringing (as far as my wife and I can tell). David is very focused and excels in fine motor tasks, while Ethan is adventurous and excels in gross motor function. Apart from nature and nurture, I have concluded that there must still be some randomness to the developmental process. Certainly, Type I genetic enhancements of the most superficial kind such as height or hair color will be possible, but likely of equally superficial value to a child. I would expect that Type I genetic changes of a more complex and important kind, such as those that affect intelligence, could lead to unexpected outcomes, much to the disappointment of the doctors, parents, and child involved. Type I genetic changes may therefore be similar to Type II changes, which Dr. Silver does not feel would be feasible in the near future due to unanticipated side effects.
Mathew W. MacCumber '84
Chicago, Ill.
As a former editor of paw and later chairman of its Board of Editorial Direction for a decade, I am deeply concerned by the plans of the Special paw Review Committee. While the objective of relieving classes of the burden of providing paw subscriptions to all their members may be compelling, the price may be high. And if paw's integrity is to be preserved, one must wonder why the reorganization was announced before the promised charter, ensuring paw's independence, was drafted.
From personal experience, I know that university administrators have subtle ways of exercising pressure on the editor of paw. The new plan calls for rapid rotation of alumni on the paw Board (three-year terms, once renewable), but the university's vice president for public affairs and the director of the Alumni Council are ex-officio members. Who then will exert primary influence?
Further, extraordinary powers-including the power to hire and fire the editor-are given to a three-person committee (providing they agree). Two of the three are rotating alumni, while the third is the director of the Alumni Council. Who then will exert primary influence? Finally, all paw staff members "shall remain university employees." So the university already has the threat of power, inconceivable until relatively recently.
Anything that reduces alumni trust in their publication will not be in the university's interest. For every time paw has caused the university discomfort, it has 10 times clarified issues in a manner that sustained credibility and mollified critics.
Philip W. Quigg '43
Ridgefield, Conn.
I had the pleasure of sitting in on a session at a CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) District II meeting in Baltimore a few weeks ago, featuring the editor of the Princeton Weekly Bulletin, the outside designer of most of Princeton's development publications, and Bob Durkee '69, vice president of public affairs. I had seen some of the development publications, but was not aware of the range of brochures and pamphlets printed in almost equal measures of orange and black ink-not the most beautiful of publications, but deserving of admiration in terms of the ingenuity of the designer, Donna Ching.
Among Bob Durkee's remarks at the end, before an audience of non-Princetonians except for a couple of people, were references to the Princeton Alumni Weekly and the idea that it might be time for more "input from the university" for one of the rarest of relatively "independent" alumni magazines "by and for alumni." He referred to "high-level review" and a plan to "reconfigure" the magazine. All the people on the Editorial Committee and the Publications Committee are alumni, which makes sense. But there is a none too subtle difference between alumni who are knowledgeable publishers, editors, or writers and alumni whose orientation, interests, livelihood, and allegiance are related to fund-raising. They're to be respected for that, as long as they respect the independence of the magazine "by alumni for alumni." Many of us can remember a time when a competing and arguably more interesting newsletter was launched by a distinguished alumnus to "tell it like it is"-or was, because the Alumni Weekly wasn't. I get the feeling that the current magazine is pretty direct, without sensationalizing anything. It seems to look at both sides, when they exist. I just hope it will fundamentally keep doing so without editorial "reconfiguration." I am encouraged by what I read in paw, but not absolutely convinced. However, I'd like to see "weekly" dropped. Keeping it might be justifiable if it started that way, but it didn't-something no longer noted, as far as I can tell. As I recall, the magazine used to proudly acknowledge the heritage that preceded 1900. Moreover, it looks as though "Paw Prints" has been abandoned, so "weekly" seems silly.
Douglass Forsyth '60
Baltimore, Md.
Reading in the February 23 issue about paw's newly recommended governing structure sent me straight to my American Heritage Dictionary.
There I found: alumnus n., pl. alumni. A male graduate or former student of a school, college, or university. alumna n., pl. alumnae. A woman graduate or former student of a school, college, or university.
Even these many decades after our Princeton family welcomed female undergraduates, the special paw committee apparently gave no thought to this dichotomy.
Princeton, of course, shares this problem with many other institutions. So far, most suggested accommodations-such as alumni/ae or alumnae/i - just don't seem to make the grade.
