Abstract
PROF. J. D. BERNAL‘S recent presidential address to the Association of Scientific Workers contains some points which merit the notice and support of all scientific workers. He directed attention to the danger which retarded capital expenditure involves to industrial development and research, and also to the consequences to scientific effort if the reconstruction plans of the universities and research laboratories should be curtailed or postponed. He emphasized that neglect and waste of resources, both material and human, continue, and quoted Sir Henry Tizard‘s statement to the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee that on existing knowledge productivity could be raised by fifty per cent. As he very truly remarked, the hope of Great Britain, economically, culturally and scientifically, lies in the extent of its links with all other countries, with the United States no less than with Soviet Russia, with Eastern no less than Western Europe, and with the Colonial peoples. The world requires the flourishing of science as a basic condition of human happiness, even of human life itself ; but scientific men by themselves form a weak minority, and can only be effective if they associate themselves with all others who have a common will for reconstruction and peace. Much of Prof. Bernal‘s address, however, was an attack on the Marshall plan for aid to Europe and the Government‘s policy of removing communists from key positions in defence research which ignores both the totalitarian threat to the freedom of science in Soviet Russia and the question of loyalties which has compelled Government action in Britain against communists.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
World Co-operation in Science. Nature 161, 840 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161840d0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161840d0