Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 18 November 1940, Page 4

Timely Topics

In spite of the war and the overthrow of many countries, science still progresses. There has been a tremendous concenEUROPE LOSES tration of ability SCIENTISTS. in the United States, says the “Manchester Guardian.” The latest and most striking acquisition to American scientific strength is Debye, who has recently been appointed professor and chairman of the department of chemistry at Cornell University. Debye was the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics at Berlin. He was the most versatile scientist in Germany, and indeed in the world. Though generally regax’ded as a physicist, he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1936. Debye is Dutch by birth. Uis departure is the most serious single blow that German science has recently received. He has made brilliant discoveries in many fields, and is a splendid lecturer and teacher. Cornell had already taken Bethe as its professor of physics, and it has now also engaged Rossi. Both of these fertile discoverers spent some time at Manchester University before going to America. Bethe recently succeeded in explaining the origin of stellar energy, and Rossi is one of the leading investigators of cosmic rays.

Lord Balfour of Burleigh, writing as chairman of the 1940 Council, pleaded that while Britain is organising for war it PLANNING POST is not' too soon WAR BRITAIN. zo be organising for the peace that is to follow victory. If a better world is to be constructed at the initial moment after the war the spade-work of research must already have been done, facts analysed, and preliminary conclusions formed on the basis of which governments can act, says the “Spectator.” The 1940 Council, which has set itself a programme of research and publicity, is considering m the first place the national planning of social environment in Britain —it is perhaps too soon to explore the vaster field of international planning. But it is necessary to begin with Britain, and to sift the most obvious problems first, amongst which one that leaps to the eye is that of the geographical distribution of the industrial population, recently reported on by a Royal Commission. Another is that of education, including public school education, to whose needs the Board of Education is alert. But facts alone are not enough. It is also necessary to prepare the mind of the public for the drastic changes that are desirable so that there may be no tinkering with the task.