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THE POPULAR INTEREST IN SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFICDEVELOPMENTS.

By A. C. MONAHAN,Formerly U. S. Bureau of Education.

Watson Davis, Managing Editor of Science Service, Na-tional Academy of Science Building, Washington, D. C., ina recent statement says relative to the present great interestin science and all that pertains to it:^What a vast change has come over the public attitude toward

science in the 1920-30 decade during which our institution has beenfunctioning. Post-war America was impressed�perhaps even fright-ened�by the ability of science to provide weapons of war. There wassome appreciation of the peace-time utilization of science. Aviationand the radio were hardly more than embryonic. The limits of theUniverse were closer to the Earth, the philosophies of Einstein andthe creators of the new physics were unenunciated or unappreciated,chemistry had not catalyzed industries into new shapes and utilities,and life sciences had hardly pioneered many valuable contributionsthat they were to make, and psychology was at the threshold of its im-mense practical evaluation of human abilities."And science had not begun seriously to take the public into its con-

fidence. The spirit of non-utilitarianism prevailed and leading scien-tists still felt that they were capable of being understood only by theirfellow workers. Newspapers were unappreciative of the value ofscience as news. Editors were unconvinced of the necessity of suchspecialized treatment for science as they accorded sports, finance, thedrama, and politics."A great publisher, the late E. W. Scripps, controlling more news-

papers than anyone else in the world, saw with keenness the necessityfor public knowledge and appreciation of science. ***** He pro-vided the incentive, stimulus, and finances for a scientific institutioncharged with the task and opportunity of injecting science into thethought stream of the press and the public. It is significant that hedid not turn to his newspaper enterprises to perform this public serv-ice. With keen insight he put the intellectual and operative responsi-bility upon science, not journalism."

Science Service, which is the institution for the populari-zation of science, organized under the auspices of the Na-tional Academy of Science, the National Research Council,and the American Association for the Advancement ofScience, is in part responsible for the change in public at-titude toward science referred to by Mr. Davis in the firstparagraph above. It would be more accurate, perhaps to saythat Mr. Scripps and Science Service which he created,sensed the growing desire for science knowledge on the partof the public which it itself did not appreciate, and suppliedthe information to satisfy the desire. They taught the news-papers and press of the country that the public was hungryfor science knowledge. They furnished them with sciencecopy. Newspapers reaching over 7,000,000 readers are now

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using it. They pay Science Service syndicate rates for it.This is proof that they find a real public demand for sciencenews; newspapers do not pay for material unless there is areal demand for it from their readers, as they have fur-nished them every day a large amount of free matter ofnews value from organizations and individuals. The de-mand is shown also by the fact that there are now severalgeneral news associations furnishing their subscribers withregular science items, and the items are regularly used.

Science Service is distributing science information inother ways. It is supplying a considerable number of Sun-day papers with illustrated "feature" stories, and it isbroadcasting through one of the nation-wide network ofradio stations, a regular program of science talks.

All this is recited to remind the science instructor in thepublic and private high school that we are in an age whenthe public is science-minded. It is a time when it is easy toturn the attention of high school students toward the sciencecourses and to arouse an interest and to secure an enroll-ment in them greater than ever before. The decreasing highschool enrollment in the sciences shown by the figures fromthe U. S. Office of Education given in previous articles, isinexcusable today with this increasing popular interest inscientific subjects and all that pertains to scientific develop-ments. From all sections of the country come reports ofscience instructors who do appreciate the present situationand have taken advantage of it. They have tried differentplans of bringing their departments to the attention of thepupils of their schools, showing them what the sciencecourses have to offer, and they have doubled and tripled thenumber of students in their classes. -

Science as a high school subject of study has every thingto commend it. It is "educative," that is it furnishes justas much mental development when properly taught as anyother subject in the curriculum. It can compete with shopand manual training subjects as it furnishes through the in-dividual laboratory work the actual hand work which stu-dents of high school age desire. It is vital as it concerns thecommon everyday phenomena and things with which thestudents are in constant contact, and concerning which theyfind almost daily newspaper and magazine articles. It isutilitarian, and it is vocational for many. Practically every

