"ON THE RIGHT SIDE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1942, Page 6

"ON THE RIGHT SIDE"

WORKADAY BIOLOGIST

ADDRESS TO ROTARIANS

A dry-sounding subject—"Biology and Business"— was treated in an entertaining and interesting manner by Dr. Ralph Vernon D.Sc, who was the guest of honour at to-day's Rotary Club luncheon, held in Milne and Choyce reception hall. He told of the duties performed by the workaday biologist in industry and said that his value was now generally recognised and he had come out on the right side of the balance sheet. That position had not been reached without a struggle, however. The efficient industry had recognised the value of the biologist long ago, but all industries were not efficient and many obviously inefficient industries still managed to make profits. Dr. Vernon said that Governments had established scientific departments, and while they might have spoon-fed some inefficient businesses from the public purse they had done much to demonstrate the vralue of the scientific worker. The public by demanding quality had made the biologist a necessity, not a luxury.

"Micro-organisms, particularly bacteria, have frequently been referred to as the invisible enemy," he continued. "This of course is a fallacy. There is the beneficent bug as well as the disease germ." Certain industries were based entirely on biological reactions. Cheese owed its characteristic flavour to the action of bacteria. The retting of flax was a biological process, while wine, beer, spirits, industrial alcohol and vinegar resulted from the friendly action of certain yeasts and bacteria. All micro-organisms were not as well disposed to man as those. Many were the agents of deterioration and waste and many the bearers of disease.

Dr. Vernon said that while the industries in small countries could not all afford to have their own scientific departments, that defect could be remedied by co-operation. This had been done in England, where manufacturers of the same kind of foods, for instance, had a scientific "pool" amongst themselves.