THE NEED FOR NEW KNOWLEDGE 



the very best — who maintained throughout an independent 

 curiosity, independent of bombs and all such matters. Out of 

 this came, among many other things, the interest in controlled 

 nuclear fusion and a new idea for the design of particle ac- 

 celerators which has changed the history of fundamental 

 physics. It is probable that no laboratory should ever be so 

 dedicated to its practical mission or missions that it cannot 

 afford a reasonable proportion — perhaps a sixth or a fifth — of 

 work that is on the face of it unrelated to its purposes. 



It may be good to recognize that new techniques and new 

 resources are a better guide to new knowledge than a newly 

 sense practical urgency. In general it may be wise also to recog- 

 nize without equivocation, and without trying to soften it, the 

 rather harsh disparity in the nature of, and the tension between, 

 the two sets of reasons for encouraging the quest for new knowl- 

 edge. It constitutes no new problem. Here is what I lobbes had 

 to say: 



The Sciences, are small Power; because not eminent; and there- 

 fore, not acknowledged in any man; nor at all, but in a few; and 

 in them, but of a few things. For Science is of that nature, as none 

 can understand it to be, but such as in a good measure have 

 attayned it. 



Arts of publique use, as Fortification, making of Engines, and 

 other Instruments of War; because they conferre to Defence, and 

 Victory, are Power: And though the true Mother of them, be 

 Science, namely the Mathematiqucs; vet, because thev are brought 

 into the Light, by the hand of the Artificer, they be esteemed (the 

 Midwife passing with the vulgar for the Mother) as his issue. 



To the question, "Why do we need new knowledge?" we 

 have heard two answers. One is that the search for it is en- 

 nobling; the other is that it offers man larger choices. The two 

 answers, alas, suggest two further questions: "Ennobling for 

 whom?" "By whom and how well are the choices made?" 



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