Science and the Future The Impact and Value of Science

Abstract

THERE could be no better tribute to the way in which Prof. A. E. Trueman's "Science and the Future" maintains the standard of the earlier pamphlets in "The British Way" series than the manner in which, without disparaging the British contribution to the advancement of science or encouragaging the false idea that there are national brands of science, he justifies the inclusion of a pamphlet under this title in the present series. If the British outlook and way of life are to survive, and to continue to make an effective contribution to the building of the post-war world, due regard must be had to the place of science. It would be difficult to find in short compass an abler popular exposition of just what that contribution might be, and of the difficulties which must be faced in organizing science to secure that maximum contribution without endangering the advance of science itself. Prof. Trueman's exposition of the purposes and needs of the scientific investigator is as valuable to the ordinary citizen as his warning on some of the dangers of planning is to the scientific worker himself. One may fairly regard the whole pamphlet as an important contribution to the debate on the organization of scientific and industrial research from this point of view of exposition, and not merely on the grounds of the brief chapters in which those problems are actually discussed in the pamphlet.

Science and the Future

By Prof. A. E. Trueman. (The British Way Series, No. 7.) Pp. 64. (Glasgow: Craig and Wilson, Ltd., 1943.) 1s. 3d

The Impact and Value of Science

By Dr. D. W. Hill. Pp. 88. (London, New York and Melbourne: Hutchinson's Scientific and Technical Publications, n.d.) 7s. 6d. net.