The Growing Plant

Abstract

THE popularization of science has become an important social activity. Unesco holds conferences on how it should be done ; and the Russians have a special government department to manage it in the Soviet Union. The public demand for it is sufficient to support numerous books on popular science, and recurrent publications such as Science News and New Biology. Already the difference between books on science and books on popular science has become indistinct: there is continuous variation, from the monograph by a specialist for a few specialists, to the article by a journalist for a million newspaper readers. There is an increasingly important demand for books lying between these two extremes, for the reader who knows some science already. This sort of reader is not easy to satisfy. He does not want catalogues of 'wonders of Nature' ; he is annoyed if he is mystified ; and he demands a high standard of accuracy. The journalist who has 'cashed in' on the popularity of science cannot write popular science at this level ; it must be done by a professional scientific worker, and it is exasperatingly difficult. The Growing Plant By Prof. W. Neilson-Jones. Pp. 206 + 8 plates. (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1948.) 16s. net.