Science In Simple Terms

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14929, 17 March 1949, Page 4

Science In Simple Terms

Advancement By Fits And Starts Relation To Everyday Life Whatever else we may say about science, we must admit two things: it has played its part in bringing about the comfortable living conditions of today compared with a century or two ago, and it has at the same time added to the complexities of living.

So much progress has been made in the application of science that we are only surprised these days if we are not amazed by something new at close intervals, says the monthly letter of the Royal Bank of Canada.

Advancement' has been accomplished by fits and starts. Some unknown genius of the long-age past mixed nine parts of copper with one part of tin and made bronze, thereby lifting all mankind from the stone to the metal age.

It was not until the 18th Century that a Sv/edish savant, Linnaeus, undertook the task which, according to the Book of Genesis, had been Adam's: to name all the animals and plants, Linnaeus did a scientific job. An interesting pyramid descriptive of the sciences is set up by Professor R. C. Tolman, of the California Institute of Technology. At the base he places mathematics, which selects for study from the real world cnly the simplest and most general ideas such as those of order, number and size. By adding further ideas, like those of matter, energy and electricity, we come to the science of physics.

By including the ideas of different kinds of substance and of chemical change from one kind to another, we arrive at chemistry. »

By adding the ideas of a special kind cf matter called living, and of a special kind of behaviour called mental,' we come to biology and psychology. And, says Professor Tolman, "by including in our study more and more of the complexities of the actual world around us, we could pass on to social psychology, economics, and the social sciences in general/

This view brings out the important maxim that we should not be so impressed by the apparent diversity of science as by its real unity.