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WARREN WEAVER
July 17, 1894-November24, 1978
BY MINA REES
INTRODUCTION
WARREN WEAVER ctied on November 24, INS, at his
home in New Milforct, Connecticut. The New MilforcI
house in the Connecticut countryside was a haven of beauty
and peace. It hac! been conceived and plannect and built with
full concern for all the little details that were important to
him and to Mary, his wife of many years, as they lookocl for-
warc! to the happy years together after Warren's retirement.
They tract been fellow students at the University of Wiscon-
sin she was Mary Hemenway then and their marriage a
few years after their graduation brought them an affectionate
family life, shared by their son, Warren Jr. (ancl his family),
and their daughter, Helen.
Warren Weaver started his career as a teacher of mathe-
matics. But before his thirty-eighth birthday he became a
foundation executive when he accepted the post of director
of the Division of Natural Sciences of the Rockefeller Foun-
clation. In that role he exercised a profound influence on the
clevelopment of biology worIdwicle, anct it was probably for
this that he was best known during his lifetime. During his
years as an officer of the Rockefeller Foundation, however,
and during his service as an officer of the Sloan Foundation
493
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494
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
after his retirement from the Rockefeller post, his
influence
on many other aspects of science expanded and its impact
was broadly felt.
Weaver assumed the vice-presidency of the Sloan Foun-
dation immediately after his statutory retirement from the
Rockefeller Foundation in 1959. But he reduced the amount
of time he spent at his office so that he would have more time
for his family and the extensive property at his New Milford
home. He liked intellectual work, but he also loved to do
physical work chopping wood, moving rocks, gardening,
puttering in his shop. He worked all the time: in a doctor's
office (whether the wait was five minutes or half an hour) or
on a commuter train and he commuted regularly. He
found these bits of time important. And he found the work
that he was able to do in these moments very rewarding.
These personal qualities, combined with his great plea-
sure in working with and absorbing new ideas in physics and
new results across a broad spectrum of scientific research,
made possible his extraordinarily productive life. His per-
formance as a philanthropoid (his term) was exemplary; in
addition to the Rockefeller and Sloan Foundation positions,
he also held responsible posts in the civilian scientific effort
that supported the military services during World War Il.
After the war his achievements as an expositor of science gave
him a distinctive role in the growing movement to promote
the understanding of science on the part of the nonscientific
public.
These are the main themes to which T shall devote this
memoir.
CAREER CHOICE, ARMY SERVICE, AND MARRIAGE
Weaver was born on July 17, 1894, in the little town of
Reedsburg, Wisconsin (population circa 2,000). As a child he
was shy, introspective, unskilled in sports, and often lone-
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WARREN WEAVER
495
some. His fondness for his elder brother Paul, which became
a warm ancT important part of both their lives, developed only
after their graduation from college. Paul took a job in bank-
ing—as a result of parental pressure but soon rebelled and
pursued his own vocation, becoming an accomplished pian-
ist-organist anct encling his career as head of the School of
Music at Cornell. Warren's career tract a more intriguing gen-
esis.
When Warren was a youngster, his father, who was a phar-
macist, made an annual buying trip to purchase the drug-
store's supply of Christmas toys for the coming holiday sea-
son. It was tractitional for him to return with a gift for each
of the boys. After one of these trips, Warren received a small
electric motor that was powered by a dry cell. It was labeler!
"Ajax" ant! cost a clolIar. As Warren wrote some sixty years
. . .
ater in a paper on careers in science:
.
Within a few weeks I had built, with spools and similar household
objects, all the little devices that could be run with the tiny torque of this
motor. I took off the field winding, re-wound it and it would still run!
Getting more adventuresome, I took off the armature winding and dis-
covered how it had to be put back on so as to recapture the miracle of
movement.
I promptly decided that this was for me. I didn't know any name to
apply to this sort of activity—I didn't know (or care, I suspect) whether
anyone could earn his living doing this kind of thing. But it was perfectly
clear to me that taking things apart and finding out how they are con-
structed and how they work was exciting, stimulating, and tremendous
fun.
It may well be the case that in the small rural village where I lived . . .
there was not a single person who had any real concept of what the word
"science" meant. I was accordingly told that this was "engineering"; and
from that time until I was a junior in college, I assumed without question
that I wanted to be an engineer.
