TOWARD A NEW GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS? 
By L. A. HAwKINS 
General Electric Research Laboratory 
Schenectady, N. Y. 
Anyone who has had the good fortune to have lived many years 
in close contact with scientists of the first rank, and thus had oppor- 
tunity to observe their methods, witness their achievements, and follow 
the results of their research, through engineering development and 
production, out into use by the public, cannot fail to realize the enor- 
mous value of scientific research. 
To mention but a few outstanding examples of its value to industry, 
and of its even greater value to the public: Our laboratory researches 
on lamps and alloys have been major factors in reducing the cost of 
light to one-twentieth of its cost 45 years ago; X-ray practice has been 
transformed from a tricky, dangerous art of limited scope to a safe 
and exact science of the widest utility, with the saving of countless 
lives and untold suffering; and the electronic tube has been developed 
from an unreliable and feeble device to become the sturdy cornerstone 
of the great new industry, broadcasting, bringing employment to tens 
of thousands, and entertainment and instruction to millions. 
For a person who has not had such intimate association with scien- 
tific activities, and hence has been less conscious of their achievements, 
it took this great war, with its diverse and spectacular scientific and 
technological accomplishments, to bring a realization of the poten- 
tialities of research. The life-saving miracles of blood plasma, 
penicillin, and DDT; the marvelous extension of the range of vision 
given by radar, with its immunity to fog, cloud, and darkness; the 
automatic bomb sights, computers, and gun controls which made our 
bombers and fighters so deadly; the enormous speed with which the 
greatest and most eflicient navy the world has ever seen rose from the 
flames of Pear] Harbor; the great submarine pipeline which spanned 
the British Channel to carry the motive power to Kisenhower’s armor 
for the swift dash from Normandy to the Siegfried line; these and 
1 Article based on an address of welcome to a group of high school science teachers 
taking, at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., a special 6 weeks’ course in modern physics, 
made possible by General Electric Science Fellowships for Teachers. Reprinted by per- 
mission from the General Electric Review, vol. 48, No. 8, August 1945. 
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