"Here's to Pure Science"
SOMEBODY asked the BBC Brains Trust the other night what was the use of science discovering such facts as the exact distance between the earth and the moon. A question like this to a scientist is as a trumpet to a warhorse, for the pure scientist is a man looking for the truth, and many of the most epoch-making discoveries have been mere offshoots of this search. Dr. C. P. Snow, answering for the profession, went so far as to say that a country that encouf&ged pure research into scientific knowledge would have greater material results to show at the end of ten or twenty years than one that kept its workers on the job of solving specific problems. Research workers are usually too busy and too absorbed in the quest to bother about the uses and abuses to which their discoveries are put; but the purse-strings are often held by utilitarian minds who expect a regular, tangible, and marketable product from them, as if they were prize-laying hens. So now and then when they get together, they drink this toast: "Here’s to pure science, and may it never be any damn use to anybody."
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19450608.2.16.9
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 311, 8 June 1945, Page 9
Word count
Tapeke kupu
199"Here's to Pure Science" New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 311, 8 June 1945, Page 9
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in