50 Years Ago

“What mean these stones?” — The Bible is a library of books, not all of the same literary or historical importance. In some cases (especially in the Old Testament) the books themselves are composite and contain ancient fragments embedded in a more recent framework. When, therefore, Prof. Burrows suggests that archaeological researches in Palestine back up statements appearing in the writings, it must be clearly understood that in no sense can the verbal accuracy of the whole be demonstrated; all that can be said is that many topographical descriptions can be shown to be reasonably correct.

From Nature 7 December 1957.

100 Years Ago

In proposing the toast of “The Royal Society” at the anniversary dinner on Saturday last, Lord Dunedin referred to the popularisation of science as one of the functions of a society which exists for the promotion of natural knowledge. This remark provides the subject of a letter by an anonymous correspondent in Tuesday's Times. The writer urges that the neglect of science in this country is largely due to the indifference shown by scientific men to the intellectual interests of the average reader. Few men of science make any attempt to describe their investigations in language which can be understood by men of culture without special scientific knowledge, and it is scarcely too much to say that most investigators are so closely absorbed in their particular researches that whether the world in general knows anything of the results or not is regarded as no concern of theirs. This spirit, and the obscure and diffuse manner in which scientific investigations are often described, are to be deplored.

From Nature 5 December 1907.