454 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1426 



Libby devotes a part of each period, say, 

 twenty minutes of the hour, to a colloquium or 

 critical discussion of the natui-e and application 

 of the subject under consideration. In this 

 way scientific technic is deliberated upon in all 

 its aspects. These lectures are being delivered 

 from 8 :30 to 9 :30 a.m. on Tuesday of each 

 week of the present university semester, in the 

 Fellows' Room of the Mellon Institute. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NOTES 



The wUl of the late Miss Janet Williams, of 

 Frederick, Md., contains a bequest of $30,000 

 to Hood College, to create and maintain an 

 astronomical building in memory of her father, 

 John H. Williams, to be known as the Williams 

 Observatory. 



Festivities are being planned for this spring 

 in honor of the founding of the University of 

 Padua in 1222. Professor LucateUo, the rector 

 of the university, is in charge of the arrange- 

 ments. 



The Japanese ambassador at Vienna has 

 presented the sum of 6,500,000 crowns to the 

 university as a personal donation in tribute to 

 the scientific work being done there in spite of 

 the unfavorable circumstances. 



Dr. Claeence C. Little was elected presi- 

 dent of the University of Maine on April 7. 

 Dr. Little graduated from Harvard in 1910 and 

 received the doctor's degree in 1914. In 1916 

 he became an assistant dean of Harvard Col- 

 lege and research fellow in genetics for the 

 Cancer Commission of Harvard University. 

 Since his discharge from the army as major 

 he has been research associate in the Station 

 for Experimental Evolution of the Carnegie 

 Institution. 



Dr. D. S. Robinson, assistant professor of 

 philosophy at University of Wisconsin, has 

 accepted the professorship of philosophy at 

 Miami University. Dr. E. B. Powell has held 

 the chair of philosophy since 1905 and resigns 

 the chaii- at the close of this year to devote his 

 time to writing. 



John Arthur Randall, secretary of the 

 Advisory Board of the General Staff of the 

 War Department, has been appointed president 



of Rochester Mechanics Institute. Mr. Randall 

 was selected by the trustees to continue the 

 development of a technical educational pro- 

 gram containing liberal components. 



Dr. George Thomas, formerly professor of 

 economics in the University of Utah and since 

 1921 superintendent of public education in 

 Utah, has been installed as president of the 

 university. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPOND- 

 ENCE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



To THE Editor of Science: I am very much 

 interested in Dr. Slosson's letter about popidar 

 science writing which appears in Science for 

 March 3, just received. Since some of my own 

 information and experience is along this line 

 it may be worth while for me to make some 

 additional comment. 



I think that I can see a large number of 

 conditions involved in the fact mentioned by 

 Dr. Slosson that there is a dearth of popular 

 science writers in this country, but I shall only 

 discuss one or two of them. First and fore- 

 most is the malodorous condition of the popu- 

 lar science field which for some time has been 

 so largely and so conspicuously occupied by 

 fabricators, exaggeraters, emotionalists, ignora- 

 muses and exploiters that many people of 

 training and ability hesitate to enter. Fur- 

 thermore if an entrance is attempted by use 

 of an informative article of clarity and real 

 merit the author may have the humiliation of 

 seeing his work rejected for that of some ir- 

 responsible clown or gaudy sentimentalist who 

 is successful in assembling a group of highly 

 stimulating words ("lots of pep") which may 

 or may not have some relation to fact. 



Even more important than such discourage- 

 ment to potential writers is the effect of lax, 

 inaccurate and falsified statement of scientific 

 material upon the reading public. I am sure 

 that for a period of fifty years more hoaxes 

 have been perpetrated by newspapers in the 

 name of science than in any other way. As 

 much as thirty years ago most intelligent 

 people were suspicious of material presented 

 by the public press as science. In the last 



