NEWS OF THE WORLD
EXPLORATIONS IN SCIENCE, by Waldemar Kaempftert; Victor Gollancz, English price 12/6. NYONE interested in his world finds increasing difficulty in understanding it, or even in keeping abreast of other men’s understanding of it. This is where the popular scientist comes in. In my opinion he is the essential link between the common world of men and the science which moves further and further from commonsense. In a society which vacillates illogically between boundless | expectations of science and _ limitless | fears of it, he must interpret a situation as foreign as anything can well be. Kaempffert, one of the great interpreters in this field, falls somewhat short of what one could hope of him, The book is a collection of newspaper articles selected primarily for their immediacy. They are clear, accurate and, in the nature of things, brief. The author is no sensationalist. Yet his topics have an urgent air. The principal headings concern space, speed, energy, the nature of life, a weak section on chance, and finally an analysis of science and society which attempts to tie the greater portion of the book together. Clearly he has selected from the immense .number of short articles he writes for the New York Times those of most lasting interest, and he has grouped them to mitigate as far
as possible the faults inevitable in articles written for the marked space limitations of today’s press. Whether he talks of © steering hurricanes or of artificial satellites in space, or of cancer research, or the scientific creation of life, he is coolly informative and encouraging of further inquiry. Perhaps he is a little too detached, but in these days of pseudoScientific sensationalism, how salutary that is. This is a book to dip into. It is too much for one sitting. Read as a collection of essays it cannot fail to impress. Yet Kaempffert .is the victim of his own previous excellence. In a newspaper article one can expect no more than is set out here. In a book one has the right to expect a viewpoint, a consistent thread through it all, something more. than description. For the careful interpretation of the new world of science, seen as a whole, one must look elsewhere.
J.D.
McD.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540514.2.26.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 773, 14 May 1954, Page 14
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374NEWS OF THE WORLD New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 773, 14 May 1954, Page 14
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