' Warren Weaver, "Careers in Science," in Listen to Leaders in Science, ed. Albert
Love and lames Saxon Childers (Atlanta: Tupper & Love/David McKay, 1965), p.
276.
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496
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
It was at the University of Wisconsin that Warren—study-
ing"Acivancecl Mathematics for Engineers" realized that
his enthusiasm was for science rather than for engineering.
He clecicled to pursue a graduate clegree in mathematics and
theoretical physics as soon as this proved feasible. Immecli-
ately after receiving a degree in civil engineering in ~ 9 ~ 7 (he
had earner! a B.S. in mathematics in 1916), he accepted an
invitation from Robert A. Millikan to become an assistant
professor of mathematics at Throop College (soon to be re-
namect the California Institute of Technology). Millikan was
just shifting his interests from Chicago to Pasadena and was
planning to spend one academic quarter there each year. Max
Mason, a brilliant mathematical physicist who hacT been
Weaver's teacher and close friend at Wisconsin, suggested
Weaver to Millikan. Mason and Charles Sumner Slichter, pro-
fessor of applied mathematics at Wisconsin, were the two
professors who most influenced Weaver's choice of a career.
Mason would continue to be an important influence in his
life in the years immediately aheacT.
Weaver tract been at Throop for less than a year when he
was drafted into the Army at the request of Charles E. Men-
denhall, chairman of the Physics Department at Wisconsin.
Mendenhall was then serving as a major in the Army's unit
associated with the newly formed National Research Council.
Weaver was assigned to participate in one of the technical
efforts, carried on chiefly at the National Bureau of Stan-
clarcis, to clevelop effective equipment to assist U.S. aviators
in the air battles of World War I. He was dischargect as a
second lieutenant in about a year. After a brief interIucle
teaching at Wisconsin, he returned to Pasadena—but not be-
fore marrying Mary Hemenway anc! taking her back with
him.
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WARREN WEAVER
THE LIFE OF A PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS
497
The next year at Pasadena was delightful and stimulating.
But in the spring of 1920, as the enct of the academic year
approached, a letter from Madison invited Weaver to join the
faculty at Wisconsin. There was also a most important letter
from Max Mason, who urged Warren to accept Wisconsin's
offer and suggested that they work together on a book on
electromagnetic fielct theory. For Warren this was irresist-
ible the opportunity to collaborate with Mason, whose in-
sights, brilliance, and imagination he so greatly admirecl.
And his own power as an expositor wouIcl be given full rein
because Mason hacl no fondness for committing ideas to pa-
per.
By the fall of 1920, the newlyweds were establishect in
Mactison, where they were to remain for the next twelve
years. In 1921 Warren earnest his Ph.D. His collaboration
with Mason began promptly and was vigorously pursued. In
1925, however, Mason left to become president of the Uni-
versity of Chicago, while Weaver carried on alone in Madison,
sending ctrafts to Mason in Chicago. In 1928 Weaver suc-
ceeded Ec~warc! Burr Van VIeck as chairman of the Depart-
ment of Mathematics.
The Mason—Weaver book, The Electromagnetic Field, was
publishec! in 1929. For some years thereafter, it was the book
from which many graduate students in physics Earned Max-
well's field equations anc! the associated theory. For occasional
physicists whom he met in later years, Warren Weaver be-
came "Weaver, of Mason and Weaver."
Although his most important writing in the years at Mad-
ison was the collaboration with Mason, Weaver also published
occasional papers in mathematics, chiefly in probability
theory ant! statistics, subjects for which he continued to have
great enthusiasm throughout his life. Anct in 1924 he pub-
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498
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
fished jointly with Max Mason what he callect "a really
good mathematical paper" that turned out to contain the
funciamental analytical theory of the supercentrifuge.
The publication in 1963 of Lady Luck, his little book on
probability, is an indication of his continuing interest in the
subject and of his conviction that it should be accessible to
laymen, particularly young students. Lady Luck is an instance
of Weaver's rare gift of exposition. But his own estimate of
most of the mathematical papers he publishect cluring his stay
at Wisconsin was that they were routine solutions of specific
problems, not real aciclitions to mathematical knowledge. He
complained that he never seemed to get a first-liass original
idea for advancing mathematics itself.
