Impressions of Cambridge

Abstract

A CORRESPONDENT writes: "Cambridge is the best of all places for the British Association to meet. There was an air of activity and exhilaration throughout the week, and the organization was carried out with extraordinary smoothness. There were almost too many receptions, dinners and garden parties ; perhaps one could wish for a little more time for those discussions behind the scenes which are the most valuable feature of these gatherings. The great novelty of the meeting was, of course, the formation of the Division for the Social and International Relations of Science. It was astonishing and encouraging to find the project so enthusiastically received by the widest variety of scientific workers. It has lit up many people's imaginations, and given them a chance to devote themselves intelligently to something which offers a hint of usefulness in an increasingly lunatic world. Perhaps the shadow of the world outside has never hung so menacingly over a scientific meeting ; many there felt that all they cared for intellectually might have vanished before long. It was noticeable that the most eager supporters of the new Division were often those whose own research happened to be particularly 'pure'. Those who complained in private that the cobbler ought to stick to his last usually turned out to be engaged on semi-applied research. It is, for example, interesting that the more abstract kind of physicists tend to be far more socially interested than people busy with traditional chemistry."