CHAPTER X 



Organized Science 



W 



'e easily recognize the overt 

 devices of organized science: the scholarly periodical, the interna- 

 tional conclave, and so forth. We can see also that these are devices 

 expressly designed to further two specific functions— commimica^/on 

 and education— which absorb much of the attention and most of the 

 funds of the professional organizations of scientists. 



Through education the scientist learns the achievement of his 

 predecessors, which is the point of departure for his own endeavor. 

 He learns, too, the esoteric terminology he will use in exchanging 

 with his contemporaries communications of scientific intelligence 

 that are both comprehensive and comparatively unequivocal. These 

 can be comprehensive because of the immense condensation of what 

 needs to be communicated. Thus, for example, I need not report the 

 actual heights in my manometer, nor the circumstances of ambient 

 temperature, barometric pressure, and geographic location in which 

 those heights were measured. Instead I report only the pressures 

 derived from all these data, and my report is essentially unequivocal 

 because today scientists do thoroughly understand what is meant by 

 "pressure." The older scientific literature is impaired by a great 

 variety of maddening obscurities and ambiguities. Today such un- 

 certainties are suppressed by uniform adoption of nomenclature, 

 units, conversion factors, and standards suggested by international 

 commissions of scientists representing the learned societies directly 

 concerned. 



With the preparatory education of scientists the modern profes- 



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