National Affairs: Back on the Team

In the first get-going months of the Eisenhower Administration. Commerce Secretary Sinclair Weeks resoundingly stubbed his toe by firing Dr. Allen V. Astin, 49, head of the National Bureau of Standards, in a row over Bureau tests of the battery additive AD-X2 (TIME, April 27). In the ensuing hullabaloo of scientific outrage and threatened resignations, Weeks reconsidered, decided to keep Astin for a few months, ostensibly while he looked for a permanent replacement.

Last week "Sinny" Weeks pulled back all the way, announced that Astin would be retained as "a key official ... a member of my team." But hereafter, said Weeks,...