THE LURE OF THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION
In 1931 a disturbing and unexpected invitation arrived
from Max Mason, an invitation that raised the possibility of
Weaver's leaving what he and his wife consiclerec! a nearly
iclyIlic life in Madison. Mason had left the presidency of the
University of Chicago in 1928 to take on responsibility for
the work in the natural sciences that was supported by the
Rockefeller Foundation; in 1930, he assumed the presidency
of the foundation. In the fall of 193 I, Mason invited Weaver
to come to New York to (liscuss the possibility of his joining
the staff of the Rockefeller Foundation as head of its pro-
gram in the natural sciences. Weaver was reluctant to accept
the invitation for many reasons. But the fact that it came
from Mason and includect a free trip to New York (which he
had never seen) settled the matter. Weaver was oh to New
York.
The city itself provect at least as alluring as he had imag-
ine(1 anc! the visit to the Rockefeller Founclation as tempt-
ing. Here we must stop to consider, on the one hand, the
organizational situation in the Rockefeller Foundation at that
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WARREN WEAVER
499
time and, on the other hanct, the ideas about the state of
science that had been brewing on many of the country's cam-
puses in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
On the campuses there was talk that the century of biol-
ogy was upon us. At Wisconsin, for example, there was a
lively program in biology at the School of Agriculture as well
as in the College of Arts and Sciences. Mason and Weaver
tract often discussed a new thrust in biology anct the oppor-
tunities that wouIc! open up if some of the most imaginative
physical scientists turned their attention and some of the
sophisticated instruments they had developed to the ex-
amination of biological problems. Weaver complained about
the lack of really gooct ideas in the biological literature and
its failure to produce the intellectual ferment characteristic
of much of the work in the physical sciences. At the time of
his first visit to New York, he hoped to interest the trustees
of the Rockefeller Foundation in a substantial shift in clirec-
tion: he wanted to bring to reality a change in the major
thrust of biological research worIdwicle no mean ambition.
Happily, his timing was fortuitous.
The Rockefeller Foundation hac! recently been reorga-
nizecI, absorbing several other Rockefeller agencies that tract
been founclect for special purposes that no longer required
separate settings. The founciation's aim, "to promote the
well-being of mankind throughout the worIct," was inter-
preted by the trustees as being best servecI, in the immediate
future, by the support of the scientific research of incliviclu-
als. (This contrasted with their practice in the immediate
past, when large sums were spent on plant and endowment,
chiefly at a few major institutions, or on the funding of new
research establishments such as the Woods Hole Oceano-
graphic Institution.)
The newly created Division of Natural Sciences thus
would be faced with cleciding how "the well-being of man-
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500
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
kind throughout the worIcI" could best be served through the
support of science. The amount then available roughly $2
million a year was substantial; in 1932, it constituted a large
percentage of the funcis available for the support of research
in the United States. But although the funds available were
substantial, they were nonetheless limitect, particularly since
the foundation defined its program in the natural sciences as
concerned broadly with anything that was science but not
medicine. Some principles of selection would need to be es-
tablishect.
In the discussions with the trustees on his visit to New
York, Weaver was asked for his ideas on the Rockefeller pro-
gram for the support of scientific research. He expressed his
satisfaction with his own experience in the physical sciences,
a field that had been a principal beneficiary of Rockefeller
support. But he also statec! his conviction that the most strik-
ing progress in science would soon occur in the biological
field. There, he thought, the Rockefeller Foundation would
have a great opportunity. He urged that it undertake a long-
range program of support of quantitative biology a pro-
gram that wouIct seek to apply to outstanding problems of
biology some of the methods and machines that had been so
successful in the physical sciences.
Although he urged his point of view with his customary
persuasiveness, Weaver also insistec! that he was not the man
to preside over the proposed program; he was, after all, not
trained as a biologist. He dicT, however, have the background
in the physical sciences that he himself had argued shouict be
brought into the picture; anct he returned to Madison with
an invitation to become the director of a newly definer] Di-
vision of Natural Sciences of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Thus he anct his wife were faced with the difficult decision
that made so complete a change in their lives. In his autobi-
ography, Weaver says of one of the elements in their decision:
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WARREN WEAVER
501
I think . . . that I was both realistic and accurate about my abilities and
my limitations. I loved to teach, and knew that I had been successful at it.
