IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28758, 2 December 1958, Page 12

IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE

“Parsimony Of West” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 30. Professor A. C. B. Lovell, director of Britain’s radio telescope at Jodrell Bank, tonight predicted the decline of Western civilisation if the West did not increase its expenditure on science and technology. “Unless- the West overcomes its present parsimonious attitude to science and technology,” he said in a British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast, “then the relative quality of our civilisation will decline and our influence will pass to other peoples.” The pessimists said the West could not compete with Russia, “and that within the next decade the scientific and technological superiority of the U.S.S.R. over the West will be complete. “I do not believe that this will necessarily be the case because I think that the restraints on freedom may reduce the effectiveness of Russian science,” the professor said. Satellite Programmes

The United States, and to a lesser extent Britain, were spending large sums on satellite programmes, “but in so far as they support research, these represent a quite negligible proportion of the national budget. “Moreover, our danger rests, not in our limited potential, but in those amongst us who think of science and astronomy in terms of the sacrifice of a television set or a motor-car today so that our grandchildren can get to the moon.

“Alas, the issues at stake are of a different order of gravity. The fate of human civilisation will depend on whether the rockets of the future carry the astronomer’s telescope or a hydrogen bomb.” The United States, he said, had made a slow start in the field of radio telescopes, but “the American enterprises in this new subject are now being pursued with such vigour that they seem likely to establish precedence over our own efforts within a few years.

“In a year when America has added to her astronomical riches by granting more than 2,000,000 dollars for the creating of a new national observatory in New Mexico, and Russia has announced her intention of building a 236 in telescope, the construction of a lOOin British telescope has been postponed because of financial difficulties.” Professor Lovell said. Decay Halted Britain’s developments in the technical field had fortunately halted the “steady decay” of this country’s influence in astronomy, Professor Lovell said. Referring to Russian progress, he said that the Soviet Union had made a “phenomenal” recovery in astronomy after its main observatories were destroyed in World War 11. Russia’s development of the sputnik earth satellite had made the world “gasp with astonishment,” and it was now known that the satellite’s launching rockets were “military weapons of the most devastating potential.” Listeners to the lecture heard the echo of Professor Lovell’s voice as it “bounced” off the moon.

Professor Lovell used the giant radio telescope at Jodrell Bank to transmit his voice Ho the mocn a few days ago. The echo was received two seconds and a half later.