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OCR for page 405
CHAPTER EIGHT
COMMUNICATION
IN THE
LIFE SCIENCES
In 1866 an Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel published, in an ob-
scure periodical, a classic paper reporting his experiments in crossbreeding
plants experiments that delineated the basic laws of heredity. Mendel's
paper was not just a suggestion; it was a rather convincing quantitative
description of the operation of heredity, based on long experimentation and
critical analysis. Because Mendel's concepts ran counter to those held by
the knowledgeable biologists who were aware of his papers, and because
the information channels were inadequate to direct Mendel's work to the
attention of other scientists, it lay relatively unknown for almost four
decades until its resurrection by Correns, DeVries, and Tschermak, an event
that marked the beginning of the full-fledged study of genetics. The in-
valuable technique of absorption chromatography, by which rather similar
compounds can be separated and purified, is another example of a scientific
advance that lay dormant for years, only to be rediscovered later. Although
there may be other such instances, the informal communication network
now operating markedly decreases the likelihood of major losses of this
405
OCR for page 406
THE LIFE SCIENCES
kind. Such losses, however, could be brought to a minimum by further im-
provement of formal, appropriately designed information systems.
A modern information system must be designed to preclude the waste
of time inherent in discovering the same thing twice, while managing the
mushrooming volume of information published in journals both prominent
and obscure. Investigators in all fields face the critical challenge of coping
with the waves of information that threaten to swamp them, and they in-
creasingly recognize their inability to scan all the reports directly related
to their work, much less those of tangential interest. Yet only 15 years ago
the situation was within bounds.
The number and variety of information services ostensibly designed to
meet the needs of an increasingly diversified and compartmented clientele
of biologists have grown dramatically in the last two decades. The total
investment in dollars, trained manpower, and facilities required to imple-
ment these services now consumes an important fraction of the total invest-
ment in biological research and education.
Their rate of growth, their size, and their current level of investment
make it desirable to study the cost effectiveness of biological information
services. Such evaluation requires an in-depth review and appraisal of
both the nature and the objective of these services in relation to the infor-
mation requirements of today's biologists. Information-exchange organiza-
tions are confronted with an acute need to discern and adapt to the
changing information requirements of a scientific community that presently
appears to be in a state of flux. Alignment within this community is passing
through a period of transition that will probably lead to a rearrangement
and amalgamation of scientific disciplines and the structure of their organi-
zational concomitants, leading to new information requirements better
suited to the objectives of consolidated groupings as they evolve.
For example, one can now sense the beginnings of a spontaneous move-
ment of the presently polarized factions of molecular biologists and "whole-
animal" biologists toward cooperation and integration of their disciplines.
The rapprochement of systems-oriented ecologists and ecologically oriented
systematists is also much closer to realization. Meanwhile, new orientations
to the use of biological understanding for dealing with problems of disease,
toxicology, environmental health, pollution, and the general quality of the
environment make demands on the information system quite different from
those of only a few years ago.
Are the current organizational patterns of biological information systems
such that they facilitate this reunion of disciplines so urgently required to
break new ground? Or, by reason of investments in facilities and equipment
and success in achieving their present modes of operation, have they
generated a strong interest in preserving the status quo, thus constraining
Representative terms from entire chapter:
biological information