I had a good capacity for assimilating information, something of a knack
for organizing, an ability to work with people, a zest for exposition, an
enthusiasm that helped to advance my ideas. But I lacked that strange and
wonderful creative spark that makes a good researcher.
Thus I realized that there was a definite ceiling on my possibilities as
a mathematics professor. Indeed, I think I realized that I was already about
as far up in that profession as I was likely to go.2
THE PROGRAM IN EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
After much soul-searching, the Weavers decicled that the
opportunities opening up in New York could not be refused.
In January 1932, Weaver was elected director for the natural
sciences of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Shortly thereafter, Weaver translates] the discussions that
had lee] to his appointment into a formal proposal to the
trustees. In it he suggested that the foundation's science pro-
gram be shifted from its previous preoccupation with the
physical sciences to an "interest in stimulating anct aicTing the
application, to basic biological problems, of the techniques,
experimental procedures, anct methods of analysis so ef-
fectively clevelope(1 in the physical sciences." The trustees
acloptecl this recommendation.
Commenting on this action, Dean Rusk president of the
foundation from 1952 to 1960 wrote in his introduction to
the 1958 president's report (the last before Weaver's retire-
ment):
In 1932 - 33 The Rockefeller Foundation elected to center its major
scientific effort in the sciences concerned with living things.... EThis] ma-
jor emphasis . . . which continues to characterize the Foundation's science
program, rested upon four considerations. First, The life sciences] could
2 Warren Weaver, Scene of Change, a Lifetime in American Science (New York: Charles
Scribner & Sons, Inc.), p. 62.
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502
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
be expected to add significantly to a better understanding of man himself,
whose well-being is a basic charter concern of the Foundation. Second, the
life sciences were intimately linked with medicine and public health, the
central interests of the Foundation in its opening decades. Third, in the
early 1930's the several sciences concerned with living things seemed to be
poised for a historical surge forward, with exciting possibilities opening
up in all directions. Finally, it seemed at the time that the life sciences were
not receiving the public interest and financial support which were war-
ranted by their intellectual promise and by their potential capacity to con-
tribute brilliantly to man's practical needs. The decisions gave The Rocke-
feller Foundation a morle.st share in ~ erect ~rlventllre which is conrinllin~
to unfold.3
_ ~
in,
The trustees' clecision involved a major change in the mo-
clus operancti of the foundation. In 1933 the program state-
ment formulatec} for the Natural Sciences Division articu-
latec} this change and set forth these general principles to
provide the desirect direction as well as the necessary flexi-
bility to the program of the clivision:
A highly selective procedure is necessary if the available funds are not
to lose significance through scattering. In the past, this selection has con-
sisted chiefly of a choice of scientific leaders, among both men and insti-
tutions, although there has always been some selection on the basis of fields
of interest. It is proposed, for the future program, that interest in the fields
play the dominant role in the selection process. Within the fields of inter-
est, selection will continue to be made of leading men and institutions.
In general, this narrowing of purpose in the specialized program
should result in greater emphasis on the biological and related fields, and
especially in greater emphasis on the study of man himself.
A small provision should be made in the budget of the program to
care for unpredictable but unquestionable opportunities.
The program should always be kept flexible.
The immediate and underlying values in science justify a continuation
of general support to the development of science.4
3 The Rockefeller Foundation, President's Review and Annual Report, 1958 (New
York: The Foundation), p. 5.
4 The Rockefeller Foundation, President's Review and Annual Report, 1958, p. 26.
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520
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
of three specialists E. C. Stakman (plant pathology), Rich-
arc! Bractfielc! (soils), and Paul Mangelsclorf (corn genetics
and plant breeding) who visited all the regions of Mexico
at the request of the Rockefeller Foundation. They deter-
mined that a great clear could be done anct outlined basic
principles for the conduct of the work. After careful prepa-
ration the project was set up in Mexico in 1942 with the par-
ticipation of the Mexican government; it was headed by
I. George Harrar.
The work in Mexico prospered, and in 1950 a similar
program was establishect in Colombia. Then Chile and other
Central and South American countries entered the program.
