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The tensions of the Cold War focussed attention on the role that universities might play through their science and technology expertise and research. At the same time the United States needed to secure its allies as the threat of a new European war, and the actuality of the Korean War, developed in the late 1940s and 1950s. These pressures contributed to the Carnegie Corporation’s assessment that the time was ripe to send a ‘key man’ to Australia and New Zealand.

I visited the universities of Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, and the New South Wales University of Technology, and attended a week’s Seminar on Science in Australia at Canberra. At Canberra I had an opportunity to talk informally in the hotel lobby with a number of scientists from different universities as well as to listen to the formal discussions for five days. On that occasion I also had an opportunity to talk briefly with the Vice‐Chancellors of two of the three universities which I did not visit personally, namely, Currie of Western Australia an Hytten of Hobart. About the University of Queensland I am totally uninformed and it may possibly be an exception to all that follows, though if it were a marked exception it would seem that this fact would have been called to my attention in a number of the conversations. In addition to these direct sources of information about the academic world, my talks with some of the industrial leaders at Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, with some of the political people of both parties, and one or two short comments by reporters and radio interviewers gave me some indication of the feeling of the general public about the universities. Likewise the controversy which has been quite acute in Sydney about the relation of the technical college to the University and the development of the New South Wales University of Technology threw a good deal of light on academic politics.

The points I want to make about Conant in the rest of this commentary will not be devoted to the Carnegie philanthropy and its objectives, nor to the acuity of Conant’s observations on Australia or New Zealand. Those matters are best left to scholars from Australia or New Zealand like Craig Campbell. I do, however, want to offer some explanation for why Conant was so concerned with the secondary school in his Australian and New Zealand adventures, and to put that interest in the context of his own slight but meaningful encounter with public secondary education in the US, both prior to and after visiting Australia and New Zealand. Again, hubris seems to have played a role. Conant discoursed on secondary education as if he had an extended background on the topic. The truth was, however, that he had little experience in a high school, and no experience in a public high school.

Briefly reviews previous literature by the author before presenting an original 12 step system integration protocol designed to ensure the success of companies or countries in their efforts to develop and market new products. Looks at the issues from different strategic levels such as corporate, international, military and economic. Presents 31 case studies, including the success of Japan in microchips to the failure of Xerox to sell its invention of the Alto personal computer 3 years before Apple: from the success in DNA and Superconductor research to the success of Sunbeam in inventing and marketing food processors: and from the daring invention and production of atomic energy for survival to the successes of sewing machine inventor Howe in co‐operating on patents to compete in markets. Includes 306 questions and answers in order to qualify concepts introduced.

‘THE WORLD is becoming so complex that if a man stops his education when he leaves school, college or even professional school he is doomed to educational mediocrity.’ James B Conant, President, Harvard University.

[The Dictionary of Scientific Biography, the “Landmark” reference work featured in this issue of RSR, is treated from two perspectives. Charles Scribner, Jr. describes the genesis of the DSB and provides some anecdotal and philosophical background about the deliberations and difficulties that culminated in this important reference resource. Sheldon T. Miller reviews the DSB and comments that it is hard to remember how historians of science managed before its publication. We present two views of the DSB which should provide its users with a broader understanding of how it was developed and how it can be used. Kathleen Heim]

The main purpose of this contribution lies in the attempt to show that the future of western civilisation has been placed in jeopardy as a result of the declining influence of the Christian ethic, a system of transcendental values, and the increased acceptance of moral relativism due to the zeal and diligence of the proponents of secular humanism, naturalism, pragmatism and utilitarianism.

During the NEA’s early years, the higher education community formed the core of the organization’s leadership, and higher education issues in turn represented a key area of NEA policymaking. The late 19th and early 20th century Association was fundamentally a professional group with a large teacher membership but little teacher representation in its leadership. In fact, it was only after the first 100 years of the NEA’s existence that the organization made an effective transition toward becoming a labor union, led by teachers and faculty members and focusing its primary energies on collective bargaining – first in the K-12 arena and soon after in higher education. Most recently, the NEA has sought to synthesize the two roles – that of professional association and union.

In the past three decades India has been one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Per capita income has increased fourfold, from $229 in 1980 to $318 in 1990 to nearly $900 in 2010 (constant 2000 dollars). Although there is growing evidence of increases in income inequality, standard measures of inequality such as the Gini coefficient are still considerably less in India than in other Brazil, Russia, India, Chinas (BRICs) (or the United States). Consequently this rapid growth has led to a substantial expansion of India's middle class (and a concomitant decline in poverty).