Abstract
THE Government scheme for the organisation and development of scientific and industrial research, of which we gave particulars last week, represents a welcome concession of a principle always advocated in these columns, and stated with particular force by Sir Norman Lockyer in his presidential address on “The Influence of Brain-power on History,” delivered at the South-port meeting of the British Association in 1903. The duty of a State to organise its forces as carefully for peace as for war was emphasised on that occasion; and it was urged that adequate provision for scientific education and research is an essential part of a modern State's machinery, and should be efficiently organised if we were not to fall behind other nations in the applications of science to industry. The recognition of the State's responsibility in this matter would have come much sooner if our statesmen had been wise enough to understand the scientific factors of industrial success; but it has at last been given, and the unanimous approval with which the scheme has been received must be a little surprising to the politicians who have taken so long to realise the part science is playing in the modern world, and to make provision for its national use.
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References
For other references to what the German chemists are doing, see article on âœInorganic Fodderâ in the Scientific American for July 3, p. 8; in which reference is also made to an attempt to derive from straw and hay all the nourishing matter contained therein.
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The Promotion of Research by the State . Nature 95, 619–620 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/095619a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/095619a0