NEXT WEEK THERE is to be a conference in London
between the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science and representatives of the organisations in Britain and the US which support it. The intention is to review the Institute's affairs, to discuss the present scientific programme, and to survey the research activities which must be undertaken in the near future. The Institute consists of a number of founda- tions, all located in nearly ideal surroundings in the small Israel town of Rehovoth, which have grown up in the course of the last twenty years under the inspiration of the late Dr. Weizmann. There are now more than a dozen departments and sections which are engaged in some eighty separate pro- jects of fundamental research in physics, chemistry and biology. They have the most advanced facilities in laboratories, libraries and workshops, and the work which they turn out attracts visiting scientists and exchange professors from many countries in the eastern as well as in the western world. The whole nexus of institutions has been set upon a 'national basis,' with its own budget, by the Israel Government as a permanent memorial to Dr. Weizmann. Although he constantly insisted that 'pure' science was the foundation for every advance in knowledge, the discoveries made at Rehovoth have contributed to the development of many aspects of Israel's expanding economy—particularly in the work of reclaiming the Negev. The progress achieved by this foundation is a source of pride to Jews everywhere. * *
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