DAEL WOLFLE 



professions will have had no contact with science as a quest 

 for new knowledge, and will have but little basis for under- 

 standing the nature of science and research, the relations be- 

 tween basic research and human welfare, or the attitudes and 

 conditions that best foster research. 



Yet there are, of course, exceptions; President Gould him- 

 self was able to say that his own faculty included the world's 

 foremost authority on Antarctic petrography. The existence of 

 some exceptions demonstrates that there could be more. 



If the nation is looking for ways in which to improve the 

 education of future scientists and to provide future members of 

 other professions with a better understanding of science — and 

 both are vitally important educational problems — some of the 

 best opportunities for further improvement are to be found in 

 liberal arts colleges. The liberal arts colleges are as hard pressed 

 for money as are the universities, and find it more difficult to 

 secure research grants. Yet unless there are opportunities for 

 research, a faculty of the highest quality cannot be secured. 



Arrangements in Support 

 of Basic Research 



The best arrangements for the support of basic research 

 are those which most effectively free creative scholarship from 

 its limitations. The limitations vary, depending upon what the 

 scientist wants to do. But if he is a truly creative research 

 scholar, it is worth a great deal of effort to find out what he 

 needs, to remove whatever barriers stand in his way, and to 

 give him positive encouragement to go ahead. 



What a scientist needs depends upon the problem upon 

 which he is working. Darwin needed the voyage of the Beagle. 

 Einstein needed paper and pencil. Faraday and Henry needed 

 some simple bits of wire and metal, and Mendel needed a gar- 

 den. The needs of contemporary scientists are equally varied, 



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