8 Master Minds of Modern Science 



For better or worse — and we think it is for better — 

 scientists are the rulers of the world. Look back and you 

 will see that the work of Stephenson had a far greater 

 effect on man's destiny than the conquests and law- 

 making of Napoleon. 



Yet scientists are very modest folk. We did not find 

 it easy to persuade our subjects to talk of themselves, 

 and our chapters are not in any sense stories of their 

 intimate lives. There is, however, no less interest attach- 

 ing to the wonderful work they are doing, or have already 

 done, of which we have told. 



It has not, of course, been possible to do more than 

 touch the fringe of the subject. We might easily have 

 selected two hundred names instead of twenty. Our idea 

 has been not merely to choose the greatest scientists of 

 the present day, but rather to present as many different 

 aspects of Science as possible, and to procure the material 

 in each case from the one best able to give it. With two 

 exceptions, all our subjects are alive at the time of writing. 

 The exceptions are Luther Burbank, the Californian 

 plant wizard, and Professor Curie. 



Our chief difficulty has been to put the mass of material 

 given to us into simple and readable language. Science 

 in these days has a language of its own, and if we have 

 erred here and there in trying to simplify technical terms 

 we must beg the reader's indulgence. 



Our task has entailed much travelling and interviewing 

 — work which has been lightened by the very great kind- 

 ness of those interviewed. Your modern scientist is one 

 of the world's hardest workers, and it is real charity on 

 his part to give up two or three valuable hours to a 

 stranger who comes asking him endless questions. 



Among those who have given us special assistance, 

 and to whom, therefore, special thanks are due, are 

 Sir William Bragg, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Sir Oliver 

 Lodge, Mr J. B. S. Haldane, Sir Robert Robertson, 



