FUTURE OF SCIENCE
AN ENCOURAGING PROSPECT
ENTHUSIASTIC INVESTIGATORS
"Nature." tho famous weekly journal of science, has just completed fifty years, and celebrated it with a jubilee number containinir valuablo articles by experts in each field of science, in which they trace the progress of their special branch during the last fifty years. Anions those who write- aro tho first editor. Sir Norman Lockyer—"one of tho great men of science- of England, and one of the greatest astronomers of all time -and Kir Richard A. Gregory, tho present editor. ■ Among others who writo are Kir Archibald Oeikie, Sir E. Ray Lankester. Professor T. G. Bonner, Sir 1. Clifford Allbutt, Professor Hugo do Vrics. Sir J. J. Thomson, Sir Ernest Rutherford, and between them they cover a vast area of scientific discovery and knowledae.
The War and Science. ' Sir Archibald Oeikie, looking' before and after, says that:—' ." "The war has brought the economic value of science before the world on a oolos>al 6calc of demonstration. While scientific inventions have enormously augmented the offensive powers of the belligerents, it is pleasing 10, know that the . aonlications of science have not been all on tha destructive side, but that at the same timo the greatest stimulus in tIK historv of mankind has been given' to medicine and surgery, and that each of those great divisions of the healing art has mado notable advances and gained fresh nowers for dealing with' diseases and wounds. "Exactly ton years had elapsed after the nublication 'of Darwin's 'Origin of Snecies' when the first number of 'Natiiro' was issued. The doctrine of evolution had long been before the world. Lanlacn had introduced it into the historv of the solar system; Lamarck, after Buffon. had proposed an ingenious aeti■Moirv in the history of organised lifo unou the earth; while towards the middle of last century came the cruder efforts of the author of the 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,' which so perturbed the minds of his generation. '"But it was not until alter the apbearance' of Darwin's )>ook, and in consermenee of that bcok, that evolution, came slowly to be regarded aft the great law of the whole cosmos. If we consider broudlv the relation of the community to scientific progress ilurinu ,the last M'c years, item ost outstanding..feature will nrobahlv be recognised.in the general acceptance of this great generalisation.
f >" A Luminous Rivelation. . ■' "The views of Darwin made their way with more speed on the Continent than in his own country. Probably not many survivors «rc left, to recall the 'astonishment and inilisnption with wir.ch some of the. older geologists of .the day read lite two chapters 'Ou the. ImpertccHon of the. Geological Record and Un the Geological Succession of Organic licings.' To tlio younger men, on the oilier hand, -these chapters were a luminous revelation. -I shall never forget their influence wi myself. Iney ■Save me a new key to .unlock the b's-. Tory recorded in the rock;' crust of the "lolie.-.Tliey linkcd..togethei\ Stratigraphy and Palaeontology in the most masterly way, making each of them explanatory of the other, and confirming the doctrine of Evolution more clearly than e, "Thc bearing of the . 'Origin of Species' ou social questions was more •promptly ■recognised abroad tliftli «t. home Thus, in the first number of'N'ature.' it .was stated' that when the Austrian Peichsrath, after the .disastrous war with Prussia, assombled. in DcceiuW ISlifi, to deliberate on the best racan* of reconsolioVing the prostmto ■Umpire, a distinguished member o lie •Upper Chamber, Professor Kokitan»ky, be B U a great speech with this sentence: 'The question wo have .first to consider is , "Is Charles Dar.vm : right or no?-.. ! Sich.plirnsesos'the-stiuggleforexi -• 'e-ice' and 'the survival • or thti- fittest. J,' C e 'not only. become household wors but they have- been brought into the domain of-social relations and of Jie nhvsical improvement of roankin i. 1 orenost omens 'thwo who have insisted on he vital importance of. these subjects o human society was Darwin s cousin, Sfr Francis Gallon, to whose writings and persistent advoeacy.,the, new study Of eugenics owes-its existence. .-•
Disappearing Coal, "Tf we cast our eyes towards _ the future, the prospect, for British ••scienco "eminently encouraging. Theopportunities .for research '.md experiment were never before so ample,, the .cooperation of the State never so cordial, tie ranks of the investigator., never so full, and the joy raid enthusmsm for investigation never more ardent. Jw vents to come this prosnenty ought to continue and increase. But unquestionaWv in the distance a cloud may. he discerned, whicb has long been m sight, but'is now much nearer... . ■ "Our present great source ot TOwer is muL but at a. noL very So .date o.n-V coal fields will be exhausted. Tf before ■ that time some other source is not discovered,. our position as a great lnamifacturing count j Sill be seriouslv affected Hopes have been raised on the possibility of finding lar"e supplies of •mineral oil m our island- It is well known that in one or two places oil has long beei; coming o tho surface, in smnll a" 3 "™"*- ".'? possible that these indications may .point to larger supplies below. .But we. are still m ignorant, of the distribution of the oil within the Mtth that no confident prognostications- ■ are wnrran o< Much misnnwerstanding still, exists on this-subject. There-pan be now no doubt that the nil found so -abundantly in some n>gions ha? no connection with coalfields, or with any doposils of organic origin, but comes from a depth probably below all the stratified patt of tho. terrestrial crust.
How Oils arc Made. "The most probable explanation.of. its origin is Hint it nsults from fto decern-, position of carbides forming part of the original constitution of the globe, these carbides, or compounds of carbon wnli forae metal, such as iron, are decomposable by water and then give rise to the production of hydrocarbons, such mineral oil and marsh gas. If wa.er descending from the surface through the unner crust should reach those deeperseated comixnindH, this decomposition would take pfnee, and the pressure of the generated gas might force the oil up the fissured crust to tho surface. Only where it makes its nppc-arnnee do we know for certain that there must be some oil below, hut whether in quantity nitlieiont even to pay tl,<! , oost of l)0r1 "" for it cannot 'ba predicted.
New Sources of Power. "But before our con! supplies me worked out, and whether or not we discover subterranean supplies of oil, we niuy surely hope that some of the sources of'powc;- which are now unused will he harnessed to the service of man. To lilie waterfalls, tides, and winds, which have long been" considered; Sir Charles Parsons in I'M suggested another possible source of power in the internal heat of 'the globe, and in his recent presidential address to the British Association he has returned to the subject. His proposal is to sink a borehole twelve mile-j dee;), which would cost' five million pounds, «ml require about eighty-live years for its completion. ■ Willi the use of a-fresh-source of power and an wtended development of electricitv, we should doubtless lie able to hold our oirn in the competition, of the nations," concludes Sir Archibald Gcikie.
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 127, 23 February 1920, Page 3
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1,201FUTURE OF SCIENCE Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 127, 23 February 1920, Page 3
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