by Margaret Harlow
Professor Harry Harlow and his wife Margaret work together at the Regional Primate Research Center of the University of Wisconsin. During the past few years, they have built up an international reputation for their pioneer studies on mother-child relationships, and on the development of affection in rhesus monkeys, and their work has been given wide publicity.
The Harlows visited Britain late last summer, and recorded an account of their most recent work. and its implications.
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A substitute mother used by the Harlows for rearing rhesus monkeys Photo: Fred Sponboiz, Science
SCIENTISTS cannot solve all human problems by experimenting directly on human beings. We rightly object to experiments which may involve human suffering. But our close relatives, the primates - the monkeys and apes - are, in many respects, nearly human, so we might well look to them for an answer to our questions.
Tonight you can hear two scientists who have built up a world-wide reputation as pioneers in this kind of research. Seven years ago, at Wisconsin, Professor Harry Harlow and his wife Margaret began a classic series of experiments on the growth of affection among rhesus monkeys. Professor Harlow describes the work as ' labouring with love in the laboratory.' The problem they originally tackled concerned the relationship between mother and child: they reared monkeys on 'dummy mothers,' covered with terry cloth; and they reared them alone. The results of these experiments are startling, and have disturbing human implications.
All this has earned the Harlows not only fame but also a certain notoriety, for their work has been criticised as being cruel. Tonight, you can judge for yourselves. On a recent visit to this country, they recorded two talks on their latest research, and, in a conversation with Donald Broadbent, discussed its implications and answered some of the criticism. (David Edge)
