SCIENCE MUST GO ON

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 453, 7 September 1928, Page 9

SCIENCE MUST GO ON

WORTH OF ITS WORK BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETS BENEFIT GIVEN TO MILLIONS ruuifed P.4. —By Telegraph Copyright) Australian and .Y.Z. Press Association) LON IX) N, W odnesday. "Modern craftsmanship, with ail its noise and ugliness, is giving food, clothing:, warmth and Interest to miiltwH wflM ollierwise must die,” said Sir William Llragfr, in his presidential address at the annual meetinp of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which was opened at Glasgow. Continuing, the speaker said that in England to-day there was- a new class id workers in research for association and firms. These workers were springing up throughout the country and were bringing interest of outlook and seientific inquiry into touch both with the employers and the employees. To some extent these research workers were the flux which made them run together.

The reason of this was that, as university men. they could exchange thoughts easily and accurately with the employers, and yet they were fellow-workers with the operatives. These they were inspiring with an understanding of the purposes and methods proper to employment. RESEARCH A NECESSITY Scientific research was so necessary to the welfare of the nation that even misconceptions could not be allowed to hinder it. Science was *aot setting forth to destroy the soul of the nation, but to keep its body and soul together. It was a, remarkable fact that most of the active industries were founded upon recent scientific research. The electrical engineering industry might be said to have had its in a single laboratory experiment, namely. Faraday's discovery*.of electromagnetic induction. Jt had grown by the continuous adaptation of fresh streams of knowledge. NO REST POSSIBLE Sir William then referred to the suggestion made by the Bishop of Ripon at the meeting of the association in 1927 that science might take a 10-years* holiday. He said that would be impossible. Thcv could not prevent interested men making inquiry. No one knew what was over the hill. The vanguard would march on without any thought of what lay before it. Sir Arthur Keith, Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons, said scieiitific men stood out as an isolated body of servants, not only of knowledge. but of the Empire. Their standard of life no longer depended upon acreage, but upon the brain capacitv of science. That was why business men must support science. They constituted the army in the field and scientists were the men in reserve, making ammunition for the business men.