^66 



NATURE 



[November i8, 1920 



gence — that is, upon science. Only impartial 

 observation and study, such as a scientifically 

 trained mind alone can give, will bring us nearer 

 to the solution of the tremendous problems in 

 sociology and economics which confront this 

 generation. Only science can find new sources of 

 energy for an industrial system which is largely 

 wasting its resources in coal and oil, and, for 

 that reason alone, is doomed to bankruptcy : a 

 strike of miners may be settled, but what poli- 

 tician will settle a strike of the coal itself? How 

 is that new and marvellous roadway of the air to 

 be opened up and made commercially available 

 for future generations without not merely routine 

 technical knowledge, but also that insight of genius 

 which is the rare gift of selected souls? And 

 how can the heritage preserved for us by the 

 glorious dead be defended against the dangers 

 which all history tells us are certain to arise again 

 if the nation has not a reserve of trained and 

 inventive intelligence at its service? 



In those days, of which the memory now seems 

 to be fading so quickly, when the whole Empire 

 stood thrilled and tense it was commonly repeated 

 that we had at last become conscious of the value 

 of science, that the old mistakes would not recur, 

 the old neglect would be a thing of the past. We 

 look in vain in the public Press for a repetition 

 of such statements nowadays. We have heard of 

 a "land fit for heroes" — but perhaps the true 

 meaning of the phrase may have been that it 

 would take a hero to exist in the new world. 

 Possibly the phrases about the nation's recogni- 

 tion of science may have been mere words, but 

 human beings cannot live upon such diet. The 

 multiplication of Government Departments sup- 

 posed to foster research, or of highly paid 

 research administrators (with or without scien- 

 tific qualifications), will not really recruit the ranks 

 of true scientific workers unless something is 

 done, and done quickly, to make the existence of 

 such workers tolerable. That these ranks are 

 being depleted at the present time there is ample 

 evidence; it is becoming increasingly difficult to 

 find suitable candidates to fill university posts, 

 and the more responsible the posts the more diffi- 

 cult it is to fill them. It is clear that the better 

 brains are being gradually squeezed out of the 

 scientific careers. If this process goes on much 

 longer the nation will awake one day to find that 

 it has effectually killed the goose which laid the 

 golden eggs. 



Most of us receive daily appeals for war 

 memorials of various kinds. Would not the best, 

 NO. 2664, VOL. 106] 



and, in the end, the cheapest, war memorial be 

 a growing and efficient body of brain-workers, 

 able and willing to solve the problems which the 

 war has left in its train, and to help the nation in 

 its hour of need? For leaders both in peace and 

 war we must find and train men who will be com- 

 petent to use the national resources in the most 

 effective manner. Scientific workers are naturally 

 marked out by their progressive instincts and 

 severe training to serve not merely in an ad- 

 visory capacity in the councils of the nation, but 

 also as executive officers. Moseley and others of 

 his type will not have died in vain if the Cenotaph 

 reminds us that men of science must take an 

 active part in the affairs of State, in guiding the 

 development and thought of the nation, and in 

 seeing that the bitter lessons learnt during the last 

 six years are not forgotten. 



This end will not be attained by service on com- 

 mittees, whether for chemical warfare or any 

 other subject. If the War Office seeks to be 

 scientific it should establish within itself, as the 

 .A.dmiralty has done, a research department with 

 distinguished men of science as permanent 

 members of the staff to suggest and supervise 

 work on methods of modern warfare. It would 

 be the business of such officers to make use of 

 science for purposes of national security, and 

 workers in university or other laboratories could 

 please themselves whether they co-operated or not 

 in particular researches or experiments. We can 

 understand the objections offered by Prof. Soddy 

 and others against men of science associating 

 themselves as a body with problems of this type, 

 but until human nature reaches a higher ethical 

 plane than it occupies at present we must have 

 a War Office, and an essential part of it should 

 be an able scientific staff, the members of which 

 would be responsible for making us strong enough 

 to meet any crises which the future might bring. 

 No committee of sixty or more associate members 

 can do this, and none would be necessary if the 

 War Office ranked a scientific service with the 

 General Staff, as it should do, instead of inviting 

 scientific workers to devote their time and know- 

 ledge to " offensive and defensive aspects of 

 chemical warfare " for little more than out-of- 

 pocket expenses. 



We claim for science a much more responsible 

 position, and a far higher appreciation of its 

 worth, than our war leaders offer to it even now ; 

 and we do so because we remember that thousands 

 of young lives were lost through its neglect. 

 When we bow our heads before the Cenotaph we 



