MAN AND SCIENCE

Evening Post, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 3

MAN AND SCIENCE

"The significance of the advance iv physical science is an increasing command over the forces of Nature, and there is nothing to show that the rate of that advance- is slackening," said Professor W. L. Bragg, in a recent address. "Many arc concerned at the way it is upsetting the world, and somo even propose an 'armistice.' But there is comfort in the fact that what is • happening now is not part of the order- '. ly progress of the human race, but is of ; the nature of what biologists call a : mutation. It is a sudden change due to tho breaking of human energy into quito a new line—that of science. \ People talk of the wonders of science, i but scientists are not exceptionally • clever people. It probably takes more j innate shrewdness to run a chicken farm well than to get a M.Se. degree. ' The change brought about by science j is rather due to the discovery of this .• now line in which man is directing his : energy than to the fact that a new kind '■ of clever person is being born. Something has happened in the last 100 years comparable to the discovery of fire or of agriculture, which has turned over a whole page in human history. There is no doubt, in my mind that human nature will rise "to meet the change. To call 'Stop the advance' is like praying to be weak lest we shall do evil with our strength, and that is die prayer of the craven." -