THE USE OF SCIENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 27

THE USE OF SCIENCE

PEOPLE MUST LEARN

POWERS AT OUR COMMAND

"Because modern ■ civilisation so greatly depends on an organised body of scientific knowledge, it is essential for modern citizens to understand how science can be used either to advance civilised living or to destroy European civilisation," was the text

of an address given by Professor Lancelot Hogben, author of "Mathematics for the Million," to a conference of secondary school masters, says the "Manchester Guardian." He said that the scientific knowledge now at the disposal of civilisation in Europe and America could rid us of war, poverty, and disease, and that' if it were not used for that purpose it would probably destroy Anglo-American civilisation irreparably. There had never before been the possibility of such material havoc and cultural disintegration, and never a greater need for some knowledge of the new powers placed at our disposal by science. A course in general science designed to meet the needs of citizenship must reinstate confidence in the human reason, reinforce constructive social effort, and give the citizens of the future a vision of what human life could be if the treasury of scientific knowledge were dedicated to the satisfaction of common human.needs. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. Professor Hogben stressed the importance of teaching the historical background of modern scientific knowledge, starting with man's first great cultural task—the construction of a calendar to regulate the seasonal pursuits of settled agriculture—and asking at each stage in the story of the development of human achievement whether this or that theory or principle helped in building the temple of plenty. On the question of teaching science, the Professor said that his own experience had been that, however badly a syllabus were designed, it paid to spend 75 per cent, of the time in getting the students keenly interested in the subject and helping them to remember the really important facts or the really fruitful generalisations.' When preparing first-year medical students for an examination in which they were expected to remember the bones and foramina of the skulls of the rabbit and the frog, he decided to tell them much more than was expected from them and devoted the greater part of the time to a rapid survey of the recorded history of fossil vertebrates. Having memorised the skull of the first known land vertebrate, the common ancestor of the rabbit and the frog the students found it easy to remember how those creatures differed from it. "After several years of it," he said, "I could even deliver a lecture on the skulls of the rabbit and of the frog with something of the zest of a revival meeting." V VISUAL DIFFICULTIES. Professor Hogben urged, that the cinema^should be iised to explain many things which many people could never understand through the printed word. The greatest difficulties in mathematics "and in sciences depending on them resided in failures to visualise the physical construction model or process that mathematical symbols represent. Simple harmonic motion, the procession of the equinoxes, and wave motions presented insuperable difficulties to many people. "With all the resources of stereoscopic cinematography," he said, "I believe that a few hours would serve to overcome visual difficulties which now absorb weeks and months of effort. "Distrust of education and a pessimistic attitude towards the powers of the average citizen in our generation are the seeds of Fascism and war. If the cost of one cruiser were applied to providing projectors for our schools and the expense of two battleships was 'devoted to films for the teaching of science this generation could witness a greater advance of human enlightenment than the world has yet seen. This is rational ground for hopefulness in the dark hours through which Europe is now passing."