FIRST CONGRESS SINCE 1935

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 412, 16 May 1947, Page 6

FIRST CONGRESS SINCE 1935

Scientists Will Gather Next Week in Wellington

| Written for "The Listener" |

by

E.

and

O.

E.

IVE HUNDRED New Zealand scientists will meet in Wellington on May 20, and over four days they will listen to the reading of more than 250 scientific papers. But although one address will be on Nuclear Physics, with Par.icular Reference to Experimental Methods-and some recent experiments in that field have stirred more than scientific circles-anyone who expects the sensational is likely to be disappointed. In essence, next week’s congress will simply provide research workers in a wide variety of fields with the opportunity to compare notes and talk shop. The man in the street will not likely be affected directly by anything done

there, but out of > that exchange of information which the congress _ facilitates will come; in the

fullness of time, new knowledge, new techniques, new devices which are likely ta: concern us all. This gathering of physicists, chemists, ‘geologists, geographers, architects, engineers, forestry specialists, geneticists, and so on, will make up the sixth Congress of the Royal Society of New Zealand. This year there will be only one overseas visitor-an Australian womar speech therapist. All section, meetings will be held at Victoria University College, and all major gatherings in the lecture-hall at the Dominion Museum. As an introduction to the Congress, a talk will be given from the main National stations at 8.45 p.m. on Sunday, May 18, by H. C. McQueen, president of the Wellington branch of the

Royal Society of New Zealand. His subject will be Science in New Zealand To-day, and the purpose of the talk will be to relate the work of the assembled scientists to the everyday life of the nation. First for Twelve Years Though it has been the custom for the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science to meet every two years (the 1937 Congress was held in Auckland, last year’s was in Adelzide," and this year Perth, Western Australia, will be the venue), next week’s gathering will be the first Congress of the Royal Society of New Zealand for 12 years. The superficial observer, comparing the papers for 1947 with those delivered in 1935, would. find littlke among the

titles to indicate the lapse of time or the magnitude of the events which have occupied the inter-

vening years. The social sciences have more prominence than they once commanded, and "nuclear physics" means more to the layman to-day than it did even two years ago, but in the main the lines of investigation are the same. That, of course, does; not mean an absence of progress, but simply that research is a continuous process. That scientists themselves may have changed in the last few years seems possible when one delves a little deeper into the Congress order-paper. Forward Looking In the past, for example, it has been the custom for the presidential address to be given in private to the council of the Society, the text being released

jater for publication. This year it will be given at a public session, and Dr. W. N. Benson, BA., D.Se., F.R.S., of Otago, who-e second presidential address it will be, has chosen as his subject Scientists Look Toward the Future. Implicit both in the decision to give the address in public, end in ‘the topics’ selected by the president is science’s acknowledgment of its ci izen. hip, and the desire of so many men of science to-day to speak directly to the rest of. the community. And in this regard it is interesting to recall this in his first presiden‘ial address, Dr.. Benson made a strong plea for the application of _ scientific method to the solution of international problems. Both in the continuity of work shown in the bulk of the papers, and

in the awareness of social problems arising out of the advance of science noticeable in the subjects for general discussion, can be observed two complementary and important tendencies. Pure and Applied Science The classic attitude of the pure scientist, that truth must be pursued regardless of consequences, that the scientist was not concerned either with how his discoveries were used or with argument and opinion ("It is not for me to ask ‘Who is right?’" said Lamarck, "but ‘What is the truth?""’) is being modified. On the other hand, there has been in the last 20 or 30 years a change in the "practical" man’s attitude to pure research, a change towards a better appreciation of the status of pure science and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. This tendency has, perhaps, operated most profitably to the scientit in the United States where private endowment has assisted many workers in fundamental research without placing them under any obligation to produce "practical" results. But the ffuits of this understanding of the scientific urge toward discovery for its own sake are to be found on every page of the New Zéaland Congress programme. "The Pleistocene Snow-line and Glacial Control in New Zealand," for example, a paper which will be read to geologists and others interested on the Tuesday afternoen, is not a ‘subject of any immediate practical significance

