s absent? We now
know that in infectious diseases the first alternative is true; the
patient is ill because he harbors pathogenic germs. The opposite case
prevails in deficiency diseases, where necessary vitamins are absent
from food and illness is brought about by this absence. To which of the
classes does adhesion belong? When we cannot produce a dependable bond,
are we dealing with the lack of some adhesive force or with existence of
an obstacle to sticking?"

Operating on the theory that adhesion might result not only from the
presence of a sticky agent but from the removal of all impediments to
sticking, this scientist has now managed to produce strong adhesion
between the least sticky of substances--polyethylene plastics. He has
done it by studying the molecular structure of polyethylenes and
removing all impurities which normally find their way into the
manufacture of such material. The next step: "We hope to prepare
adhesive joints in which a noble gas acts as an adhesive. Noble gases
are the least active substances known to chemistry; if they can adhere,
it is clear that no specific forces are needed for adhesiveness."[4]

No great imagination is required to perceive the meaning which this new
knowledge, if proved out, will have for our everyday lives--to say
nothing of its usefulness in the making of astronautic equipment.

THE ULTIMATE VALUES

In any event, it is apparent that where research is concerned--and
especially space research with its broad scale of inquiry--we cannot
always see the value of scientific endeavor on the basis of its
beginning. We cannot always account for what we have purchased with each
research dollar.

The Government stated this proposition when it first undertook to put
the space program on a priority basis:

Scientific research has never been amenable to rigorous cost
accounting in advance. Nor, for that matter, has exploration of any
sort. But if we have learned one lesson, it is that research and
exploration have a remarkable way of paying off--quite apart from
the fact that they demonstrate that man is alive and insatiably
curious. And we all feel richer for knowing what explorers and
scientists have learned about the universe in which we live.[5]

In this statement there is political support for what the historian, the
anthropologist, the psychologist consider to be established fact--that
some innate force in the human being makes h