Abstract
INCREASING public attention is being given to the ways in which science might assist in the solution of social and ethical problems; and there is a further welcome sign of growing recognition that scientific workers can no longer disavow responsibility for the consequences which attend the application of their discoveries in social and industrial life. The discussions provoked by the addresses of Sir Alfred Ewing and Prof. Miles Walker at the British Association meeting at York last year indicate that the challenge voiced in these addresses fell on receptive ears, and addresses by Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins and Sir Josiah Stamp at the British Association meeting at Leicester this year again focused attention on the relationship between science and our present social and economic conditions. In these addresses there is implicit a fundamental challenge to the whole system of British politics, economics and education, and if society is now forced to consider the relative place of science, both in the organisation and development of the world order, and in the preparation of its individual members to enjoy the privileges and to discharge the responsibilities inherent in a society based on scientific achievements, the decision is one for society as a whole and not for any one section.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Science and the Community. Nature 132, 797–799 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132797a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132797a0