THE SCIENCE CONGRESS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 96, 17 January 1935, Page 8

THE SCIENCE CONGRESS

The congress organised ,by the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, which opened yesterday, is an important incident of the Melbourne centenary celebrations, and a special effort is being made in the arrangement of the programme of lectures to make it a popular event. One of the'aims of the association, which is an offspring of the British Association, is to make scientific questions of public interest. Scientists have come to realise that to make successful contacts with the public they must abandon the jargon of the laboratory for a homely phraseology which the public can understand and reflect upon. Scientific research with its vast accumulation of knowledge has exerted a powerful influence on the progress of civilisation during the past half-century. There was a time within the memory of the present middle-aged generation when the scientist was regarded as an absent-minded individual, usually profusely whiskered, who pottered about with test tubes and retorts in a laboratory the atmosphere of which was impregnated by what the schoolboy in the chemistry class called “stinks.” By a strange confusion of terminology even the word “science” has been used to denote a school syllabus subject instead of being applied in the sense of knowledge and research in every conceivable phase and department of the world we live i.n and those that illumine the heavens. This misconception partly explains the gap which for so long has separated the scientists from the people on whose behalf they pursue their investigations. This gap is closing rapidly. It is being borne in upon the public’s consciousness that scientific knowledge and research have a vital influence upon the lives, habits, and condition and prospects of the people.

Science has broken down rule-of-thumb methods in business and industry, dethroned ancient beliefs and formuke, and even invaded the field of politics. In recent years it has derived immense authority from the magnitude and importance of its discoveries, and seems destined in the future to play an increasing part in the affairs of mankind. The farmer, the soldier, tne politician, the manufacturer, the citizen in his responsibility as a parent are all becoming increasingly inclined to look to scientific method, as laid down by scientific opinion., for guidance in the handling of their problems. Yet with all this people would hesitate to give the scientists full authority to manage their affairs. A Parliament of scientists would be unthinkable. That mysterious process of development which we call progress takes knowledge for its cue but public policy as its principle of action. Hence the scientist in matters affecting the conduct of human affairs is usually ahead of his time, and it is presumably because he realises that the public can be led, but not driven, that he has realised in recent years the need for descending from his oracular throne to mingle with the people and talk to them as a man among his fellowcitizens.

This change has been assisted by the increasing impact of scientific discoveries and inventions on the everyday life of the people. Science is becoming popular because the fruits of scientific research are popular. But there is also a deeper and less selfish-spread of interest and knowledge. Sir Douglas Mawson, in his presidential address yesterday, remarked on the ever-increasing interest in Antarctica being taken by Australia and New Zealand, neither of which countries has profited materially from the information he and fellowexplorers have wrested from that part of the world. The Polar regions, of course, have always inspired curiosity; but the scientists have stimulated curiosity. That, indeed, is the secret of their newfound hold on the public generally. None of us is curious about something of which he knows nothing. When we learn something that interests us, we become curious to learn more. It is the scientist's privilege to teach us, and by doing so to lay the foundations for .further extension of his own work.