IMPACT OF SCIENCE ON MAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 17, 21 January 1938, Page 8

IMPACT OF SCIENCE ON MAN

Prudence without panic seems to be the keynote to a wise outlook on possible coming events —such events as possible war, possible economic depression, possible competition by artificial fibres with wool. Some people complain that you can make •a war—also a "slump"—by thinking about it. But unless man is to be an absolutely planless creature, ] he must do some thinking, and I occasionally some preparing; prudence requires foresight but need not connote demoralising alarm. It is in this sense that the president of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, Mr. G. A.j Lawrence, in his presidential address at Christchurch, points out that the example of the indigoplanters in the early eighties has nothing in it to commend itself to the wool growers of the present thirties. The indigo planters wished synthetic dye competition out of existence. But science did not hear, or heed, their wish. When competitive synthetic dyes arrived, the indigo industry was unprepared. It was neither panicked nor prudent. Mr. Lawrence's suggestion is that those interested in the wool industry] should be prudent without being panicked. The president goes on to suggest, more broadly, that the impact of science-made changes on the public —impact in this case including great dislocations of industry, as in the case of indigo—might be lessened, and humanised, if science and the people became better acquainted. If a scientific development is pending that will dispense with the labour of half a million people, cannot science and the public consult and co-operate to ease the transition? At present, as between research scientists and the great body of people whose labour is at stake, ignorance is often mutual. "The training of the scientist," Sir Josiah Stamp states, "includes no awareness of the social consequences of his work." The scientist, by indirect aim, is training a gun on a public that he cannot see; and the public does not know that the shell is coming till it lands. Feeling the lack of touch between the public and science, Mr. Lawrence emphasises that "it is by keeping the community in touch with scientific developments and an intelligent interpretation of the trend of things lliat the scientist can reduce the impact to the community to the smallest possible degree." Air. Lawrence is certainly doing his bust in this direction and deserves the public's gratitude.