Abstract
THE Manchester Chamber of Commerce has done well to issue in pamphlet form (Pp. 63. 1s. 6d.) the addresses given at the four meetings on "Science and Industry" in March and April last. The pamphlet contains not only the addresses of Lord Riverdale, Dr. A. P. M. Fleming, Dr. Andrew McCance and Sir Edward Appleton, which have already been noted in these columns, but also other addresses given at the meetings, such as those of Sir Raymond Streat, Mr. A. H. S. Hinchcliffe, announcing the formation of a Joint Standing Council of the Chamber and of the University of Manchester, Mr. C. C. Renold and Mr. R. H. Dobson. Mr. C. C. Renold, following Dr. Fleming's address on "Research Workers: their Education and their Place in Industry", referred particularly to the traditional industries where the application of science should involve challenging the traditions themselves, not merely tuning them up or their further evolution. The emphasis should be on the application of what is already known rather than the extension of the boundaries of knowledge, and Mr. Renold suggested that for the medium-sized traditional concern the key move is the appointment of a scientific liaison officer with broad and general rather than specialized scientific qualifications. His job should be to recognize the problems and indicate lines worthy of investigation, and to help the practical men to apply the answers. With this fairly high-ranking appointment in the management, a re-casting of management structure might also be necessary to separate those functions of management which lend themselves to contact with the scientific liaison officer and thereby provide a convenient channel for his influence to become effective. Some re-casting of the accepted curricula of teaching may be required to provide men of the necessary breadth of scientific appreciation. Mr. R. H. Dobson, following Dr. McCance's paper on the application of research, referred to the bearing of fundamental research on the export trade of Britain, and to the necessity of creating a liaison and a free interchange of ideas and work between technical assistants and the people on the shop floors.
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Science and Industry at Manchester. Nature 154, 266 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154266a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154266a0