to New Zealanders generally. The same might be said of "Fossil Spores from New Zealand Coals," another geological topic, or "Maori Adze Sockets," in which the ethnologists will be interested. These three are typical of scores of cubjects in which the work done is not assessable in tefms of profit-and-loss and they indicate that scientists‘in New Zealand at least have some opportunity to engage in pure research, though they may not enjoy the same degree of public assistance here as they do in other and larger countries. Developments in Radio On the other hand, a large number of the papers to be read have a direct bearing on the life and work of the general community. The meteorological and physics sections, for example, will see the presentation of a number of papers having a bearing on radio prob"lems, and radio and radar have a subsection to themselves. The papers in the latter category are three in num-ber-‘‘General Principles of Radar Design,’ "Radar and Radio Methods of Position-fixing and Navigation," and "Radar Display Circuits. and Techniques." 4 The "Canterbury Project" in which investigations are being made into highfrequency radiation and the effects on it of certain atmospheric conditions, will have two papers, one describing the problem facing the investigators and the (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) technique being used in attacking it, he other a suzvey of preliminary results. Mining, engineering, and the technological sciences are all represented by pers which have. immediate. reference to current problems in daily iife. "The Age and Distribution of Coals in Nortia ‘Auckland,’ "Electronics, its Place in Science, Engineering, and Industry," "The Problem for the Hospital Architect," "Recent and Potential Applications of Some of the Newer Plastic Materials," and "Sound and its Reproduction," are all titles whose importance to the community at large are at ence evident. *. Town planning also has_ received attention. A paper on "A Background to Town Planning" will be read’on the afternoon of Friday, May 23. This paper will deal with the necessity for preconceived planning, the tragic results of uncontrolled urban expansion, and the opportunities of the post-war period. It will cover the history of planning and European influences reflected in early plans for New Zealand cities, and the specific problems of planning in this coun‘ry. The secial, economic and legislative backgrounds will! be dealt with, as well as the plan pattern and its long- and short-term objectives. : Farm Problems ‘As is natural in a community dependent mainly on primary production, a large percentage of the papers read will have a more or less direct. bearing on agri¢ultural and pastoral problems. The New Zealand Society of Animal Production, for example, will hold its seventh annual conference during the Congress period, and at its sessions the speakers will all be pérsonalities already well known to country listeners through the farm talks given from the National

stations. Pastoralists will particularly- be affected by the researches represented in the first group of papers, which cover pasture in relation to animal production, pasture growth and management, labour in relation to grassland dairying, hazards of grazing in New Zealand, sheep management in Poverty Bay, and hill.country problems. . Fertilisers, parasitism in pasture farming, ex‘ension services and the farmer are other topics listed. In the pedology sub-section, the work’ of science for the farmer is also well illustrated in the subject-matter of the papers. "The Naming of New Zealand Soil Erosion Phenomena" is one, and there are others on the’ classification of New Zealand soils, soil mechanics, and phosphate in soils. lron Curtain Though the fundamental purpose of the Congress is to enable scientists, as such, to get together and exchange the information which they have gathered, each in his own particular sphere, and though the fruits of such mee‘ings may "not be immediately obvious, the scientists themselves are apparently concerned with the kind of publicity which often arises’ from these gatherings. While some claim that they have experienced no difficulty in getting reliable news of their work into the newspapers, many others feel that too much of what is reported on scientific subjects deals with trivial matters. The "gadget" too often gets into the headlines at the expense of ‘more important but perliaps less spectacular information. ‘This feeling has become strong enough to lead to the inclucion in this year’s programme of a paper on the "iron curtain" between science and the rest of the community. dk le matt This paper will be read at a public session of the Congress, and if it can

} Suggest ways and means by which sound _ Scientific information can be given to ‘the public, in a form which will be readable as well as reliable-a form which, in other words, will satisfy both the scientist and the layman--New Zealand journalists are scarcely likely to object. It would be unfortunate if science, having left its ivory tower, found itself confronted by an impassable curtain. Science and Society In other ways, too, this Congress will look oytward from itself. The social sciences, which are well represented in the programme, of their. very nature import into the realm of science factors traditionally non-scientific. The scientist might be regarded as the one. member of the community whose sole concern is with the material, the tangible, and the factual. But to the social scientist an opinion-especially a generally held one, acquires the status of a fact meriting consideration. The social science papers will bring those who hear them directly into contact with the communal and social problems of the day, and; the Congress will also be introduced to some new social topics. The cinema as a sociological influence, and the film as a social document, for example, will be two new subjects for. discussion. And, of course, the Congress will have its strictly social side. There will be plenty of opportunities for the members of the various groups to discuss their own particular problems informally over the teacups-and information exchanged in this way has often provided shortcuts in research work-and numerous excursions have been arranged. But though these will be off-the-record activities, a full record of all the formal proceedings will be\ taken, and a few hundred more pages added to the already formidable record of sdientific achievement in New Zealand.