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student will find use for his science knowledge in varioustasks that he will be called upon to perform in his futureoccupation. A very large number, even those who do notpursue science courses in colleges and universities, will fol-low one or another vocation in which a knowledge of highschool sciences is essential. Of all the subjects in the cur-riculum, the sciences are the ones which will be used themost in future vocations.The utilitarian side of a school subject usually appeals to

high school pupils. They are always raising the questionconcerning any subject of study "What use is it?" It is adifficult question to answer satisfactorily relative to theacademic subjects, but it is easy to answer relative to thesciences. Their applications in all sorts of occupations andin home making are so numerous that students are easily im-pressed with the practical value of them as subjects of study.If any are not interested in them as an aid to them in theirfuture work, they will be interested in them as an aid inpreserving their health and in the maintenance of the gen-eral public health.As a vocation for the high school graduate who does not

go further to higher educational institutions, the sciencesoffer opportunities the extent of which is appreciated byfew. The instructor who will point out to his classes theindividual jobs in which a high school knowledge of one ormore of the sciences is required, will do much to impressupon them the vocational value of these subjects. Thou-sands of men and women are employed in routine laboratorywork in all sorts of control and testing laboratories main-tained by manufacturers. They do not need college sciencetraining but do need high school work. A very large numberof high school graduates with science training are employedby the makers of all sorts of scientific instruments, both inmanufacturing and in testing. Electrical instrument manu-facturers, automobile manufacturers, optical instrumentmakers, may be cited as a few. Inspectors of various sortsare employed in large number, who must have somescience training. Milk and food inspectors, and plant dis-ease inspectors may be cited.High school pupils will be interested in knowing of the

openings for college and university trained scientists andthe knowledge will encourage many to enroll in the science

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classes. We might assume that they already know of suchopenings. They know only of a relatively few. In fact thegreater number of science teachers do not realize the posi-tions now filled by scientists in public service, hospitals, andin commerce and the industries. The past decade has openedup a vast number of such positions, far more than is ordi-narily realized.

Science Service makes a rough estimate that there arefrom 75,000 to 100,000 men and women in the United Statesengaged in strictly science work, including research, control,and teaching. This does not include physicians and sur-geons who are scientists in every sense of the word, nor theveterinarians, dentists, nurses, dietitians, occupational ther-apists and physio-therapists, all of whom must have a thor-ough science knowledge as a basis for their work. A largenumber of chemists are employed in all sorts of manufactur-ing establishments. Physicists are employed in considerablenumbers in factories manufacturing all sorts of instru-ments, by power, light, gas, telephone, telegraph, radio andtransportation companies, and in the aviation, automobile,motion picture, and engineering industries. Biologists andBacteriologists are employed in hospital laboratories and bythe manufacturers of foods, drugs, insecticides, and manyothers. Chemists, physicists, biologists and bacteriologistsall are employed in large numbers in research laboratoriesmaintained by manufacturers, associations of manufactur-ers, privately supported or endowed laboratories, or thoseestablished and supported by hospitals or by Federal, State,city or county governments.The American Chemical Society has a membership of ap-

proximately 18,000 graduate chemists including chemistsin industrial work, research work, and in teaching. Thisnumber is about one-half of those who are eligible to belong.The U. S. Government employs so many chemists that theCivil Service Commission has found it necessary to issue apamphlet entitled Chemists in the Government Service.This is primarily for men and women looking forward topositions as chemists with the Government. High schoolstudents would be interested in seeing a copy of this pub-lication, particularly those in the science classes.*

*Copy may be obtained from the U. S. Civil Service Commission.

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The total number of scientists employed by the U. S. Gov-ernment is very large. The Department of Agriculture alonehas over 7,200 scientists and technical workers in its labor-atories in Washington and other parts of the country. Ithas over 300 separate laboratories. The U. S. Bureau ofStandards is a great laboratory with its principal buildingsin Washington but with branch laboratories in other cities.It employs a large number of scientists, principally physic-ists and chemists. The War Department has at least 18 test-ing and experimental, laboratories, and The Navy Depart-ment an equal number. The great Naval Research Labora-tory near Washington, D. C., employs physicists principally.The Treasury Department has 20 assay and appraisers

laboratories, and had 18 prohibition laboratories which havenow gone with the prohibition enforcement to the AttorneyGeneral’s Office. The Treasury has under its Public HealthService, the U. S. Hygienic Laboratory, and a hospital lab-oratory in each of its 27 Marine Hospitals. The U. S. Bu-reau of Mines and the Geological Survey have many labor-atories. All the Army and the Navy and the Veteran’s Bu-reau hospitals have laboratories with from two or three" toa dozen pathologists, physiologists and bacteriologists em-ployed. The Army Medical School has a large group of suchscientists in its teaching and its research laboratories.

Dr. Charles Bidwell, Head of the Physics Department ofLehigh University, has made a recent study of openings forPhysicists in the industries and in commerce. A digest ofthis study will be published in another issue of this journal.The high school science instructor will find it interesting.If he will gather together from it and from this and fromother articles information relative to openings for scientists,and openings for men and women with high school sciencetraining only, he will have interesting data for his pupils.It will show them the practical value of the courses given bythe science department and it will lead many to elect sciencecourses who do not now. With the combination of a practicalsubject of vocational value, a laboratory subject supplyingthe hand work that high school pupils desire, and a popularsubject being discussed in every newspaper and many otherpublications, it would seem that the live science instructorwould enroll in his classes the great majority of pupils in hisschool.