April 28, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



455 



twenty years this suspicion has been more than 

 justified and many intelligent readers say they 

 either do not read or do not believe the stuff 

 peddled as science by most newspapers. Under 

 such conditions why should the reading pub- 

 lic tate any interest in popular science writ- 

 ing? For killing this interest the press ser- 

 vices, feature syndicates and s^oidicated news- 

 papers (aided and abetted by renegade scien- 

 tists and pseudo-scientists) are to blame rather 

 than individual newspapers. This is partly 

 because of commercialized ideas of sei-vice, 

 partly because of the mass of material handled 

 and partly because of remoteness from contact 

 with the reading public. 



The lack of interest in scientific matter is 

 also probably increased to some extent by the 

 fact which Dr. Slosson mentions as making 

 it appear strange, i. e., the increased teaching 

 of science in our schools. The well informed 

 student is thereby made more critical of the 

 material presented. At the same time his par- 

 ents become more cautious in reading or re- 

 ferring to it because they fear his ridicule when 

 some point is raised involving inaccurate or 

 garbled press reports. 



In my own case I admit very freely that I 

 am fully in sympathy with the man who hesi- 

 tates to try popular science writing because of 

 its unsavory reputation. I sometimes have a 

 very distinct feeling of disgust when I find 

 an article which I have tried to compose ac- 

 curately and which I have taken especial pains 

 to verify, printed in close prosimity to one 

 of the florid, vacuous, or untruthful type. On 

 the other hand there is a lot of satisfaction 

 when it gets on the editorial page in dignified 

 company, as sometimes occurs. 



For nearly three years our institution has 

 been sending out to a number of California 

 newspapers (our present mailing list is fifty- 

 three) biological feature articles written by 

 myself. These have been sent at intervals of 

 one or two weeks free of charge, partly as a 

 matter of experiment but mainly as a sort of 

 university extension activity. We are con- 

 vinced that the service has educational value 

 and that it is helping to popularize true 

 science. I have myself been surprised at times 

 by the interest expressed in certain articles 



by people whom I would not have expected 

 to read them, much less express appreciation 

 of them. I have personally intei-viewed about 

 sixty editors and have had interesting corres- 

 pondence with others. A large number have 

 shown such interest in my material that I am 

 convinced that the general public is interested 

 in good stuff if properly presented. If eight 

 or nine out of every ten editors express in- 

 terest in carefully verified scientific material 

 written in popular (non technical and simple 

 and direct) style I am inclined to think that 

 a similar percentage of intelligent readers 

 will do so if one will take time to gain their 

 confidence. 



I appreciate the difficulties confronting Dr. 

 Slosson and Science Service and, like him, I 

 am impatient at delay but when I think about 

 how badly the American pvibUc has been 

 sei-ved in regard to scientific news I realize 

 that it will take long and hard work by a lot 

 of people to get popular science writing on a 

 basis to inspire confidence. There is always 

 the risk that one who finds he can write in 

 popular style will become more interested in 

 the popular side of it than in the science 

 (truth telling) side of writing and will become 

 unreliable, as has often occurred in the past. 

 Hence it is quite evident that the great need is 

 not only for writers of popular style, of scien- 

 tific training and ability, but also of high 

 ideals of service which can not be broken down 

 under the stress of temptation. 



~ , W. E. Allen 



ScRiPPS Institution for 



Biological Research 



TWO NEW WESTERN WEEDS 



DuEiNG the past year two plants, which 

 threaten to become weeds of some importance 

 in the arid and alkaKne regions of the West, 

 have been received from the western states. 

 One of these is Bassia hyssopifoUa (Pall.) 

 Kuntze, a member of the family Chenopodi- 

 acea3, originally described from the region of the 

 Caspian Sea. It apparently has never been re- 

 corded as occun-ing in this counti-y. The first 

 collection was made at Fallon, Nevada, July 

 28, 1919,. by Ivar Tidestrom (No. 10755), and 

 a considerable amount of material for distribu- 

 tion has recently been sent me by F. B. Head- 



