EDITORIAL
Not Only More but Better Demands on the next generation of scientists will be formidable
T
he U.S. need for scientists and engineers has again been pushed to the front of public attention. The President has asked his Science Advisory Committee to review and study the situation. Such a study might be most useful if it includes some penetrating attention to training and the use of brains. The rate at which scientific knowledge is growing already is placing on the scientist of today much heavier demands than were felt by his predecessors of a generation ago. Obsolescence of a scientist's or engineer's knowledge is serious. Furthermore, the influence of science on public affairs and vice versa has become great enough to emphasize the critical need for understanding which can bridge what has been a gap between the two. The challenge is formidable. To meet it well we need first rate minds with first rate training. And that training needs to begin early and never lag. Our better young minds can be developed both more deeply and more broadly than our general education system is now designed to develop them. To improve through better training is more difficult than merely to push for more scientists and engineers, but the results should be more rewarding. Already the unprecedented rise in federal funds made available to increase the
volume of research is creating an atmosphere in which dedicated teaching seems to be suffering. In the pessimistic extreme one can predict a trend toward the educated ignoramus described by Ortega y Gasset in "The Revolt of the Masses." Our technological society has developed to a striking level. Its success has been based on knowledge, change, and adaptation. One can reasonably expect an increasing rate of change during the next decade or two. The leadership and guidance exerted in such a period of change will have a great influence on the shape of our entire society. If men and women with scientific backgrounds are not developed to take part in that leadership, then they may be relegated to the position of being precision tools in the hands of the nonscientific leaders. Either that extreme or its opposite, a technological dictatorship, would fail to provide the balance that we shall need. The best response to the challenge lies in the way in which we educate our promising young people.
FEB.
5, 1962
C&EN
7