Improved varieties of wheat were Erect in Mexico anti suc-
cessfully introclucec! into a number of African and Asian
countries. With the cooperation of the Ford Foundation, an
International Rice Research Institute was created in the Phil-
ippines on lane] furnished by the Philippine government.
Sturdy, high-yielding rice was successfully brect there anct cTis-
tributed widely in Asia.
Commenting on the dwarf wheat strain cleveloped in
Mexico ant! the improved rice strain cleveloped in the Phil-
ippines, an eclitorial in Nature (August ~ 0, ~ 968) sai(l, "They
have provider! countries which were perennially faced with
starvation with the means not only to become self-sufficient,
but equally important,
tional pricle."
to regain their self-respect and na-
Although Warren Weaver had continuing contact with
this program during the war, his associates in the Rockefeller
Foundation assumed the principal day-by-day responsibility.
At the end of the war, after he had recovered from radical
surgery necessitated by repeated and painful attacks of Men-
iere's disease, he Elevated much of his time and energy to this
expanding agricultural program. In 1970, looking back on
his nearly thirty years of service to the Rockefeller Founda-
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WARREN WEAVER
521
tion, he expressed satisfaction at having been associated with
two programs, "in both of which ~ had the privilege of major
administrative responsibility: the program in experimental
biology which played a significant role in initiating and cle-
veloping the present-clay field of molecular biology; and the
agricultural program."
OTHER ENTHUSIASMS
This account has focused on Warren Weaver's profes-
sional career over a period of nearly fifty years. Although his
professional life was clemancling, he had many hobbies, one
of which was collecting. For a time, his chief interest in col-
lecting was in acquiring a library that would represent the
historical landmarks in the development of the physical sci-
ences. But when he realizect that his interest in Alice in Won-
deriand anc! in her friend the Reverenct Charles Dodgson
(a.k.a. Lewis Carroll)- was competing with his plans for this
library, he faced the inevitable: he hac] to choose to which of
these clelights he wouIc! cleclicate his limiter! resources. Alice
won, with the result that at the ens! of his life, Warren Weav-
er's Lewis Carroll collection, now at the University of Texas
in Austin, was among the important private collections in the
world.
Weaver clerivect great pleasure and satisfaction from his
Carroll collection, and some of his enthusiasm found its way
into print. Probably the most interesting of these publications
is a book called Alice in Many Tongues. The book in part re-
ports on the problems and fun of acquiring so many different
translations of Alice. But it also discusses the problems that
must be faced in trying to come to grips in many different
tongues with the clifficulties introduced by a text that relies
on parocliect verse, puns, nonsense words, jokes involving
~ ~ Weaver, Scene of Change, p. ~ 03.
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522
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
logic, and twists of meaning for much of its clelight. When
Alice in Many Tongues was written, translations hac! been macle
into forty-seven languages; there were over 300 translatecI
editions. The total number of languages represented in the
Weaver collection was forty-two (although he hacl 160 differ-
ent translations).
The pursuit of Alice in Woncieriand and other aspects of
Dodgson's activities was what Weaver callecI one of his minor
enthusiasms. Religion was a major enthusiasm after his fam-
ily, which came first, and his work, which came second. From
earliest childhood, church was a family ritual, and in aclult-
hood, it tract become a cherished part of Sunday's special
quality. For years there seemed to be no neect to question the
interrelationship between science and religion; each played
an important role in Weaver's life, but he felt no conflict be-
tween them. When he clecided in the 1950s that he should
examine the conflict many other people dicT feel, his conclu-
sion was that he could find none between a properly humble
science and a properly intelligent religion. He became the
scientist par excellence who was often invited to speak at
churches anct at religious gatherings. Whenever he published
an article on this subject, it was widely reprinted. One article,
"A Scientist Ponders Faith," was published in the Saturday
Review of January 3, 1959, anct was reprinted by nine other
publications cluring the next two years. Weaver was con-
vincec] that there was a permanent core of truth in religion
as there is in science anct that religious ideas, like scientific
ones, evolve with the acquisition of new knowleclge. He was
perfectly comfortable with his conclusions, realizing full well
that they clid not conform with the bulk of religious opinion.
CONCLUSION
How to sum up the account of this extraordinary man?
