5o8 



NA TURE 



[October 6, 1923 



so much till- l)i-ttiT : fn- 

 it l)c ciiiii ((led t lial ;i 111 

 its understanding of Niitun 

 and so inu(-h more readil 

 scii III I- is ;is csscntiiil ;is 

 if she ' '■■ - l.!<-v-.- -.-,.,• 

 Sn 



those u in. : i \ I i iM 11 II . I- iM 



ami i'\i'n t lu' ^c i;ii(l\ i;in ^|i( 

 itN iii,ui\- hranclR's. Witiiic 

 (li\ i ililc. t)ut her work 



more readily will 

 is dependent on 



i.iu .. 'I'liis 

 il! An .1 1 .ili;i I' 



,i|, 



^1 icm I- ; 



lll^r lllUl 



.ui-{)ower 



111,1 Iv I- lull' 

 ■.I- III more 

 1-. 1 nic. i ; 



III ,in\ but 

 li lir.iiluav. 

 than niK' ol 

 nil- and in- 

 iiUiiiitr. The iiinrf we h/arn 

 ol hi 1 the more we realise her unity, ijut the mon 

 \\f aic torced for our own sakes to subdivide and 

 classit\ s( icnce. The most learned in any branch 

 are at Ixsi hut amateurs in any other. A nation, 

 therefore, neediiiL ^i ii nre, must make liberal pinx ision 

 for the highest trainiim in all its branches, and must, 

 moreover, see to it that the resulting skill and knowledge 

 are fully utilised for the public good. 



Nature being infinite, it stands to reason that what 

 man already knows of her — the science of to-day — is 

 but a fraction of what man may come to know — the 

 science of the future. Yet this small fraction is in 

 itself stupendous. In modern times, since man learnt 

 how best to seek new knowledge, all the great nations 

 of the earth have contributed, and as science grew its 

 rate of growth became accelerated. Now not a day 

 passes without additions to every branch. Scientific 

 education, then, must be equipped to deal adequately 

 with all this accumulated mass of knowledge ; but the 

 universities, if equipped to do no more, will fail in their 

 task of training competent men of science to serve their 

 country's needs, and that country will fail in its duty 

 to the world — the duty of contributing by research to 

 the growth of natural knowledge. The science of to- 

 day cannot be divorced from the science of to-morrow ; 

 the power to make new knowledge is both the final 

 test and the reward of a scientific education. 



The familiar distinction between " pure research " 

 and " applied research " is justified in this — that, 

 while there is no real difference in the methods employed 

 and one may require as much skill and knowledge 

 as the other, the aims from first to last are essentially 

 different. The aim of any pure research is nothing 

 more nor less than to add something new to natural 

 knowledge in a chosen field. The investigator's 

 reward is the joy of discovery. The aim of any applied 

 research is to solve a particular problem, the successful 

 solution of which promises results of direct utility to 

 man and is therefore of marketable value. It may be 

 that the investigator himself does not reap this tangible 

 reward ; it may even be that he is content to let it go 

 to others ; but in any case his task is that of the treasure- 

 seeker. If he find that the expected treasure does not 

 lie where he hoped to find it, he may follow up any 

 other likely clue to its whereabouts, but may not turn 

 aside tempted by mere glimpses of an unknown land. 

 It is true that exploration there might possibly lead to 

 valuable discoveries, but that is mere conjecture : 

 his immediate task is to unearth the treasure he went 

 out to seek. 



Such definitely utilitarian research should require 

 but little advocacy, for it should appeal strongly, even 

 to the unscientific. Any one can understand some- 

 thing of the valuable results that would follow from the 



di.scovery of and successful treatment of a| 



disease rife a; or flocks and herds, of a mcthodi 



of (radii atin !»le {K-st or a para.site destructivel 



ol (ult.i\ati(i . , , of an !tiiiir(i\.((1 i>roress of ore} 

 treatment or ol nietallurgi* . he utilisation! 



of .some waste produ«t ol ,. ,, , ; ire. But not 

 everybody can realise that all ah dl^(ove^ies have 

 thrir foundation i- • ' ■ ■' 'I 



.1 th 



ot 



intricate series ul stienliln. ions, \xt\ 



whirh many workers have contribute ;ly work-| 



in uith \\v 'h ..•i-i t of adding .something to natural! 

 kiii.ulid-i. lim I ar(iuaintcd with the historv* o|| 

 scientific discovery and in\(ntion know that this is| 

 true. They know. moreo\ir t! at no genuine nei 

 knowledge can [)rop(rly 1 ,is useless orl 



"merely academi- ' ■ r,, utility it| 



may at first appt • will bel 



found as an essenu.u m.. i i i - ' .am m nuihs that! 

 leads to a valuable con< lu>ion. 



When, in 1895, S^"" ^ViHi'ii^i Ramsjxy sef)arated smalll 

 quantities of a gas from the rare mineral cleveite andj 

 identified its spectrum with that of Lockyer andi 

 Frankland's constituent of the sun's atmosphere,] 

 helium, the discovery was full of academic interest butj 

 certainly did not promise to be useful. On the purely! 

 scientific side the expectations have been far moref 

 than realised, for this helium element, since its discovery I 

 in terrestrial matter, has been linked up with all that! 

 earlier and later knowledge that has culminated in the] 

 proof of the electrical constitution of material atomsJ 

 or the fundamental identity of matter and electricity| 

 — probably the most far-reaching scientific advanc 

 within our memory. But, on the utilitarian side, what 

 could offer less promise of practical application than 

 gaseous element, not only scarce and costly but al 

 absolutely inert and incapable of forming chemicall 

 compounds } Yet it was this very inactivity that sooni 

 found for it an important use and market value. For J 

 next to hydrogen, helium is by far the lightest of all I 

 gases ; and, being inert and therefore totally incom- 

 bustible, it is a safe gas with which to inflate balloons! 

 and airships, while hydrogen emphatically is not.] 

 The scarcity of supply was o\ercome when research; 

 showed it to be present in small proportions in several ] 

 natural gas springs in America, and methods were] 

 devised for separating it from its companion gases inj 

 a pure state. In parenthesis it may be said that the] 

 solution of this problem of its separation, w^erewe to follow] 

 it out in detail, would itself be seen to have been renderedl 

 possible by a chain of earlier pure researches on the| 

 physics of the gaseous state. When war ended in 1918 J 

 large quantities of pure helium, compressed in drums,! 

 were ready in America for shipment to Europe, to bel 

 used in war balloons and air-ships. This was butl 

 twenty-three years after Ramsay's " academic " dis-| 

 covery of the apparently useless element in terrestriall 

 minerals and half a century after the first observation] 

 of it as a line in the spectrum of the sun's chromosphere.! 

 The armistice came too soon for it to play its destined| 

 part in war ; but the ideal inflater of lighter-than-ai 

 vessels still meets a want in times of peace, and helium| 

 is now being prepared and stored in quantity in thej 

 United States, where I understand the use of any othei 

 gas for this purp>ose is prohibited by law. 



NO. 2814, VOL. 112] 



