Abstract
THE twelfth annual conference of the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux, held at St. John's College, Cambridge, on September 20-23, was of more than usual interest to those concerned with the use and dissemination of scientific and technical information of all kinds. In his presidential address on “Interpretation of Science” Sir Richard Gregory referred to the neglect of scientific material to-day by writers of all kinds, as compared with writers of the nineteenth and earlier centuries. Science needs, he pointed out, not only writers to make its achievements intelligible to general readers, but also poetic and other interpreters who will expound its intent and influence by artistic representation or performance. Poetry, like other forms of art, should follow on the heels of knowledge, and Sir Richard quoted examples of the expression of observations of Nature and science in classical literary style, as well as of the poetic interpretation even of mechanised science. Literary genius has as yet rarely found inspiring themes in the great achievements of modern science, and, until this is done, the full appreciation of science and its achievements by mankind would be wanting.
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Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux. Nature 136, 558 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136558a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136558a0