Witty, forthright, a superb raconteur, skillet! in the use of
OCR for page 523
WARREN WEAVER
523
words as few of us can hope to be, Warren Weaver was a man
whose company was a constant source of stimulation to those
who were closely associated with him. He was a prodigious
worker and a man for whom the conquest of a new and dif-
ficult idea, particularly in science, was an event of impor-
tance. He viewed science as the most successful of man's in-
tellectual adventures, anc! in some senses his whole life was
devoted to science.
He bore the discomforts of declining health with forti-
tucle, ant! liver] the last of his years with a grace that made
them as ad mirable as the many years before them years rich
in enjoyment ant] achievement.
IT IS DIFFICULT TO EXPRESS adequately my appreciation of the
kindness and hospitality of Warren Weaver's immediate family in
helping me to arrive at an adequate understanding of his multifa-
ceted life, some parts of which were quite outside my personal ex-
perience of him. Mrs. Weaver put at my disposal his personal re-
cords filed at their Connecticut home, including a copy of the oral
history interview recorded for the Columbia University Oral His-
tory Project in the spring of 1961. In addition, she responded to
my questions by calling upon her experience and her own recollec-
t~ons.
The Rockefeller Foundation has been generous with its help and
has provided me with access to the Weaver files at the Rockefeller
Archive Center at Pocantico Hills, New York. Assistance with this
memoir also was generously given by a number of people asso-
ciated with diverse phases of Warren Weaver's life. These include,
in addition to the Weaver family, Dennis Flanagan, H. H. Gold-
stine, Alexander Hollaender, Robert S. Morison, Gerard Piel, E. R.
Piore, Nan S. Robinson, and Dael Wolfle. For all of this help, I
express my great appreciation.
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524
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
B IBLIOGRAPHY
1920
Forecast. Am. Math. Mon., 27(May):205-9.
The average reading vocabulary; an application of Bayes's Theo-
rem. Am. Math. Mon., 27~0ctober):347-54.
The pressure of sound. Phys. Rev., 15~5~:399-404.
The kinetic theory of magnetism. Phys. Rev., 16~5) :438-48.
1924
With Max Mason. The settling of small particles in a fluid. Phys.
Rev., 23~3~:412-26.
1925
Elementary Mathematical Analysis, a Textbook for First-year College
Students, by Charles S. Slichter,3d rev. ea., ed. Warren Weaver.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
1926
The duration of the transient state in the settling of small particles.
Phys. Rev., 27~4~:499 - 503.
1927
Die Diffusion kleiner Teilchen in einer Flussigkeit. Z. Phys.,
43:296-98.
1928
Die Sedimentationszeit kleiner Teilchen in einer Flussigkeit. Z.
Phys., 49:311-14.
With H. W. March. Diffusion problem for a solid in contact with a
stirred liquid. Phys. Rev., 3 1 (6~: 1 072-82.
1929
With Max Mason. The Electromagnetic Field. New York: Dover Pub-
lications (University of Chicago Press).
Review of A Debate on the Theory of Relativity by R. D. Carmichael et
al. Am. Math. Mon., 27( January):38-42.
Science and imagination. Sci. Mon., 29(November):425-34.
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WARREN WEAVER
525
1930
Geophysical prospecting. Bull. Assoc. State Eng. Soc., 5(3):76-90
Mathematics and the problem of ore location. Am. Math. Mon.
27(April): 165-81.
The reign of probability. Sci. Mon., 31(November):457-66.
1932
Conformal representation, with applications to problems of ap-
plied mathematics. Am. Math. Mon., 39~0ctober):448-73.
Uplift pressure on dams. J. Math. Phys. (MIT), 11~2~: 114-45.
1938
Lewis Carroll and a geometrical paradox. Am. Math. Mon.,
45(April) :234-36.
1947
Chapter 1 and the introductions to all 15 chapters. In: The Scientists
Speak. New York: Boni & Gaer.
1948
Probability, rarity, interest, and surprise. Sci. Mon., 67(De-
cember):390-92.
Science and complexity. Am. Sci., 36~4~:536-44.
Statistical freedom of the will. Rev. Mod. Phys., 20~1~:31-34.
1949
The mathematics of communication. Sci. Am., 1 8 1 ~ July): 1 1-1 5.
Recent contributions to the mathematical theory of communica-
tion. In: The Mathematical Theory of Communication, by Claude
Shannon and Warren Weaver, pp. 93-117. Urbana: University
of Illinois Press.
