48 SCIENTIST 



and mathematics became part of the chemist's require- 

 ments also. Today many young people who want to go 

 into science but who regard themselves as incapable of 

 mathematical thinking elect biology, but their days are 

 probably numbered. As the older professors of biology, 

 who don't know any mathematics themselves, retire, the 

 younger "molecular biologists" will probably prevail upon 

 the dean's office to require at least elementary calculus as 

 a prerequisite. 



There is still a great deal of specialization based on skill 

 in using certain types of apparatus, but this too may begin 

 to disappear as things like electron miscroscopes, oscillo- 

 scopes, ultracentrifuges, and so on lose their tricky custom- 

 made character and become standard mass-production 

 machines with a high degree of rehability and with many 

 automatic control features. 



In addition to the major scientific specialties — physics, 

 chemistry, and biology — which appear in all school cata- 

 logues, there are a number of interesting satellite subjects. 

 Geology, archeology, meteorology, oceanography, psychol- 

 ogy, and anthropology are some of the better known ones. 

 All of them employ the general methodology of science 

 and draw on one or more of the basic scientific disciplines 

 for methods and ideas. It would take us too far afield to 

 discuss each one in detail, even if I were able to do so. 

 In practice the individual should make his choice of one 

 of these satellite specialties or of one of the subspecialties 

 of the major triad only after considerable exposure to the 

 basic fields themselves. 



Although we do not intend to describe every minor 

 specialty in detail, it may be worthwhile to provide some 

 comment on what was once thought to be a major dis- 

 tinction between the life sciences, on the one hand, and 

 the science of nonliving objects, on the other. As we found 



