34 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1411 



fails in the question of morale, for when young 

 scientific workers see that however attractive 

 may be the places of the men at the top, the 

 chances for any individual are that he will be- 

 come only a part of an efficient machine, then 

 a man of ambition will choose some machine 

 where the material rewards are greater than 

 in science. 



One great disadvantage in the arrangement 

 of separating the observer and the computer is 

 that a realization of attainable accuracy is 

 likely to be lost. It sometimes seems that the 

 farther the computer is removed in time and 

 place from the original observations, the 

 greatei' is the accuracy which these observations 

 take on. A good illustration is in some modern 

 computations of results based upon old 

 observations of variable stars. The method 

 of Argelander, of simply looking first at 

 one star and then at another, and esti- 

 mating the difference of brightness, is still 

 of the utmost value, but errors as great as 

 ten or twenty per cent, in the ratio of the 

 light of two stars are not uncommon. We 

 can make the accuracy seem greater by express- 

 ing the estimate in stellar magnitude, when the 

 errors are only one or two tenths of a magni- 

 tude, but the fact remains that the discordances 

 are a large fraction of the quantities sought. 

 Some computers taking results of such estimates 

 have managed to derive elements of variable 

 stars where some of the derived quantities are 

 expressed to five significant figures, although 

 the original data were often wrong in the 

 second figure. This fictitious accuracy seems 

 to come from a state of mind where the more 

 you compute the more figures you get, and the 

 investigator needs the restraining influence of 

 experience in securing observational data. Of 

 course, the computer, if he goes about it in the 

 right way, can really show the observer just 

 how accurate the measures are, but in his 

 anxiety to establish some fine theory the com- 

 puter sometimes loses his own sense of pro- 

 portion. 



And so it goes; the observer does not know 

 how to observe unless he realizes the value of 

 experiment; the experimenter loses a great deal 

 if he has not acquired the technique of ob- 

 sei-vation ; neither the experimenter nor the 



observer can work to the best advantage unless 

 he has the proper theoretical background; and 

 the pure theorist may be saved from various 

 grotesque mistakes if he becomes acquainted 

 with some of the methods and difficulties of 

 securing the facts of physical science. 



We may, therefore, best dwell not on the 

 differences among experimenters, observers,, 

 and theorists, but rather on their strength when 

 united and working together. No matter how 

 well rounded an individual may become, his 

 capabilities may be easily surpassed by a group^ 

 of cooperating workers. If it be objected that 

 new ideas will not originate in a committee, the 

 answer is that any one of us has plenty of ideas, 

 many of them fundamental and important, but 

 what we lack is the ability and power to put 

 our ideas into execution. It is here that to- 

 my mind lies the great advantage of the policy 

 of the National Research Council in bringing 

 together in committee workers from all over 

 the country so that they can form plans of 

 joint attack on various problems. In our uni- 

 versities and other institutions there is great 

 opportunity for cooperative effort between col- 

 leagues, but even in the same institution or 

 department the interests may be so divergent 

 that a worker may find little help of just the 

 kind that he needs, whereas in some other parts 

 of the country may be one or more competitoi's 

 who, if they can be got together to talk things 

 over, will turn out to be only hearty col- 

 laborators. 



Astronomy is called the oldest of the sci- 

 ences; our friends in other fields say that it has 

 been in the lead in America, and especially 

 that astronomers were the fii'st to organize co- 

 operation in research. Let us not fail to con- 

 tinue to deserve this good name, and to set the 

 example in so far as we can of free trade and 

 mutual good will in the solving of our prob- 

 lems. 



Joel Stbbbins 

 TJniveksity of Illinois Observatory 



GENERAL FEATURES OF THE 

 TORONTO MEETING 



The second Toronto meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence and of the associated scientific societies^ 



