Science in the Service of the State

Abstract

THE growing number of separate departmental reports issued by the research boards and stations of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, among which were included last year for the first time those of the Road Research Board and the Chemical Research Laboratory, enhances, rather than diminishes, the importance of the Annual Report of the Department. No other document gives such a comprehensive picture of the way in which science has been mobilised in the service of every aspect of our national needs, whether of the great departments of State, industry, municipal services or of the everyday wants of the home. The twentieth Annual Report of the Department issued on December 30 covers the period October 1, 1934-September 30, 1935, and contains the brief report of the Privy Council Committee, signed by the Right Hon. J. Ramsay MacDonald, Lord President of the Council, the longer report of the Advisory Council over Lord Rutherford's signature and summaries of the work of the National Physical Laboratory, the Chemical Research Laboratory, the various research associations and research boards or committees.