CULTURAL VALUES OF PHTSICS — DIETZ 149 



the behavior of subatomic particles and energy photons. He employs 

 the experimental apparatus of the physics laboratory and the equa- 

 tions of the mathematical physicist. 



"Matter and force are the two names of the one Artist who fashions 

 the living as well as the lifeless," wrote the great Huxley. But the 

 modern view puts the gi-eater emphasis upon energy. 



"All the life of the universe," says Sir James Jeans, "may be 

 regarded as manifestations of energy masquerading in various forms, 

 and all the changes in the universe as energy running about from one 

 of these forms to the other, but always without altering its total 

 amount" (10). 



In our attempts to construct a universe, therefore, we may regard 

 all the various subatomic particles as concentrated energy, "bottled 

 energy" if you please, since the recent experiments with artificial 

 radioactivity have verified Einstein's equation of 1905 for the conver- 

 sion of matter into energy and vice versa. 



It is interesting to ask what ingredients we need for the construc- 

 tion of a universe in addition to energy. A generation ago we should 

 have required space and time, but now we need only the space-time 

 continuum of Einstein. 



We need certain forces within this space-time continuum— the force 

 of gravity, electromagnetic forces, the nuclear binding forces which 

 Tuve and his associates have disclosed, and perhaps the cosmic force 

 of repulsion to account for the expanding universe of Lemaitre. For 

 the study of all these we must turn to physics. And then, perhaps, 

 we shall eventually in the fashion set forth in Einstein's field theory 

 come to regard all of them as manifestations of the space-time field. 

 But whatever decision we may reach eventually, it is apparent that 

 the man without training in physics cannot work successfully in this 

 field and the man without a knowledge of physics cannot hope to have 

 an intelligent understanding of what is being done. 



Needless to state, this is a field in which every person, however 

 slight his formal education has been, shows a keen interest. Speaking 

 2 years ago before the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science upon the subject of Science and the American Press (11), I 

 sought to trace the factors which accounted for the present-day wide- 

 spread interest in science. I pointed out that the interest in Einstein's 

 theory of relativity was one of the chief factors in the rapid growth 

 of interest in science immediately following the World War. 



I have tried to show so far that a knowledge of physics is necessary 

 for an understanding of the age in which we live, for an understand- 

 ing of all science, for an understanding of the future, and for an 

 understanding of the universe in which we live. Before concluding 