Why not the Princeton Alum Weekly?
Brad Bradford '44
Highland Park, Ill.
My word to the wise: Do not "People-ize" paw. Yes, I read the entire proposal on the Web site in all its clarity. Yes, I understand that editorial policy is not the heart of the matter, except, of course, for your readership. I look to paw to record life at the intellectual barricades of a great university along with the purely Princeton news. In this, Excelsior!
Katherine Teetor s'40
Middlebury, Vt.
In the letter from Rocky Semmes '79 (February 23), he objects to President Shapiro's misappropriation of valuable space in paw (an entire page, formerly in the back, now in the front). I second the motion most heartily. As Mr. Semmes points out, this President was hired, we were told, for his administrative abilities, of which fundraising was first and foremost. Why should we have to endure his utterly boring, pretentious, self-aggrandizing displays of unbridled egotism? Let him stick to his administrative duties and fundraising, and let him stay out of philosophical matters. His homilies are really too embarrassing, too adolescent. More suited to his former place of employment.
E. Haring Chandor '42
New York, N.Y.
For many of your correspondents, I have good news. Matt Brekken '97 is concerned that Princeton should offer a wide variety of ideas. He can be reassured. I have had plenty of disagreement from my colleagues already, on a range of different topics, and Princeton does have professors like Robert George, in politics, who advocates what is essentially a Christian ethic. (Incidentally, two of the preceptors for the "Practical Ethics" course I am teaching this semester are present or former Christian university chaplains.) I can also assure Bill Marquardt '53 that it has always been my practice to encourage my students to disagree with my views, and those who do disagree will, if they provide arguments for their conclusions, get better grades than those who simply parrot my views back to me. For these reasons Al Smith '66 should know that when he says that Princeton has provided me with "a pulpit from which to preach" he is suggesting a style of teaching that bears no resemblance to what I actually do. Ted Gagliano '47, who laments the rule of academia by "moral relativism, and postmodern intellectuals," and John Pattillo '68, who wants the university to hire "a philosophy professor who advocated objectivism," should be pleased by my appointment: my insistence on the role of reason in moral judgment means that I am a strong opponent of moral relativism and of postmodernist ways of thinking about ethics. I am rightly seen by postmodernists as an old-fashioned modernist universalist, very much in the tradition of ethical thinking that comes from the 18th-century Enlightenment.
Since coming to live in the U.S. I have been struck many times by the limited awareness Americans have of the way in which people in other nations think. Robert Braunohler '68 seems to believe that what he calls "nationalized health care" still survives only in Australia. Australia certainly does have national health insurance, and it is significant that for 30 years no Australian government, whether from the left or the right, has contemplated abolishing it. As a result most Australians get better health care than all but the very wealthiest Americans, while paying much less for it-including what they pay through taxation. But the same can be said for Britain, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands-and the list goes on and on. It is the U.S., not Australia, that is unique. It is the only major industrialized nation that does not provide universal health insurance for its citizens. The result is that it spends more for health care, and gets less for its money-and now with the dominance of HMOs many American doctors are no more independent than are doctors in countries that do have national health insurance. National health insurance does work.
If Henry Myers '51 is not persuaded that the U.S. is at the absolute bottom of economically developed countries in terms of what it gives to foreign aid as a percentage of gross national product, he should check the figures on the World Bank's Web site. And if he thinks that foreign aid generally consists of "capital grants to leaders of small nations," he should better inform himself of the nature of aid programs. John Fletcher *59 very reasonably asks if we know how to reduce the absolute poverty of people in the least developed countries. I think that we do, by and large. There have been many successful local development schemes, in a variety of countries. These do not simply "finance a larger but equally impoverished population," because they enable people to get a little more education, and education, especially for women, is the biggest single factor in reducing fertility.
I regret any offense that I may have caused to some of your readers by saying that "Religion has a major impact-basically in stopping people from thinking." I made that remark in response to a question about how religion affects people's thinking about ethics, and in many years of discussing ethics with a wide variety of people, that is indeed my experience. Many people-not all, of course-who draw their ethics from religion do not think very much about their ethical views, and are not open to further argument. They fall back on "that is what I believe." With those who do not hold firm religious beliefs, I find greater readiness to take the argument further. I acknowledge that there are religious traditions that encourage thought and reflection on ethics, and I have been privileged to discuss ethics with many thoughtful religious people, but in my experience that is not the typical attitude of the convinced religious believer.
