Science, Art, and Education^ 



By R. E. Gibson 



Director, Applied Physics Laboratory 

 The Johns Hopkins University 



"The old order cliangeth, yielding place to new, 



And God fulfills Himself in many ways, 

 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." 

 Tennyson — Morte d'Arthur. 



Extensive changes in the scope and character of scientific research 

 have taken place during the past 75 years. Scientific research began 

 as a private activity of interest to a few inquiring minds, pursuing 

 knowledge for its own sake and their own esthetic satisfaction. It 

 has grown to be an activity of widespread public interest cultivated 

 for results that have an immediate and far-reaching effect on eco- 

 nomic, social, political, and military thought and action. This change 

 has proceeded at an ever-increasing rate. Its extent may be appreci- 

 ated when we consider the large sums of money now devoted by the 

 industries and government of this country to the support of scientific 

 research, and remember that only 40 years ago Moseley thanked 

 another college at Oxford for the loan of a vacuum pump that made 

 possible his classical experiments in the X-ray spectra of the elements. 



For reasons we shall explore later, it was inevitable that science 

 and scientific research should emerge into a dominant role in modern 

 technology and that concomitant changes should occur in the outlook 

 of educational and research institutions. The enrichening effect of 

 teclinology on our material civilization is unquestionable, and the 

 continued extension of the role of science in technology is imperative, 

 if we are to preserve ascendancy in a world of keen economic and 

 military competition. We may, however, wonder about the increasing 

 involvement of universities, of centers of original scientific thought, 

 and of individual scientists in the maelstrom of practical affairs 

 through the magnetic effect of the large financial support available 

 from industrial and governmental sources. The study of science 



^ This paper is based on articles that appeared in the American Scientist, vol. 41, 

 pp. 380-409, 1953, and the Armed Forces Chemical Journal for July 1953, and other 

 unpublished lectures given by the author. 



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