86 Research and National Purpose 



tion is indexed, processed, and assembled is going to get us 

 over the difficulty of communication. Whatever can be done 

 by modern bibliographical methods to draw a scientist's atten- 

 tion to a piece of information which might be critical to his 

 work — and a lot can be done — we have to recognise, as Fox^ 

 so rightly says, that "machines cannot distinguish good papers 

 from bad ones . . . nor can they answer those often crucial 

 questions . . . the ones the enquirer dos not know how to ask." 



In order to clear channels of communication in the open 

 world of science, we have had to return in recent years to the 

 direct exchange of information between small groups of people 

 working in the same field, people who correspond with each 

 other, and meet repeatedly at national and international sym- 

 posia. I share the hope that these and other devices will im- 

 prove the situation. But the chances would be all the better if 

 men who work in basic areas of science, whether or not they 

 relate directly or indirectly to technical problems of national 

 defense, were not unnecessarily impeded in exchanging their 

 scientific knowledge with others. 



It seems ridiculous that there can be men working on the 

 same problems of basic science, who for reasons of presumed 

 security can be unaware of each other's existence, and cer- 

 tainly unaware of each other's results. But this, I am sure, is 

 the case for scientists within our respective countries, leave 

 alone on the two sides of the Atlantic. I know the need for 

 security when it comes to project work — but this is not what 

 I am talking about. I am talking about basic science, whether 

 it is "curiosity" or "need-orientated". And to go back to my 

 earlier point — how on earth can those who are responsible 

 for advising about the proper allocation of a country's scien- 

 tific resources to basic science contribute of their best when 

 they may be unaware of what is happening behind their own 

 country's security curtains, where a significant proportion of 

 the work is done. It is bad enough that they are sometimes un- 

 aware of what is going on in the open I 



6. Fox, Theodore (1965). Crisis in Communication. London. Athlone Press. 



