Essays in Popular Science

Abstract

THE task of the populariser is becoming more and more difficult. If he attempts to produce something better than the superficial stuff that is served up by the popular Press, he is met with two difficulties: first, that science itself is over-specialised, and the results achieved in each little compartment of study are of interest only to the very few who can appreciate them; and secondly, that the cultivated public on the whole lack the necessary mental background of scientific knowledge and the understanding of scientific method which would enable them to assimilate results of major or general value. But if his task is more difficult, it is also more important, and in both directions. For not only can he exercise great influence on the general thought of the community by skilful presentation of the matured and general results of scientific research, but he can also do great good to science itself by taking a bird's-eye view of the specialists' domains and extracting from their multifarious details something of general import, some view or theory which may not be altogether accurate, but may act as a stimulus, or even as an irritant, and lead to more adequate synthesis. There is a close connexion in fact between popularising and generalising.

Essays in Popular Science.

By Prof. Julian Huxley. Pp. xii + 307 + 6 plates. (London: Chatto and Windus, 1926.) 16s. net.