FOOD AND PLANNING

Abstract

THE dictum that the scientific man should 'have no polities' is still held to-day by many men of science. It is interpreted variously: that scientific research should possess the worker, excluding all else from his mind ; he should have his energies fully occupied in solving his academic problems, and the applications of the results are 'polities', and should be left to others ; he would be biased in his approach to an academic problem by an active interest in the practical applications of its solution. It is true the research type of mind is rarely adapted to apply the results socially, unless the biological trend of the investigator's thought is in that direction. The acute struggle for existence of the War of 1914-18 and its post-war period led to governmental organization of the applications of science to everyday problems. The planned surveying of man and his environment increased our knowledge of Homo sapiens and stimulated further investigations. Possibly the main development of science between the two wars is the realization that there is a natural and close inter-digitation between the pure abstract problem and its application in industry or human life. The scientific man is not a mental eunuch, but rather a rational human being, whose work must be conducted objectively and fearlessly, and whose reasoning and experiments need to be uninfluenced by conditions of expediency or possible repercussions.

Food and Planning

By Prof. J. R. Marrack. Pp. 285. (London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1942.) 15s.