8 WORLD NOT ENSLAVED BY SCIENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 26

8 WORLD NOT ENSLAVED BY SCIENCE

o g g O CIENCE is not in charge of the world in spite of the fact 0 8' b^ t'iat a^ sorts °^ inv°lve<i mechanism and processes have come g O into modem life, ostensibly to take some of the burden, off g O the individual, but often to make it more complex, writes N. M. o g Goddard in the "Sydney Morning Herald." . . o 8 These advances fall rather lyi thin the category of invention be- o g tween which and science there is often a lack of clear distinction. o g The scientist is more concerned in the discovery and enunciation of g o principles without much thought for their practical and comrner- o 8 cial utility, whereas the inventor is primarily concerned with the o g thoroughly practical.application of.his efforts. g g There are, of course, scientists who1 have made brilliant q g advances in applied sciences and practical men who have produced g O a machine or a 1" process which has enabled an advance to be made g 8 in the theory of a science, but the distinction is generally that out- o § lined. ' . o 8 From the ultimate practical aspect the pure scientist is indis- o § pensable if real progress is to be quickly made. Some practical g g machine or process may be evolved without much attention being g O paid to the theoretical aspect, but sooner or later this must be o o •• . i • .■■■-■ o O investigated. , . o 8 The steam engine is a case in point. Watt made it of prac- o g lical utility without worrying particularly how heat could be con- g g verted into work. Carnot became interested in this problem and g 0 established a principle which led to a better ' knowledge of the g 8 laws governing all sorts of things, including refrigerators and © g chemical reactions. Another case is that of wireless . communica-. g g tion, which had reached the stage of "world-wide circuits before a g O great deal was known of the fundamental principles. o g Now that these have been established, they have given us a g O means of carrying out investigations into the nature of the upper o 8 atmosphere, and even further into the realm of astronomy. This o g has led to the discovery of an invisible halo surrounding the g « world some hundreds of thousands of miles.away. .8 8 On the other hand, the pure scientist in his work of getting o g to the very root of things has often had to devise some special kind g g of apparatus which he generally casts aside after making his obser- g O various, but which could often be, and has been, developed into o g something of the greatest utility. o g . The telescope and all its off-shoots are a case of this kind, g o Galileo, who has been given the credit of first producing this instru- g 8 ment, wanted it only for looking at stars and planets. It was left 0 g to others to apply it to other purposes. . ■ © 8 The pure scientist will, no d oubt, in the future, as in the past, o g continue to labour behind the scenes without the honour or the g o financial rewards that greet his more practical colleague. In his g O researches, which more and more tend towards such valuable o g sciences as biology, he will do greater things for humanity. If he g g can gradually spread throughout the people as a whole, including g o Governments, the scientific point of view that is peculiar to re- 0 8 search workers, there will be no necessity for the Federal Minis- q g ter of Health (Mr. Hughes) to deplore, as he did recently, the g g ill health of the nation or for apparently educated people to wear g o charms,, as-they have done in New Zealand lately, to ward off inf an- o g tile paralysis. ■.■■:'.'. o 8 When that happens, there may be cause to assert that science o g has taken charge, of the world. . ' . g o o n o 89999999999955999999599999999999999999999999999999999