424 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



in mud, and rocks, and ancient ruins, on tablets of clay, in scratches on 

 stones, papyrus, and paper, I think I discern evidence of the ascent of man, 

 through asking all kinds of questions at all times, and seeking the answers 

 by the best methods of the age. If we do less, we admit that science and 

 civilization is a blind alley in human evolution. 



Is ours the Age of Science? Or rather, in what sense is ours the Age of 

 Science? An eminent physicist said, in this very city (Philadelphia): "In 

 no previous time in human history has life and thinking been so greatly in- 

 fluenced by science as it is today." This is undoubtedly true, but does that 

 alone make ours the Age of Science? I think not. Those who, accusingly or 

 proudly, describe our times as the Age of Science usually cite as evidence 

 the modern aspect of man's inhumanity to man, or the numerous practical 

 applications of the discoveries in physics, chemistry, geology, biology, 

 and medicine during the last hundred years, such as the steam and gas en- 

 gine, the telegraph, the telephone, the airplane, the radio, modern surgery, 

 fair control of infectious disease, modern sanitation, and many other in- 

 ventions and measures that contribute to the convenience, the efficiency, 

 the health, the comfort, and the happiness of modern life. It is true that 

 science has, during the last hundred years, increased enormously our under- 

 standing of the nature of the world and the nature of man, and with that 

 greater understanding has come greater control of the forces that act in 

 man and in his environment. But fundamental discoveries in science are 

 the achievement of but a few people. The practical inventions based on 

 these discoveries are also the work of a few men, speaking relatively. And 

 the physical and chemical inventions are mostly gadgets that merely 

 modify our tempo and external mode of living. I contend, and I think I will 

 be able to prove to you, that the great mass of the people of our age, the 

 rank and file of men and women of our day, even in the most enlightened 

 countries, in their thinking and in their motivation are nearly as untouched 

 by the spirit of science and as innocent of the understanding of science as 

 was the "Peking A4an" of a million years ago. The modern man adjusts to an 

 environment greatly modified by the scientific efi"orts of the few. The 

 "Peking Man," we may assume, adjusted himself as best he could to na- 

 ture in the raw. A span of about a million years separates the two. And yet 

 the two are about equally innocent of science, in the sense of the spirit and 

 the method of science as part of their way of life. For science is more than 

 inventions, more than gadgets, however useful and important they be. 

 Science is even more than the discovery of and correlation of new facts, 

 new laws of nature. The greatest thing in science is the scientific method, 

 controlled and rechecked observations and experiments, objectively re- 

 corded with absolute honesty and without fear or favor. Science in this 

 sense has as yet scarcely touched the common man, or his leaders. 



The character of human society in any age is determined by man's think- 

 ing, motivation, and behavior rather than by external gadgets. The er- 



