SCIENCE AND WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 9 January 1940, Page 6

SCIENCE AND WAR

EXPERTS TOO OLD NEED FOR YOUNG MEN PROFESSOR HALDANE’S VIEW LONDON, 16th December. The absence of young men among the scientific advisers to the Fighting Forces was referred to by Professor J. B. S. Haldane, at Birkbeck College, reports the correspondent of the “New Zealand Herald.” “We are told that our forces have the best scientific brains behind them,” he said. “I doubt if that is so. Apart from the Royal Air Force, I am not sure that our Fighting Forces are not worse off now than they were 25 years ago. We are still using the same experts in many cases as we used then. Brains may not deteriorate with age, but they certainly do not work any quicker. “The scientific c’.rpartments, apart from the Royal Air Force, have not many really first-rate permanent workers in them. This is not because the scientists object to war. It is much more because the problems offered to them in peace time are pretty dull, except in the Royal Air Force, where problems of the greatest scientific interest arise. “There has, therefore, been a tendency to get into these departments rather stodgy people who are good at routine work, and not men of imagination and initiative. I do not think the Cabinet includes any member who is in close touch with scientific development, as Earl Balfour was during the last war. “I am quite sure we shall have an admirable team of research workers over 40 years of age. But it is the men under 40 who on the whole display the greatest initiative in science, and it is that which is needed for tackling a novel weapon. “I feel our services are not in sufficient touch with the younger men and women, and for that reason, in the event of a new weapon being ‘ used against us under conditions where speed and initiative are everything, we may be very seriously handicapped.” Professor Haldane thought that gas attacks on London were relatively unlikely. The Royal Air Force, the balloon barrage, and the anti-aircraft guns together were capable of creating such conditions for the enemy bombers that they could not drop bombs with any kind of accuracy.