THE FIELD OF SCIENCE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21989, 13 January 1937, Page 10

THE FIELD OF SCIENCE

I VAST KNOWLEDGE ACCUMULATED APPLICATION TO HUMAN AFFAIRS SIR DAVID RIVETT ADDRESSES CONGRESS (PKESS ASSOCIATION TELEOII.VM.) AUCKLAND, January 12. Many problems involved in a wider and more intense application of science to human affairs were raised by Sir David Rivett, deputychairman and chief executive officer of the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial 1 Research, in his presidential address at the opening of the biennial meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the advancement of Science. The title of the address, "The Scientific Estate," referred to the estate or field which science is called upon to explore, and as far as possible to cultivate. "Science," said the speaker, "is just our special word for knowledge which has been acquired and tested in accordance with a very severe mental discipline by means of a technique not always easily acquired." The body of knowledge which had resulted from its pursuit over a little more than three centuries was very vast, he continued; but this "vastness" was relative, and it was to the unexplored areas rather than to the small cultivated plots that it was applicable. A scientific investigator needed not only complete intellectual freedom, which in some important centres of western civilisation was apparently in danger of being taken away—he also needed means to undertake his work. While admittedly not every man on a university staff was qualified for research, it had not yet been recognised that besides its office as a storehouse and distributor of knowledge the university had a prime duty to create knowledge, and add not only to the amount in store but also to the better- understanding of what had already been garnered. Facilities for Creative Work Lack of facilities for creative' work on the part of a teacher inevitably led to equal barrenness in his teaching activities, Sir David Rivett said. An experienced scientific leader in England a few months ago had expressed the opinion, to him that it was no longer necessary or desirable for Australia and New Zealand to import research workers from other countries. They were to-day exporting many more first-class scientific men than they were importing, and the right policy in his view was to reimport as many of these as possible, when they had wider experience and a more mature outlook. * Discussing the activities of the Australian and New Zealand Government organisations for scientific and industrial research. Sir David Rivett said that it was gratifying to find that industry was giving both an increasing measure of financial and other assistance. The speaker went on to discuss present and future applications of scientific research to primary industry. Agriculture, he said, must obviously be based on knowledge of individual soils. In this field it was a misfortune that scientists had not 50 or 100 years of concentrated effort behind them, instead of as much, or more, still ahead. Mentioning that he had planned originally to devote his address to the contributions of modern science toward an understanding .of wool, Sir David gaye a brief outline of the many problems which were involved, and which called for the services of chemists, parasitologists, botanists, entomologists., veterinarians, physicists, and many others, even including X-ray experts. There were also commercial and political aspects,' and in fact the story to be woven with wool was long enough to make a long and fascinating book. A Belief Deprecated Sir David deprecated the common belief that the world was producing an excess of the necessaries of life. On the estimated needs of the whole race, he said, there was no excess; but it wfts a comforting thought that the potential capacity existed, if man were wise enough to use it, to meet all the needs of the human race and more. In secondary industries the argument in favour of national specialisation had lost its weight and the intensified effort to establish such industries in Australia and New fully justified. International trading was becoming of less importance to human welfare, and without loss it was possible to cut out much middleman activity. The Bureau of Standards of the National Physical Laboratory was essential, and facilities for physical and chemical research would be a national asset whatever their direct economip value might be. In conclusion, Sir David Rivett advocated extension of science over the social field, particularly in the study of man and the uses to which the achievements of science could be turned for common benefit. Much, he said, could be done to solve the "problem of leisure," if more people could be induced to devote themselves to science, philosophy, and the arts, not for their own sakes, but because of their refining and strengthening effects upon mankind.