1950
Probability. Sci. Am., 183~0ctober):44-47.
Reply to Professor McConnell's letter regarding extrasensory per-
ception (correspondence on probabilities). Sci. Mon., 70(Feb-
ruary): 1 38 - 40.
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526
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1951
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, its origin, its author. Princeton
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1952
Statistics. Sci. Am., 186( [anuary):60-63.
1953
Fundamental questions in science. Sci. Am., 1 89(September):32,
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Probability and statistics, the mathematical way of estimating risk.
(Delivered at the 200th Anniversary of the Mutual Insurance
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Brothers.
1954
The mathematical manuscripts of Lewis Carroll. Proc. Am. Philos.
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People, energy, food. Sci. Mon., 78( {une):359-64.
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1955
Can a scientist believe in God? In: A Guide to the Religions of America,
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Foreword and chapter 1 (entitled "Translation" and based on a
memorandum drawn up for the Rockefeller Foundation in July
1949~. In: Machine Translation of Languages, ed. William N. Locke
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The Patent Once problem. (Delivered before a joint meeting of
the American Patent Law Association and the New York Patent
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Science and faith. (Delivered on Layman's Sunday in the Congre-
gational Church of New Milford, Connecticut, May 1954.)
Christian Century, 72 ( January 51: 10 -13.
Science and people. Science, 122(December 30~:1255-59.
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WARREN WEAVER
1956
527
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Report of the Committee on Genetic Effects of Atomic Radiation.
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1957
Radiations and the genetic threat. I. Franklin Inst., 263~4~:283-93.
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Communicative accuracy. (Editorial.) Science, 127(March 7~:499.
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Dither. (Editorial.) Science, 130(August 7) :301.
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Report of the Special Committee. Science, 1 30(November 20~:
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A scientist ponders faith. Saturday Review, 42( January 3~:8-10.
1960
The attractiveness of dessert. (Editorial.) Science, 132(November
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
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Issues of man and his environment. (Excerpts from remarks made
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Moment of truth. (Editorial.) Science, 131( January 29~:267.
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Words. (Speech delivered at the midwinter dinner of the Citizens
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1961
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Science for citizens. (Speech delivered at Conference on Commu-
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Cancer research: Where are we? Fourfront (Memorial Hospital
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WARREN WEAVER
529
mentary by John Lear of a speech given by Weaver at a sym-
posium at Oakland State College, Michigan State University,
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What a moon ticket will buy. Saturday Review, 45(August 4~:38-
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1963
Dreams and responsibilities. Bull. At. Sci., l9(May):10-11.
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Max Mason. In: Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sci-
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of Sciences.
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33. (Report of a conference sponsored by Oakland University
with the support of the National Science Foundation.) Roches-
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1964
Alice in Many Tongues. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
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Scientific explanation. Science, 143(March 201: 1297-300.
1965
Careers in science. In: Listen to Leaders in Science, ed. Albert Love
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The "India" Alice. The Private Library, 6~11:1-7.
1966
Four pieces of advice to young people. Tennessee Teacher, 33~61:9.
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The inner nature of science. (Excerpted from the Kalinga Prize
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530
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Why is it so important that science be understood? (modified ver-
sion of the Kalinga Prize Speech, October 1965~. Impact Sci.
Soc. (UNESCO), 16(1 ~ :41 - 50.
1967
The art of giving money to science (appearing as an untitled article
in the "Matter of Opinion" column). Sci. Res. (McGraw-Hill),
2~7~:32-36.
Philanthropic foundations and grants to universities. (Letter.) Sci-
ence, 158(December 1~: 133-34.
Science and Imagination. New York: Basic Books, Inc.
U.S. Philanthropic Foundations: Their History, Structure, Management,
and Record. New York: Harper & Row.
1968
Confessions of a scientist-humanist. In: What I Have Learned; A
Collection of Twenty Autobiographical Essays . . . from the "Saturday
Review," pp. 298-309. New York: Simon & Schuster.
1970
Scene of Change: A Lifetime in American Science. New York: Charles
Scribner's & Sons, Inc.
1971
The first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; a census. Pap.
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1975
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., Philanthropist. New York: Alfred P. Sloan Foun-
dation.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
warren weaver
