284. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
already demonstrated unique value in the detection of distant earth- 
quakes and subterranean explosions. 
CONCLUSION 
Sheer masses of data were collected in the IGY. The United States 
alone has brought out no less than 17 tons of records just from 
its Antarctic stations. The total for the world is almost beyond 
comprehension. Now, to exploit such a fund of new information, 
we have comprehensive programs for its international exchange and 
for its orderly keeping in world data centers. There are new trans- 
lating services, directed especially toward the large mass of Soviet- 
bloc science writings. General geophysics information in America 
is available in permanent journals such as Z’ransactions of the 
American Geophysical Union, Journal of Geophysical Research, and 
LUGG Chronicle, and the temporary IGY journals, Annals of the 
IGY and [GY Bulletin. Complete technical data are available in 
the world centers. 
The store of knowledge already amassed is great. It includes the 
story of Antarctica’s striking geological history shown through the 
evidence of petrified trees and coalbeds. -We have learned that the 
oceans may become a primary food source, “farmed” by man, and that 
their dark reaches may deliver up vast new riches for his benefit; 
that knowledge of solar processes may revolutionize our approach 
to energy problems; that space is far from a vacuum, but that despite 
its logistics problems and radiation hazards we will complete its con- 
quest. The list could be well nigh endless. And we have yet far to 
go with the digestion of IGY data. 
To keep us from straying into scientific fantasy, we have a legacy 
of planning bodies at national and international levels—committees 
for oceanographic and polar research, and our Space Science Board— 
which will point out opportunities for the fullest exploitation of the 
possibilities. 
The scientific fruits we have seen to be great. Yet it may be hard 
to say whether less tangible values may not be even greater. We have 
the lesson that science is not parochial—that we must deal broadly 
with interdisciplinary problems. We know now that men of all races 
and political faiths can work together. The press of the world has 
produced a radical change in public attitudes (with no little help, to 
be sure, from the Russian sputniks). There is a burgeoning public 
awareness of the importance of science and of scientists. The scientist 
is losing his reputation for wearing long hair and going absent- 
mindedly through life. And we may now, for once and all, have 
laid the ghost of that stupid old question whether research and pure 
science are worth their own support. 
