VALUE OF SCIENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 March 1939, Page 3

VALUE OF SCIENCE

ASSISTANCE TO FARMERS. The president of the Royal Society, Sir William Bragg, in an address to the boys of Shrewsbury School, where Charles Darwin was once a pupil, spoke of what science had done and is doing for the production of food and agriculture generally, the method of transport of food from one country to another; and travel by air, land and sea. For industries such as steel, textiles, potteries and rubber, for the means of communication, for matters of defence, and for the investigation and detection of crime, unseen knowledge and aids to the senses were being brought into service. Sir William gave instances to illustrate how “this new knowledge” had helped to solve some problems. He said he Was approached a few years ago to examine two parcels of soil and rocks from New Zealand, both apparently the same. Sheep in the district where one of the rocks was to be found thrived, while those in the district where the other rock came from were dying. On examination it was found that in one sample there was an absence of cobalt, the one or two parts to a million generally to be found. An injection of a .tablet of cobalt beneath the skin of the sheep sufficient to last a year met the case.