20 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1384 



vividly to the attention of the world the ad- 

 vantage to a nation of large scientific re- 

 sources, both in equipment and personnel, and 

 of being able to mobilize quickly and effectively 

 these resources to aid in meeting the great 

 emergencies created by war conditions. 



At the beginning of the war Germany re- 

 vealed herself far better prepared than any 

 other country to take swift advantage of her 

 scientific resources. In my interesting con- 

 versations in 1915 and 1916 with officers of the 

 German General Staff at their great head- 

 quarters in occupied France, where I had to 

 reside for some months as chief representative 

 for occupied France of Mr. Hoover's relief 

 organization, I was much impressed by the re- 

 liance placed by these officers on the help 

 they were receiving and could always expect 

 to receive from Germany's scientific men. 

 When things were going badly on the "West 

 Front they would say : " Well, just wait ; our 

 scientific men will give us something new. 

 They are all organized; they are all working; 

 they will have something new soon to make 

 your eyes stick out." 



It is familiar history now that Germany's 

 science, brought to the aid of her armies and 

 navy, did repeatedly make our eyes stick out, 

 and it was necessary before the war could be 

 won to meet German's science with English 

 and French and Italian and American sci- 

 ence. We and the Allies had to organize sci- 

 ence, too, and, with a haste made desperate 

 by necessity, it was done. 



Out of the revelations and experiences of 

 the war came a great recognition and stimulus 

 to the development of science which has re- 

 sulted in the setting up by America, and 

 several other nations, of new scientific organi- 

 zations for the encouragement and support of 

 scientific research and its applications by 

 methods giving special attention to coopera- 

 tive and coordinated work. Such methods in- 

 volve an attempt to introduce a certain de- 

 gree of organization into scientific investiga- 

 tion beyond that heretofore usually attempted. 



The phrase, " organization of science," pro- 

 duces an unfavorable reaction from some sci- 

 entific — and some non-scientific — men. It 



seems to suggest to them attempts to control 

 scientific genius, to dominate scientific en- 

 deavor. They say that genius can not be or- 

 ganized, that scientific research must, like 

 creative art, be left absolutely free from re- 

 straint. They ask if Galileo and Darwin and 

 Einstein could have done greater things, or 

 even the great things they have done, if they 

 had been " organized." The implied answer 

 is an emphatic No. And it may be accepted 

 as the correct answer. But the question im- 

 plies something that is not necessarily implied 

 in the phrase " organization of science." 



I know of no one in the National Research 

 Council, nor do I believe there is any one in 

 the new Department of Scientific and Indus- 

 trial Research in England, or in the Bureau 

 des Recherehes in Paris, or in the National 

 Research Council of Japan, who dreams of 

 suggesting the advisability of organizing, or 

 in any way interfering with, the individual- 

 istic work of scientific genius. What is sug- 

 gested as advisable, because it was proved to 

 be possible and highly effective in our war- 

 time efforts, is to arrange for planned con- 

 certed attack on large scientific problems, es- 

 pecially such problems as require numerous 

 cooperating workers and laboratories repre- 

 senting, often, not alone one special field nor 

 even one major field or realm of science, but 

 several such fields, as chemistry and physics, 

 or chemistry and biology, or chemistry and 

 physics and biology, or biology, geology and 

 engineering, any one of which, and other, com- 

 binations, may be involved in the solution of 

 large scientific problems affecting the national 

 strength and welfare. 



But even the isolated, individual workers 

 may profit by the attention and encouragement 

 and material support that may be given them 

 by a coherent body of scientific men bringing 

 to bear their collective influence to ameliorate 

 the too often difficult conditions under which 

 the isolated scientific investigator has to work, 

 and to develop a wider appreciation, and hence 

 public recognition and support, of scientific 

 research. 



What is the significance to the universities 

 of this increased attention and new impetus 



