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The American Geophysical Union has been one of the most effective of scientific organizations. It has earned and maintained the warm affection of its members, who in turn have served it well. Alert to new trends and flexible, the Union has accommodated and welcomed new developing subdisciplines while ministering to the needs of established fields. Holding the Union together has been no small task. In any scientific organization there are splitters and uniters, and all too often the splitters go their way. The Union has been fortunate in producing leaders who have worked patiently and skillfully for the common good. In their efforts they have had favorable factors working for them. Geophysics has been an exciting, evolving science with interesting new developments occurring frequently. The activities of the various Sections and the interests of geophysicists overlap in many ways. From the standpoint of intellectual content and economy of effort, an umbrella organization for all aspects of geophysics makes good sense. Other factors tending to strengthen the Union have included its organizational structure and modes of operation.

More than 650 persons (over 100 were physicians) attended the symposium on "Selected Mechanisms of the Skin: Sweating and Pigmentation" held at the Biltmore Hotel, New York City, on May 8, 1963. The Society of Cosmetic Chemists is the scientific organization of the technical personnel interested in cosmetics. The Society has for a number of years sponsored symposia and seminars (currently three national programs of this type are held annually). This was the first occasion on which one of these programs was cosponsored. The objective of the symposium was to present current scientific views and recently developed experimental data in the two areas of interest which would be of value to an audience of cosmetic chemists as well as clinical and research oriented dermatologists. Mr. Raymond Sterzer, President of the Revlon Research Center Inc., and Dr. Adolph Rostenberg, Jr., MD, Professor and Head, Department of Dermatology, University of Illinois, divided

Part 1 Boulton and Watt: introductory - the steam engine, the partnership early business Cornwall changing fortunes general activities. Part 2 Boulton, Watt and Sons: Soho foundry scientific organization wages and labour conditions business policy conclusion appendices.

We enter on the fifty-fourth year of our existence as a scientific organization with two outstanding achievements which will stand for our future historian as milestones in the annals of the association. The first of these is the resumption of personal and scientific contacts with European fellow workers which were so rudely severed by the World War. The present meeting will still be fresh in our minds when many of us depart overseas to renew old friendships, to acquaint ourselves with others who are known to us only by name and to enjoy again the intellectual stimulus that results from actual contact with co-workers of various and different nationalities. It may perhaps be thought that the dermatologists of the world have been slow in resuming their international relations. Eighteen years have elapsed since the last International Dermatological Congress in Rome, and the twelve years since the end of the war

During the period extending from August 12, 1963, until the end of that month, the attention of the scientific world will be directed toward the Symposium on the International Geophysical Year and on the Thirteenth General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. The General Assembly will be held at the University of California at Berkeley, and the IGY Symposium will take place at the University of California at Los Angeles. In view of the impact of geophysics on recent scientific history, as well as on the activities of the National Academy of Sciences, these affairs will be of particular significance during the 1963 Centenary year of the Academy. As the leading scientific organization in the field of geophysics and related planetary sciences, the American Geophysical Union will exert every effort to make these events memorable ones.

Two years have passed since my responsibilities for editing the space physics section of the Journal of Geophysical Research were handed on to an able successor. During this period, my feeling that the membership of the American Geophysical Union wishes to know more regarding the editing of their journals has been reinforced. The various journals of the American Geophysical Union, along with the meetings it sponsors, provide the chief justification for the AGU's existence as a scientific organization. Because its journals are central to many aspects of the scientific endeavors of the AGU and its individual members, interest in the functions and responsibilities of the editors is wide and natural. It was therefore surprising to me to find that these functions and responsibilities are, to a large extent, poorly understood, perhaps, only for the simple reason that editors write little about the details of their editorial philosophy and their job.

These topics were more than usually prominent at Southport, on account of the joint meeting of the International Meteorological Committee under the presidency of Professor Mascart, by reason of the interest aroused by Sir Norman Lockyer's paper before the Physical Section of the Association and from the fact that the presidential address to the Geographical Section was delivered by a magnetician. There were present a majority of the International Meteorological Committee, besides several members of two subcommittees, including the writer. The proceedings, so far as they related to the above subjects, were as follows: The Royal Saxon Academy of Sciences submitted the text of resolutions adopted by the Commission on the Physics of the Globe, regarding the scientific organization of investigations in atmospheric electricity, and it was decided that if these resolutions were approved by the International Association of Academies, the Committee would aid in having the investigations undertaken. Dr. Paulsen, of Copenhagen, exhibited an instrument for collecting atmospheric electricity by radio-active salts. It was voted that Dr. Snellen, who had resigned the directorship of the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute to take charge of the magnetic observatory at De Bilt, near Utrecht, be authorized to receive and distribute the observations on quiet magnetic days. The question proposed by Rev. J. de Moidrey concerning disturbed days was referred to the magnetic subcommittee. It was announced that Professor Rucker had consented to remain chairman of this committee, which would hold a meeting in conjunction with the British Association at Cambridge in August, 1904.

I reply to your doubts and questions concerning my studies as follows. The degree I acquire, having passed those 26 examinations in the course of six years or so, is simply "Physician," and it gives me the right, or rather it obligates me, to exercise my profession in a locality and at a hospital designated by the powers that be. Further scientific degrees will be rather inaccessible for me on account of my various handicaps, class obstacle, etc. The future scientific organization will be recruited from men of worker and peasant origin. The next higher degree is that of a "Candidate." That one is awarded on presentation of a thesis and the passing of more examinations. It is part of a new order and replaces the old "Doctor" degree, which from now on is reserved for persons of a higher scientific achievement and is to be compared with that of

SINCE the Soviet Union's yesterday is Communist China's today, the scientific work of China has had to be reoriented to follow the Soviet J pattern. The highest scientific organization in China, the Academia Sinica, established by the Nationalists in 1928, has been reorganized and moved from Nanking to Peking. Marxist litterateur Mo-ju Kuo was appointed its president. He is assisted by six vice-presidents, three of whom are leading natural scientists who were educated abroad: Ssu-kwang, or J. S., Lee (geologist, Ph.D., University of Birmingham); Co-ching Chu (meteorologist, Ph.D., Harvard University); and Yu-hsun Wu (physicist, Ph.D., University of Chicago). The other three vice-presidents are Meng-ho Tao, a social scientist, Chin-fu Chang, a Communist party member, and Po-ta Cheng, wartime private secretary to Mao Tse-tung. In June, 1955, the Academy grouped its more than fifty research institutes into four divisions: (1) humanities and social sciences, including philosophy, history, and economics; (2) pure sciences, including mathematics, physics, and chemistry; (3) earth sciences, including biology, geology, and geography; and (4) the applied sciences and engineering.

Background A recently published NIH-funded study named “Bracing in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Trial” (BrAIST) affirmed the efficacy of bracing for moderate adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and reduced surgical recommendations in braced patients. The implications of this study are numerous. BrAIST affirms the value of bracing, but also confirms the importance of wear time, and points to the need to assess compliance with compulsory utilization of brace monitors. Additionally, one of the key implications of the study relates to early detection, possibly heralding a new era for scoliosis screening policy adoption.