The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1923. THE FUNCTION OF SCIENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18296, 12 January 1923, Page 6

The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1923. THE FUNCTION OF SCIENCE.

The opening of the congress of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science reawakens interest in the part that science plays in human life. Apart from seats of learning, there is all too little appreciation of its service; even in them, it is not always appraised at its high worth. The man of no scientific instinct or training !is apt to regard the scientist as a somewhat useless member of society. In the workaday world in which most folk have to live there is pressing need to do things and little opportunity for reflection as to how and why things happen. In that practical life there is no urgent need of absolute accuracy or penetrative inquiry. The enthusiasm for truth, the fanaticism of veracity, that was so much to Huxley, is nothing to the bulk of,men, who are prone to scout theorising and contemn all they cannot understand. Yet without science we should all be cavedwellers yet, the universe would be 'to us a mere medley of unrelated : happenings, and spiritual progress ! be impossible. Science is the spearhead of humanity's onslaught upon the unknown. Without it, knowledge would be insecure and advance haphazard. Karl Pearson, who strove as persistently as any to define the uses of this instrument of human inquiry, has summed the matter "the classification of facts, the recognition of their sequence and relative significance, is the function of science, and the habit of forming a judgment upon these facts unbiassed by personal feeling is characteristic of what may be termed the scientific frame of mind." Finding facts, arranging them, discovering their relationships until he | can see in them what he calls | a law of nature, the scien- ; tist is ever actively engaged ;in a quest.. It may seem to | him to have no end; he must leave jto philosophy the further task of I discovering the all-embracing one- | ness of the universe and the ultimate reality that lies beneath all appearances; his task, in the particular department of investigation to which modern specialisation calls him, is to drive back ever a little further the- darkness with which things are surrounded. Once, in a world where little was known accurately, it was possible to include many varieties of research in a lifetime; a man could know, for example, something of the structure of the earth, could botanise, and dabble in the mysteries of mental process. Now, to serve the common cause, he must apply himself to the I restricted avenue of a special | search. Another limit must be accepted he must be content to leave ultimate questions alone—as a scientist, however much he may probe them .with the aid* of philosophy and religion. Full " explanation," including the whence and whither of all things, is (as Professor J. A. Thomson, has emphasised) beyond science.

Seeking knowledge for its own I sake, impelled by an enthusiasm for i truth, science has nevertheless performed great practical service, as Mr. G. H. Knibbs stressed in his presidential address to the congress and it has done this all the better because it has had no imme : diate care for the practical application of the knowledge it acquired. To have had an eye on practical uses ■ ' would have imperilled observation. Astronomy has served the map-maker, the surveyor, the navigator. Chemistry has contributed to dyeing, v soap-making, the getting of gold from its ores, and the improvement of steel. Physics has made possible the telegraph, the telephone, wireless telegraphy, electric motors, and flying machines. Geology has led men to the possession of precious metals and the use of coal and many minerals. Oceanography has indirectly stocked fisheries, and meteorology saved shipwrecks. The study of bacteria has protected human life. Moreover, science has, in many departs ments, enhanced human pleasure. For example, the cinematograph has been made possible by a knowledge of optics and of physiology, and music's delights depend on acoustics. Mr. Knibbs naturally alluded to the maleficent uses to which scientific discovery has often been put. The war furnished sad proof of this peril of misuse. Yet this cannot be reasonably charged to science, Which is wholly neutral as to applications, while eager to unravel and collate facts.

There is no doubt that, in Australia and New Zealand, the

■lack of appreciation of the service of science has been extreme, especially when measured in terms of financial contribution. There have been a few benefactions from private sources and some Government grants, but for pure research the total support has been slender. In the nature of things, as no immediate practical application is in vi:yw, research work is especially dependent on that generous aid which lends " hoping for nothing again;" and in young countries far from the great facilities for daring investigation it is extremely difficult to arouse enthusiasm for the scientific quest. For obvious practical gain funds are usually forthcoming, as an investment; but for an enterprise that may produce nothing -of immediate utility it is quite another matter. Young Australasia has need to learn lessons from the experience of the Motherland and catch her spirit. Once she had in her hands the secret that has led to modern dyeing processes and all their attendant industries ; but she deemed the discovery of no value and let it go to Germany. The result was loss beyond calculation ; yet the discovery hinged upon an investigation with no immediate practical application. Now, taught by such happenings, she is more alert to. subsidise and encourage

those- who spend their strength in seeking out Nature's secrets.." Better still, Australasia should imbibe more of that enthusiasm for the "splendid mysteries" of which Mr. Knibbs has spoken; for, after all, the greatest service that science can render man is to lead him, as Coleridge put it, from the wonder of ignorance to the wonder of adoration.