Editing National Academy of Sciences (section)

==History==
[[File:Keck Center of the National Academies.JPG|thumb|The Keck Center of the National Academies in Washington, D.C., one of several facilities where the National Academy of Sciences maintains offices]]
The Act of Incorporation, signed by President [[Abraham Lincoln]] on March&nbsp;3,&nbsp;1863, created the National Academy of Sciences and named 50 charter members. Many of the original [[Member of the National Academy of Sciences|NAS members]] came from the so-called "[[Scientific Lazzaroni]]", an informal network of mostly physical scientists working in the vicinity of [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] ({{Circa|1850}}).<ref>{{cite web |author=ITS |url=http://www7.nationalacademies.org/archives/nasfounding.html |title=Founding of the National Academy of Sciences |publisher=.nationalacademies.org |access-date=March 12, 2012 |archive-date=February 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130203154802/http://www7.nationalacademies.org/archives/nasfounding.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1863, the organizers enlisted the support of [[Alexander Dallas Bache]], and also [[Charles Henry Davis]], a professional [[astronomer]] who had been recently recalled from the Navy to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] to head the [[Bureau of Navigation (United States Navy)|Bureau of Navigation]]. They also elicited support from Swiss-American geologist [[Louis Agassiz]] and American mathematician  [[Benjamin Peirce|Peirce]], who together planned the steps whereby the National Academy of Sciences was to be established. Senator [[Henry Wilson]] of Massachusetts was to name Agassiz to the Board of Regents of the [[Smithsonian Institution]].<ref>For an analysis of the motives by Alexander Dallas Bache for founding the NAS, see Jansen, Axel (2011). ''Alexander Dallas Bache: Building the American Nation through Science and Education in the Nineteenth Century''. Campus. p. 285–314.</ref>

Agassiz was to come to Washington, D.C., at the government's expense to plan the organization with the others. This bypassed [[Joseph Henry]], who was reluctant to have a bill for such an academy presented to [[United States Congress|Congress]]. This was in the belief that such a resolution would be "opposed as something at variance with our democratic institutions". Nevertheless, Henry soon became the second President of NAS. Agassiz, Davis, Peirce, [[Benjamin Gould]] and Senator Wilson met at Bache's house and "hurriedly wrote the bill incorporating the Academy, including in it the name of fifty incorporators".<ref name=Miller/>

During the last hours of the session, when the Senate was immersed in the rush of last-minute business before its adjournment, Senator Wilson introduced the bill. Without examining it or debating its provisions, both the Senate and House approved it, and President Lincoln signed it.<ref name="Miller">{{cite book|url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=76824285|title=The Lazzaroni: science and scientists in mid-nineteenth-century America|last1=Miller|first1=Lillian|last2=Voss|first2=Frederick|last3=Hussey|first3=Jeannette|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press|year=1972|page=121|access-date=October 26, 2007|archive-date=May 25, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070525215629/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=76824285|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Although hailed as a great step forward in government recognition of the role of science in American society, at the time, the National Academy of Sciences created enormous ill-feelings among scientists,<ref name=Miller/> whether or not they were named as incorporators.

The act states:<blockquote>[T]he Academy shall, whenever called upon by any department of the Government, investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art, the actual expense of such investigations, examinations, experiments, and reports to be paid from appropriations which may be made for the purpose, but the Academy shall receive no compensation whatever for any services to the Government of the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ocga/Other/Act_to_incorporate.asp|title=An Act to Incorporate the National Academy of Sciences|publisher=.nationalacademies.org|author=OCGA|access-date=2012-03-12|archive-date=April 17, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070417074050/http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ocga/Other/Act_to_incorporate.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>The National Academies did not solve the problems facing a nation in [[American Civil War|Civil War]] as the Lazzaroni had hoped, nor did it centralize American scientific efforts.<ref name=Miller/>  However, election to the National Academy did come to be considered "the pinnacle of scientific achievement for Americans" until the establishment of the Nobel Prize at the end of the 19th century.<ref name="Stankus p. ">{{cite book | last=Stankus | first=Tony | editor-last=Stankus | editor-first=Tony | title=Scientific Journals | publisher=Routledge | date=December 6, 2019 | isbn=978-1-003-00222-2 | doi=10.4324/9781003002222 | page=| s2cid=34142177 }}</ref>{{Rp|30}}

In 1870, the congressional charter was amended to remove the limitation on the number of members.<ref>{{cite book |title=A Chronicle of Public Laws Calling for Action by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, &#91;and&#93; National Research Council |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PiYrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA7 |access-date=March 22, 2014 |year=1985 |publisher=National Academies |location=Washington, DC |page=5 |id=NAP:11820}} [16 Stat. 277 and 36 U.S.C. § 252], Accessed at [[Google Books]]</ref>

In 2013, astrophysicist [[Neil deGrasse Tyson]] was asked to write a speech for the 150th anniversary of the [[Gettysburg Address#Legacy|Gettysburg Address]] in which he made the point that one of Lincoln's greatest legacies was establishing NAS in that same year, which had the long-term effect of "setting our Nation on a course of scientifically enlightened governance, without which we all may perish from this Earth".<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq3UlgKjbZ8| title = Neil deGrasse Tyson's Gettysburg Reply – "The Seedbed"| website = YouTube| date = November 19, 2015}}</ref>