302 



One of the great unsolved problems 

 of a democracy is how to insure that, in 

 intellectual matters, judgments are left 

 to those who arc competent, and the 

 people will respect that competence. 

 But when uneducated fanatics presume 

 to choose and to censor textbooks, 

 when government officials impose tests 

 of political conformity on the scholars 

 that may leave or enter a country, and 

 when the editors of a popular magazine 

 set themselves up to judge who had the 

 proper opinions of nuclear physics, 

 then the inquiring mind finds itself in 

 an atmosphere not exactly conducive 

 to maximum productivity. 



THE NEEDS OF THE INQUIRING MIND 



But physical conditions are not 

 enough. Big, beautiful laboratories do 

 not themselves produce research- 

 only the men in them can think. And 

 if conditions are such as not to attract 

 men who think or such as to impede 

 their thinking, then the laboratory is 

 sterile. Such laboratories, as you well 

 know, do exist. There is no use storm- 

 ing and raging at the perverseness of 

 scientists who refuse to work when con- 

 ditions are not just to their liking. We 

 don't call a rose bush perverse if it fails 

 to bloom when deprived of proper 

 water and soil. A community or a na- 

 tion which wishes to enjoy the bene- 

 fits that flow from active inquiring 

 minds needs to recognize that the in- 

 quiring mind is a delicate flower, and 

 if we want it to flourish we are only 

 wasting our time if we do not create 

 those conditions most conducive to 

 flowering. The cost of doing so will be 

 well repaid. 



The inquiring mind then needs, 

 first of all, some degree of understand- 

 ing and sympathy within the commu- 

 nity. And if there are those who cannot 

 understand, then at least they must be 

 insulated bv those who do, so that 

 they do the least harm. As someone has 

 said, we can stand having a few idiots 



SCIENCE 



in each community as long as we don't 

 put them on the school board. 



As I have already suggested, it is not 

 enough for the scholar or the scientist 

 to wring his hands and wish that there 

 were fewer idiots or that they had less 

 influence. He must also, to the extent 

 of his ability, explain to those who can 

 understand what he is doing and why. 

 We now see that an intelligent and 

 informed segment of public under- 

 standing is essential to the progress of 

 scholarly endeavor. 



SCIENTIST AND GOVERNMENT 



This leads me to another subject 

 which has become timely to the scien- 

 tist and to the citizen in recent years; 

 that is, the relation of the scientist and 

 the government. This is obviously a 

 very large subject which I cannot at- 

 tempt to explore here. But as the 

 scholar needs an informed community 

 to support him, so he owes an obliga- 

 tion to that community. 



The prime obligation of the scholar, 

 of course, is to pursue scholarship. 

 That is, he must seek answers to im- 

 portant questions, observe carefully, 

 analyze accurately, test rigidly, explain 

 imaginatively, and test and test again. 

 Then he must publish his results, fulh', 

 fearlessly, objectively, and defend them 

 enthusiastically unless or until the 

 facts prove him wrong. Through such 

 intellectual struggle does the truth 

 emerge. 



But in these days the results of 

 science impinge so heavily on public 

 affairs that the public— in particular 

 the government— needs the scientist's 

 help in so many ways. Obviously, the 

 government needs the direct services 

 of thousands of scientists and engineers 

 to carry on work in public health, 

 standards of measurement, agriculture, 

 conservation of resources and in mili- 

 tan' weapons, to name a few. 



But when there is developed a new 

 weapon, a new treatment for a disease. 



