48 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Different, however, as science and technology may be, they are also 

 closely related. Technology draws on many other than scientific sources ; 

 it draws upon common sense, upon existing technologies, upon pre- 

 scientific practise; but it draws continually upon science. Science, in 

 its turn, is furthered by technology. The pursuit of a practical end 

 often reveals some defect of theoretical knowledge; and the repairing 

 of this defect, itself a contribution to science, may perform more than it 

 promised, may in fact open up some wholly new field of scientific 

 enquiry. That is the nature of the relation; and at first sight the ad- 

 vantage seems to lie with technology; for if the technologist needs the 

 aid of science, he also appears capable of supplying for himself the 

 science that he needs; he has only, for a little while, to shift his atti- 

 tude, and the science is forthcoming. Where, then, would be the loss if 

 pure science, with its " unreal " and " abstract " concerns, went by the 

 board, and we all became practical together? 



In answer to this question there are two things to be said. We must 

 remember, in the first place, that every technology is limited by its end. 

 When a technological need suggests a problem in pure science, the sug- 

 gestion bears directly upon the need out of which it arises, and upon that 

 need only; when the need is satisfied, there is no further sanction, 

 within the technology, for purely scientific work. If, in other words, 

 the progress of science were made dependent upon the progress of tech- 

 nology, and theory were never invoked save for the sake of practise, — if 

 such a state of things were conceivable, — then our scientific knowledge 

 would perforce remain scrappy and partial, so scrappy and so partial 

 that a halt would ultimately be called to the advance of technology itself. 

 An all-embracing technology, starting out with things as they are to- 

 day, would no doubt be able to maintain itself for a relatively long time ; 

 theory is, in general, so far ahead of practise that, though science now 

 stopped short, technological advance would long be possible. It is this 

 fact, of course, which gives a plausible coloring to the demand that 

 science leave its heights and come down among " every-day people," and 

 that the man of science, instead of adding to his store of observed facts, 

 use his scientific capital for "practical " and " vital " purposes. Sooner 

 or later, however, the capital would be exhausted; sooner or later, 

 progress would slow down to stagnation ; the needs of technology, occa- 

 sional needs of a circumscribed activity, would not suffice in the long 

 run for the advancement of science. And then there is the other side 

 of the shield ! Technology, we said, draws from many sources, but is 

 continually drawing upon science; each separate technology, we may 

 here add, upon many sciences. Now if any induction from the history 

 of human achievement is secure, it is surely this : that there is nothing 

 in science so abstract, or so remote from matter of fact, or so indifferent 

 to common sense, that it may not, some day or other, prove of service to 



