SCIENCE, ART, AND EDUCATION — GIBSON 183 



as soon as possible through communications to colleagues in various 

 parts of the world or through articles in journals. As a result, the 

 work of any investigator became available to others for criticism and 

 extension ; in short, all attributes of mind could be brought to bear on 

 a scientific topic once it had been formulated and exposed by an inves- 

 tigator. An unorganized, but none the less effective, team made up 

 of men from all nations quarried and polished the stones of which 

 the structure of science is built. 



Two thoughts prompted by the previous paragraph may be men- 

 tioned in passing: (1) In areas of work where national safety re- 

 quires a high security classification, it is impossible to use the method 

 of publication to enlist the services of all the attributes of mind neces- 

 sary on a team. Special efforts should be made, therefore, to ensure 

 that all security-classified fields of work are furnished with teams 

 diversified enough to have within themselves all the attributes of mind 

 necessary for a sound and critical program of research and develop- 

 ment. (2) Problems in the distribution and employment of man- 

 power might be approached more realistically on the basis of the 

 mental attributes of scientists and engineers (similar to those I have 

 enumerated) rather than on the basis of their professional training 

 alone. There are many examples of chemists who do excellent jobs 

 as engineers or administrators and still retain their interests in 

 chemistry, but if Promethean minds are set to work on routine prob- 

 lems, or if routine-industrious minds are given problems that depend 

 on creative ability even in the field of their own training, frustration 

 of the men, mediocrity of the product, and a general waste of man- 

 power are the results. 



Returning to our main theme, I should like to suggest that the al- 

 leged shortage of basic research in this country really means that we 

 need more creative and imaginative minds in our national portfolio 

 of scientific assets. The catalytic effect of a creative piece of work in 

 providing new and speedier channels along which men with other 

 attributes of mind can effectively devote their efforts is a phenomenon 

 that has been demonstrated time after time in the history of pure 

 science. I recognize fully the importance of all attributes of mind 

 in the development of science, and of fundamental training in scientific 

 discipline, of the acquisition of habits of careful observation and criti- 

 cal reasoning together with the cultivation of experimental skill as 

 ingredients in the education of a research scientist. However, an 

 alert mind and a fertile but disciplined imagination are characteristics 

 that are indispensable to the scientist whose work is to rise above 

 mediocrity and blaze trails for others to follow. I also wish to em- 

 phasize that we need more young imaginative workers who can sense 

 the significant problems, plan original methods for their solution, 



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