AN ASPECT OF THE PROMOTION" OF SCIENCE 



who make the most intelligent scientific guesses we give Nobel prizes.' 



What then is this mysterious process of guessing? You may perhaps 

 forgive a microbiologist the fact that he is inclined to draw a parallel 

 with the equally mysterious process of spontaneous mutation, which 

 remarkable phenomenon is nowadays nowhere so notable as in the 

 microbe world. There can be no doubt that in a sufficiently dense 

 clone of certain bacterial strains perpetually forms of life arise which 

 in their properties clearly differ from the single cell which was the 

 starting point of the clone. Among others, these differences may mani- 

 fest themselves in an unusual resistance to growth inhibitors such as 

 antibiotics, chemotherapeutics, bacteriophage, etc. The main point 

 in all this is, however, that the rise of such a mutant is fully independ- 

 ent of the presence of the inhibitor in the cell's environment, implying 

 that in a clone of sufficient dimensions thousands of mutations are con- 

 tinuously taking place. But all the resulting mutants are doomed to 

 sterility, except the one which quite accidentally fits the environment. 

 This throws a clear light on one of the most remarkable properties of 

 life which might be paraphrased as its 'trial and error' character. 



It is tempting to apply this point of view also to the process of 

 guessing. We should then accept that each scientist has a certain in- 

 tellectual and mental structure and we could consider his guesses as 

 mental mutations. By far the majority of these guesses will remain 

 sterile and vanish, while one guess fitting the scientific environment 

 might stay and mean scientific progress, possibly create a new Nobel 

 laureate. Now it is well known that the mutability of various strains 

 belonging to one and the same bacterial species may vary consider- 

 ably, and it seems likely that the same will hold good for the mental 

 mutability of the brains of various individuals. 



It follows that the task of a promoter of science should be to look 

 out for persons with a marked mental mutability, to try to make them 

 go in for a scientific career, and, above all, to create suitable conditions 

 for their survival as scientists. 



Such a program is certainly not easily accomplished, and I shall 

 not consider its initial stages here but limit my attention to the third 

 phase, which involves a selection of those scientists worthy of special 

 consideration from the point of view of scientific progress. 



I then start with a recent appraisal of the scientist by A. V. Hill, 

 who writes: T do not believe that there is such a thing as the scientific 



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