10 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



helpful in cases of this nature through use of our organization 

 as an initiating mechanism, although the ultimate conduct of 

 the investigations might be under other auspices. 



Problems which promise large return for such future investi- 

 gation are found in the field of seismology or earthquake study 

 and in the general region of human behavior considered in the 

 widest sense and recognized as a problem of strictly biological or 

 physical research rather than as a question of sociology. In the 

 course of the year the Institution has been interested in studies 

 in these fields. 



In seismology, an advisory committee has been organized 

 under the chairmanship of Dr. Arthur L. Day, Director of the 

 Geophysical Laboratory. Seven of the leading students of 

 geological science and of physics have accepted membership 

 in the committee and have done much to bring into close and 

 active cooperation the various agencies of the country con- 

 cerned with earthquake studies. Within the short time in which 

 this committee has been in operation it has gone far to place 

 seismological research in a position to make material advance 

 in our understanding of movements of the earth's crust, and 

 thereby ultimately to contribute much toward maintenance 

 of the security and happiness of people inhabiting earthquake 

 regions. 



An investigation into the problems of human behavior, con- 

 stitutmg the second subject to be examined, has been given only 

 brief consideration. It represents one of the most difficult of all 

 researches, but is not second to any other question in the 

 possibilities offered. Without reference to immediate practical 

 use of knowledge of human behavior in control of our affairs, 

 research in this field offers an exceptional opportunity for work 

 on the biological or physical basis of human behavior and on the 

 significance of individual and group differences. In the present 

 status of this question the study concerns mainly the nature of 

 present knowledge and the approaches to research which seem 

 to offer the largest possibilities for securing new points of view 

 or new combinations of effort that may open aspects of the 

 work not previously considered. 



