The synoptic scientist.pdf

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extracted text: "JU "SifMptk ScwM" Ritchie Calder The Kalinga Prize for the popularization o f science has been awarded to Ritche Calder, wellknown British science writer. He is the ninth winner of the Prize, whose purpose, as stated by its donor, the Indian industrialist Mr. B. Patnaik, is to offer recogni tion to leading interpret ers of science and also to strengthen links between India and scientists of all nations. Mr. Calder, who is 54, has been science editor off the News Chronicle and of the New Statesman and Nation. He is Profes sor of International Rela tions at Edinburgh Uni versity. His fifteen books on scientific subjects ranging from medicine to the struggle for life in the Arctic have been transla ted into a dozen lang uages. ------- 0O0-------The tools of my trade as a science-writer have been — apart from a typewriter — three questions: “What are you doing?” “How are you doing it?” and “Why are you doing it?” With patience on the part of the scientist and patience on the part of the inquisitor, there are few things in science, however apparently abstruse or novel or difficult, which cannot be explained in comprehensible terms. One of the major difficul ties is the terminology—the jargon of science. The scient ists in the various branches and disciplines of science October 1961 29 have invented their own language of convenience. Where once the terms were descriptive they are now cryptic—sometimes one feels that like the code-names for military operations, they have been deliberately in vented to mislead and, like the sign-language of the me dieval crafts, designed to pre serve the inner mysteries for the few. ... What the scien tist, who in the restricted company of his colleagues uses them as common-place terms, does not always rea lize is that such words are like index cards; to him they convey a whole filing-cabinet full of meaning, but he for gets that others do not have access to that filing-cabinet. This is, also, inevitable. With the proliferation of science, the scientist is entitled to his “language of convenience” but he must, when necessary, define those terms. A cen tury ago, any man of science was intelligible to any edu cated man; terms had a com mon-root etymological mean ing and in that sense were descriptive. Today, I repeat, they are cryptic. I have sometimes described myself as a “babelologist”, a student of that babel of tongues which is science. I also boast that I am an ex pert on experts — one who knows to whom to turn for the information one has not got. In that I personify the science-reporter, who is the trustee for the common man for whom he seeks enlighten ment in the common tongue; who never relies on what he knows but turns to the ex pert sources for current guid ance; and who does not make ihe mistake which many aca demics do of confusing ig norance with lack of intelli gence. I have, after thirty years of trying to explain science, a reinforced confi dence in the capacity of or dinary people to grasp what is made intelligible, provided that their interest has been enlisted and their imagina tions illumined. But that af ter all is surely the essence of all good teaching. The crisis of our times is the breakdown of communi cations — not just in the sense of political barriers, but in this all-important area of science. Our lives, our hopes, and our survival de pend upon the uses which are made of science. To pro gress, we have to use scien tific knowledge and discove ry to its utmost advantage. Science, in the advanced countries, is developing so fast that it is almost impos30 Panorama sible to keep pace with the knowledge—and the gadgets —which are aggregating. I believe that some 3,000,000 original scientific papers a year are published. No one can compass so much infor mation. .. One set of scien tists does not know what an other set is doing, and yet there may be an important affinity which may be of ma terial value to mankind. There are too few commu nicators within science and the bridges are broken be tween the humanities and science. Those who have to make the social judgements about science have usually no scientific training—worse, their own education makes them feel that anything which involves such inten sive training is beyond their comprehension and that they must “rely on the expert”. But there is little in the train ing of the scientist, preoccu pied with all that has to be learned in his own subject, which gives him the capacity for social judgements. We are in danger of being sub jected to the tyranny of the experts — faceless men at the elbows of the uninstruct ed. They are not tyrants by disposition but by our de fault. How are we to teach peo ple enough about science to allow them to make judge ments, to decide priorities, and to see that science, with all its potential for good or evil, is directed to the ad vantage of mankind. How much more resources and at tention should we be giving to the problems of this pla net on which 4,000,000,000 people will have to contrive to live 20 years from now? Is space adventure more im portant than the food and po pulation problem, for in stance? And how, with all the spectacular advances of today, can we close the wi dening gap between the prosperity of the scientifical ly-advanced countries and the impoverished ones? Without arrogating to the science-writer all the wisdom of the world, it is true that he has the opportunity for better undestanding. He is a “synoptic scientist”; he tra vels across the advancing fronts of all branches of science and can see, at first hand and in survey, what preoccupied scientists cannot see for themselves and what men-of-affairs can never see panoramically. His job is to pass that knowledge on — either along the line of science or to the public. He OCTOMR 1961 31 TWO NEW MUSCLE RELAXING COMPOUNDS REVEALED Two new muscle relaxing compounds, said to be five times as potent in animal tests as mephenesin, a presently used relaxant, have been developed in the United States. The new chemi cals, based on the compound pyrimidine, block muscle activity by 80 to 100 per cent, according to Dr. Donald E. Heitmeier, a senior organic che mist at Irwin, Neisler and Company in Decatur, Illinois. Besides their muscle relaxing ability, they are sedatives comparable to the barbiturate drugs and also have hypnotic properties, he said. They have not yet been clinically tested. Muscle relaxants are used to depress body reflexes during surgery and to treat spasms asso ciated with certain forms of paralysis. The new drugs, resulting from chemical changes in phenyramidol, whicli, is both an analgesic and a mus cle relaxant, showed “marked enhancement of centrally induced muscle relaxant properties, a sharp reduction in analaesic activity and the ap pearance of strong, sedative-hypnotic properties,” Dr. Heitmeier told a recent meeting of the Am erican Chemical Society. * * is, by the accident of his trade as a collector and dis seminator, the prototype of what should exist in acade mic and public life, the com municator of information on which judgements can be made. In his own working life, his function is to con vey to the mass of people the facts about science, but also to convey an interpreta tion of the social implica* tions of new developments. I know that many of my colleagues think that they should confine themselves to description and explanations and leave the value judge ments to others. I disagree profoundly. Our access to in formation. our point of van tage on the scientific scene, give us responsibilities which, in the present situation, we must not shirk. — (tjnesco) 32 Panorama
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