Top Geneticist Becomes Full-Time Radical

One of the three Harvard scientists who isolated a single gene last summer has abandoned research to become a full-time political activist.

Dr. James A. Shapiro, research fellow in Bacteriology and Immunology, yesterday said, "Whatever I could do in the lab is useless at this time. The only constructive thing that people can do right now is to challenge the present political system."

Shapiro said that he intends to work "within the medical area in support of the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard Association" in their fight for adequate relocation plans caused by the proposed Affiliated Hospital Centers.

He also plans to politicize other scientists telling them that "basically, they are just workers," and that they should work with other people and groups on such issues as medical care, pollution, and hunger.

Struggles

Shapiro intends to devote himself to "ad hoc struggles" when he thinks substantive gains can be made in this way. He does not plan to work in any science action groups on the national level because he believes they are less effective.

Shapiro's two collaborators- Jonathan R. Beckwith, professor of Bacteriology and Immunology, and Lawrence J. Eron. a third-year student at the Medical School- are concerned that their discovery might accelerate the movement toward genetic engineering or eugenics.

"The more we think about it, the consequences of our work seem frightening rather than beneficial," Eron said two months ago.

Socialist

Shapiro, who characterizes himself as a socialist, does not intend to return to the laboratory until American institutions are significantly changed.

"I've been unhappy about science for a long time, because of the institutions that I work with and the practical consequences of what I do. After all, you can be ghetto-ized in the lab or in the university. I felt shut out from other human beings," he said.

Both Beckwith and Eron share Shapiro's political views but as yet they have not dropped out of research, Beck-with, who has been working with the radical New University Conference, definitely plans to continue his scientific work.