100 YEARS AGO

Dr. Nordenskjöld and the members of his South Polar Expedition arrived at Hamburg on January 6. The unexpectedly early return from the South Polar regions of this expedition has, the Times states, enabled Dr. Jean Charcot to recast the plans of the French expedition on board the Français. He now proposes to explore the west coast of Graham Land and to carry out a very exhaustive scientific investigation of that region... It is Dr. Charcot's definite intention to return at the end of the season of 1904–5. The Français, indeed, is only provisioned for two years, and Dr. Charcot states that if the expedition does not return in the early months of 1905, it must be concluded that they have been involuntarily detained, and a relief vessel must be dispatched to their assistance.

From Nature 14 January 1904.

50 YEARS AGO

On December 9, the P.E.N. (Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists) Club held an informal discussion on poetry and science... At first sight it might appear that these branches of culture had little to do with each other. But Prof. Dingle gave instances of the antagonism between poets and scientists, and pointed out that the overt attacks arising from this antagonism in the past were made by the poets. This, he said, is understandable; at that time it was thought that there was a real external world, the truth about which was being increasingly found out by the scientists. To poets, this world seemed flat and distasteful, but at the back of their minds the uncomfortable thought grew that any alternative was mere illusion. In Prof. Dingle's opinion, however, there is no need for the poet to harbour such resentment... In fact, science is the organized description of the relations between experiences; poetry, the expression of the experiences themselves. This description of the limits of science, abnegatory as it might seem, did not dispel the injured suspicion of the poets present. Stephen Spender... said that the psychologist may attribute the cause of conscience to infantile experiences; he himself might attribute it to God; what claim had science to the unique truth of the matter? Not only are the findings of science uncomfortable in detail; they are also so complicated that no one man can understand them, and increase of understanding brings with it disorientation and despair.

From Nature 16 January 1954.