Arnold Mytelka '58's thoughtful comments about my views on life-and-death decision-making for severely disabled infants do raise a serious problem. I agree with him-and have already said this in my most recent book in this area, Rethinking Life and Death-that the absence of a "bright line barrier" makes it questionable whether we could ever have a social policy that allowed for a 28-day period during which parents and doctors are free to ensure that such an infant does not live. Yet there is now no "bright line" between active euthanasia and the withdrawal of various forms of treatment, especially when the latter is coupled with sedation to ensure that the infant does not demand food. Very few doctors who work in this area would want to be required to do everything possible to keep every infant alive, no matter what its prospects. In these circumstances, it is not easy for anyone, except the most rigid defenders of a policy of "life at all costs," to find bright lines on which social policy can be constructed.
It is of course true that a brief interview and an even briefer extract from Practical Ethics cannot avoid some oversimplification of my views, as Daniel Krimm '78 has noticed. There is, unfortunately, no substitute for reading books in their entirety, and I hope that some readers of paw will be stimulated to read either this, or one of my other works.
It is pleasing that some of paw's readers have written to welcome my appointment, even if they do not agree with my views. That is the true spirit of academic freedom, one which President Harold Shapiro and the Board of Trustees have proudly upheld during the furor over my appointment.
Peter Singer
Princeton, N.J.
I wholeheartedly agree with Erika Wolf '85 (Letters, February 9) that our class officers' choice of reunion theme, Tails of the Arabian Nights, is in questionable taste. Regardless of the theme, I am likely to continue my unbroken tradition of missing all my reunions so far, but cartoonish orientalism aside, the proposed theme just does not automatically put me in mind of a party.
Do our class officers have in mind Arabian Nights of the sort where alumnae would be expected to check their car keys on arrival? Do we need to add orange and black chadors to our reunion gear? Do we need orange and black Underground Schoolteacher Barbie for Arabian Nights where women face huge barriers to education or do not even enjoy the right to vote? What about his and hers orange and black gas masks or bomb shelters for numerous religious, secular, and economic conflicts du jour?
Will there be room at this reunion for classmates whose Arabian Nights mean marriage arranged by their parents or observing Islamic traditions about how to attend the funerals of loved ones? What about those of us whose childhood camels are either monstrous plywood beasts bracketing against snow blowing all over the family manger scene or a live creature wondering what the heck it or the humans gawking at it were doing out in subzero weather in a southern Colorado zoo?
Dorene F. Cornwell '85
Seattle, Wash.
Re: the discus donated by Robert Garrett 1897 (cover story, February 9)-Mr. Garrett was good enough to write Joseph E. Raycroft when he sent him the two discuses on April 24, 1948, in response to the university's call for items to replace those burned in the gymnasium fire in 1945. Garrett wrote: "In the light of our discussion recently and further consideration with members of my family, I have concluded to send you for such disposition at the gymnasium as you see fit, a large diploma, another document given to me in 1896, I think by an athletic club in Athens (some of the Greek scholars in Princeton can readily determine this), and also the two 'original' discuses. When you receive them you can readily understand that the damaged one was lying on the ground in the stadium when we Princeton youngsters visited it the afternoon of the Sunday before the games. I experimented with it a few times and then determined to take part in the event just for the fun of it. The other undamaged discus was the one used in the games, if my information is correct. Immediately after the games were held the Greek authorities had a monogram placed on one of the brass plates and presented the discus to me. This monogram, I presume, can be deciphered by the aforementioned Greek scholars at Princeton."
Ben Primer
University Archivist
Princeton, N.J.
Due to an editing error, Vice President for Public Affairs Robert K. Durkee '69's remarks about the late Bill McCleery omitted a phrase (Notebook, February 23). The sentence should have read: "We trust that your spirit is already creating dialogue in the world to which it has ascended, and we will be listening intently for the echoes in this world as we give undying thanks for your days among us."
Our story on the Wythes Committee proposal to increase enrollment (feature, March 8) stated that the number of sports teams hasn't grown in recent decades. In fact, seven teams have been added since 1980: softball, women's fencing, women's golf, women's lightweight crew, men's volleyball, men's water polo, and women's water polo.
PAW regrets these errors.
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