Growing public interest in animal welfare issues in recent decades has prompted increased attention to the efforts to develop alternative, nonanimal methods for use in biomedical research and product testing. In A History of the Development of Alternatives to Animals in Research and Testing, the first book-length study of the subject, John Parascandola traces the history of the concept of alternatives to the use of animals in research and testing in Britain and the United States from its beginnings until it had become firmly established in the scientific and animal protection communities by the end of the 1980s. This account of the history of alternatives is set within the context of developments within science, animal welfare, and politics. The book covers the key role played by animal welfare advocates in promoting alternatives, the initial resistance to alternatives on the part of many in the scientific community, the opportunity provided by alternatives for compromise and cooperation between these two groups, and the dominance of the “Three Rs”—reduction, refinement, and replacement.

This is the report on a special national conference dealing with the subject of Consumer Research for Consumer Policy. The conference was held July 28-29, 1977 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was hosted by the Center for Policy Alternatives at M.I.T. under funding support of the National Science Foundation. The purpose of the meetings was to begin building stronger connections between consumer research and consumer policy formulation in both the public and private sectors. The participants included nearly one hundred specialists from business, academia, consumer advocacy groups, and the private research community. This report includes: (1) an overview of the total proceedings, with recommendations for future such efforts; (2) a synthesis of issues raised in the workshops and open discussions of the conference; (3) the full texts of ten original papers prepared for this conference, accompanied by summaries of discussants remarks; and (4) an inventory of suggested research priorities in the consumer policy areas.