Overview: AAAS Project on Secrecy and Openness in Science and Technology

exchange of research information, ideas, and materials is central to the conduct of scientific and technical work. Such exchange has traditionally been characterized by a spirit of openness within the scientific community, built upon a sense of trust and shared purpose. In recent years, however, leading figures within and outside the scientific world have raised concerns about this spirit of openness. These concerns have been expressed by those who fear that openness in science is being seriously eroded by incentives for personal profit, as well as by those who believe that open communication among scientists presents a significant threat to U.S. national security. Two statements illustrate the twin dimensions of these concerns. A letter from Joshua Lederberg to Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, quoted in New England Journal of Medicine in 1980, highlighted the scientist's deep concerns about the effects of commercial competition on scientific cooperation: The possibility of profit-especially when other funding is so tight-will be a distorting influence on open communication and on the pursuit of basic scholarship, Lederberg wrote, although he noted that many, perhaps most, university scientists disagreed with his views.2 A few years later, in January 1982, Admiral Bobby R. Inman, then deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, emphasized the threats that open scientific communication presented to U.S. national security.