SCIENCE JOTTINGS

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11772, 7 March 1924, Page 11

SCIENCE JOTTINGS

SCIENTIFIC GLOBE-TROTTING. The idea of the scientist as an old man at work in a laboratory will have to be revised. Modern men of science are not old, but amazingly active and young—in the best sense of that word. Many of them, too, are becoming indefatigable globe-trotters. It is a fact that no fewer than three scientific expeditions have recently set out -foC the region of the Pacific Ocean. COMING ECLIPSE OF THE SUN* Several other expeditions are now being arranged in connection with"'!he total eclipse of the sun next October. This total eclipse will be visible only in certain, parts of Mexico, to which country, therefore, the astronomers and physicists must journey. France will be represented by Professor Flammarion, and Professor Einstein also intends to be present. FORGOTTEN! The South Kensington Science Museum owes a very considerable debt to human forgetfulness. It possesses to-day spinning wheels, models of textile machinery, boring tools, and various mechanical devices, in addition to historical objects of great value, the owners of which seem to have forgotten all about them. Indeed some of the best exhibits in the museum have been acquired in this way, MEMORY’S BLIND EYE. Psychologists are deeply interested in- this . phenomenon of’ forgetfulness. The latest explanation of it is that i| is deliberate, tho'ugh unconscious. ” Because unpleasant metnoHes' ifre associated with a particular object, we calm-; ly. forget that object, no matter what its value may be. Every scientist • knows, in this connection, how easy it is to overlook facts or signs which; contradict one’s treasured opinioim. INSECTS’ COLOUR SENSE. Experiments have recently been car-. ried out to discover whether- insects; hjive any preference in the matter of colour. It was found By'one worker"! that mosquitoes preferred navy bine’' to sixteen other colours. They tram repelled, by pale blue, and they abeo-4 lutely shunned yellow. Flies also ap-j pear to dislike pale blue, though *Ais’ conclusion has not been borne oat by; i all the researches. The importance of knowledge of tins kind lies, -of course, in the possibility of using aMtw insect colours to point the walls "off dairies and food shops, RESEARCH “ON THE SLY.”-* In this country scientific reeearcHA has often been, carried out "on Mej sly.’’ For the research worker, until: lately, had no status: He waT al] teacher, and he might only “amnsoj himself with discovery”—for which “amusement” he was not paid—-in the) intervals of imparting the rudiment® of his knowledge to his students. - ROYAL SOCIETY TO THE HESOOEJ ■ Happily, w©_ atom to be nearing fjbe| end of that disgraceful 'and disastrous* period. The Royal Society has just; decided to utilise the gift of £IOO,OOOI made to it by Sir Alfred Yarrow in founding a number of research professorships. Their holders will actually be expected to devote all their titn* to scientific investigation. FATHER OF BACTERIOLOGY.' Edward Jenner, the Gloucestershire practitioner of medicine, was the . father of bacteriology, though, he never saw a germ. His work on smallpox set Pasteur thinking, and front Pasteur’s thoujdita emerged “the world of infinitely small.”- This fact is well-known in France, where Jenner’a memory ups honoured during the recent Pasteur celebrations. DISHONOURING SCIENCE. At homo, unfortunately, we been dishonouring the memory by" allowing an epidemic of wnuJlpocc Jo gather force in Gloucester itself. There are few more melancholy spectacles than that afforded by men and women refusing to avail themselves of knowledge, and in consequence inciting and incurring disaster. THE MORAL OF GLOUCESTER. But, as was stated recently in cent, neotion with the Gloucester epidemic, the difference between an educated man and an uneducated man is that the former knows when a thing has been proved, whereas the latter does not. The campaign against vaccina* tion reveals the need which exists today for scientific training in* schools. Until that training is - afforded, progress, in the full meaning of the will be hampered and impeded. A CURE FOR BOREDOM. It is want of teriinioal education, for example, which makes the “moiy. otany” of modern life. The recent covery of the Industrial Fatigue He» search Board that monotony is noil; caused by repetition hut by ignarsnt repetition is of enormous imoortance < It moans that we oan abolish the corse (by the simple process of abolishing the ignorance which fosters it. Bw workman who understands what he is doing and why he is doing it, who knows the difficulties of his craft, and who has some acquaintance with _ the means of overcoming these difficulties is never “Bored.” THE SONG OF -WORK. On the contrary he is the man who sings and whistles for joy as he toils. Curiously enough, some attention has been devoted recently to this “singfng at work.” It has been found that those who indulge in it produce more goods, and better goods, than their silent colleagues. .