UNIVERSITY
Faculty of SOCIAL SCIENCES
‘ OF CALGARY Department of SOCIOLOGY
2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4 Telephone (403) 284-6501
1981-10-09

President's Office
Rockefeller University

Dear Professor Lederberg:

Thanks for your interest in our article which appeared recently
in the Philosophy of the Soetal Setences. This is really just a
preliminary outline of our goals to investigate multiple discoveries
in greater detail. We have obtained a copy of Dean Simonton's list of
over 600 multiple discoveries and my co-author has devised a general
loglinear modelling program to parse out the effects of variables like
nationality, discipline and specialization on things like the magnitude
of the multiple and the spread between first and last dates and how
these relationships change over time. We have only begun these runs,
and have no news as yet. Whatever outcomes we determine concretely,
we are absolutely sure that certain effects can be traced systematically
to other variables and that consequently it would be an error to put
much faith in the chance model explored by both Derek Price and Dean
Simonton. Things must be more complex than the chance interaction
between scientists and natural discoveries. I'11 keep you posted on
how this turns out.

On another front, I must express my real gratitude to you for
your kind letter on my behalf to the Department of Sociology at the
University of Western Ontario. The position did not materialize, but
your letter will stand me in excellent stead should I be considered there
in the future. I should point out that I have been renewed here in a
tenure stream position, and I've received universal support for my science
studies. Indeed I am being encouraged to organize a three day colloquium
here for next March on the question of the Social Control of Technological
Impact. The nuclear business and the exploitation of the Canadian north
are topics close to everyone's heart here, and such a conference would
allow me an opportunity to draw links between my interests in science
studies as well as my interests in socio-legal studies. Indeed I've
prepared a short discussion paper which begins to draw links between
the control of harmful behaviours in the criminal domain, and the problem
of controlling inadvertent and unintended harms which arise from Big
Technology. I'm sending it along - though it's nothing more than a

eee e/2
Po

primer on this question. I presented it to a group here at Gordon
Hodgson's environmental research centre, and it created quite a stir.
Scientists were quite reluctant to accept responsibility for their
conduct when it is business-related conduct. In the case of Ford's
exploding Pinto, the engineers put the blame on the management-structure
of the company, in spite of the professional code of the engineering
profession. This is a very dicey situation for their degree of
culpability in scores of Pinto-deaths is not a straight forward matter.
At any rate, I think a conference which draws together some people
working in the twilight zone between business and science should be
useful in identifying some areas of effective social control which
stifle neither the entrepreneurial or the scientific spirit.

Lastly, I am still awaiting the publication of my book. I'll
be sure to send a copy when it arrives.

‘He pom T fr) gan w ‘ia haath ~
and Varks ome mare gor yee Ae, Uber

‘Rest Cy Shes

Sos (Shammpon