Freedom for Science
Resuming, deliberately, its meetings at Dundee so brusquely interrupted on September 1st, 1939, the British Association is this week entering in the same city on a series of discussions centring retrospectively on science in war, and prospectively (even after two years of cessation of war) on science in peace. That noteowas sounded suggestively and valuably by Sir Henry Dale in his presi- dential address on Wednesday. War inevitably gave an immense impetus to science, for its practical application was needed desperately, and it is well to be reminded that out of the need came discoveries or inventions so serviceable to humanity as radar and penicillin and paludrine, as well as the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But the time has come to emphasise, as Sir Henry Dale did emphasise, the essential role of science, single-minded pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. There can be no clear-cut distinction between pure and applied science ; the former has led and will always lead again and again to the latter ; Rutherford when he was seeking to split the atom was not concerned with what the practical results of splitting the atom would be in either war or peace. Among Sir Henry Dale's many points three in particular may be noted—the need, especially at the universities, for concen- tration on fundamental knowledge, unfettered by aims at some practical objective ; the reduction of secrecy to a minimum, every new discovery being made universally known as a stepping-stone to some further discovery somewhere ; and, closely linked with that, the cultivation of a true world-community of scientists. These are noble aims, and their enunciation makes a fitting prelude to the Dundee discussions.
Previous page
