International Council Of Scientific Unions Research Articles

International Scientific Co‐operation

The gradual casing of restrictions on travel and on the general release of scientific discoveries has made it practicable once more to arrange international meetings of men of science. The general Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions will meet in London on July 22–24, 1946. Meanwhile its Executive Committee has held a meeting in London attended by representatives of most of the International Unions adhering to the Council.

Address of welcome to the members of the Executive Commitee of the International Council of Scientific Unions meeting in the rooms of the Royal Society on 4 December 1945

Throughout the 283 years of its existence the Royal t Society has been intimately concerned with promoting cordial and familiar relations between British scientists and those of other countries. For 222 years, indeed, it has had a special Officer, the Foreign Secretary, whose duty it is to deal with communications with foreign scientists. The Royal Society, after the first world war, took a leading part in the formation of the International Scientific Unions and the International Council of the Scientific Unions; and during the second world war it maintained both its connexions with foreign scientists so far as they were within reach and its faith that these inters national organizations must be started up again as soon as possible after the war was over. It is a particular pleasure, therefore, to the Society that the International Council is meeting here to-day in its rooms and it is my most agreeable duty to give you all the warmest possible welcome from the Society—and indeed from all British scientists.

International scientific cooperation

The gradual easing of restrictions on travel and on the general release of scientific discoveries has made it practicable once more to arrange international meetings of men of science. The General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions will meet in London on July 22–24, 1946 [the last General Assembly of the Council was in London in May 1937; the next General Assembly was to have been held in Copenhagen in 1940, to be preceded by a meeting of the Executive Committee in October 1939, but the outbreak of the war necessitated that both these meetings be canceled]. Meanwhile its Executive Committee has held a meeting [December 4–5, 1945] in London, attended by representatives of most of the International Unions adhering to the Council. [The following members of the Council and guests were present: Dr. H. R. Kruyt of Holland (Vice‐President and President); Dr. J. A. Fleming of U.S.A.; Prof. B. Nemeč of Czechoslovakia; Sir Harold Spencer Jones of Great Britain; Prof. J. E. Proudman of Great Britain; W. D. Lambert of U.S.A.; Prof. E. de Martonne of France; Prof. M. J. Sirks of Holland; Prof. F. J. M. Stratton of Great Britain (General Secretary); Dr. Vranek and Mrs. Malterre of France (representing the International Organization for Intellectual Cooperation); and (during part of the time) Sir Henry Dale, past President of the Royal Society of Great Britain; Dr. A. V. Hill, Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society of Great Britain; Prof. P. M. S. Blackett of Great Britain; Dr. L. H. Lampitt of Great Britain; Prof. R. M. Field of U.S.A.; and Prof. J. M. Burgers of Holland. Apologies for absence were reported for Prof. M. S. Siegbahn of Sweden, Vice‐Président of the Council; Sir Edward Appleton of Great Britain; Commandant Dorsimont of France; Prof. A. Cotton of France; Prof. O. Bergstrand of Sweden; and Prof. F. Verdoorn of Holland, now resident in the U.S.A.]

Notes on meeting of Executive Committee of International Council of Scientific Unions

It was agreed that countries that have paid no subscription since 1936 be invited to send delegates to the General Assembly in 1946 but that they should be informed that arrears up to and including 1939 must be paid before their delegates could attend and vote.It was agreed to start subscriptions from 1946, but to invite the remaining adhering organizations to pay their contributions as from the last date of payment up to and including 1945 and in any case up to and including 1939.

International scientific cooperation

The gradual easing of restrictions on travel and on the general release of scientific discoveries has made it practicable once more to arrange international meetings of men of science. The General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions will meet in London on July 22–24, 1946 [the last General Assembly of the Council was in London in May 1937; the next General Assembly was to have been held in Copenhagen in 1940, to be preceded by a meeting of the Executive Committee in October 1939, but the outbreak of the war necessitated that both these meetings be canceled]. Meanwhile its Executive Committee has held a meeting [December 4–5, 1945] in London, attended by representatives of most of the International Unions adhering to the Council. [The following members of the Council and guests were present: Dr. H. R. Kruyt of Holland (Vice‐President and President);; Dr. J. A. Fleming of U.S.A.; Prof. B. Nemec of Czechoslovakia; Sir Harold Spencer Jones of Great Britain; Prof. J. E. Proudman of Great Britain; W, D. Lambert of U.S.A.; Prof. E. de Martonne of France; Prof. M. J. Sirks of Holland; Prof. F. J. M. Stratton of Great Britain (General Secretary); Dr. Vranek and Mrs. Malterre of France (representing the International Organization for Intellectual Cooperation), and (during part of the time) Sir Henry Dale, past President of the Royal Society of Great Britain; Dr. A. V. Hill, General Secretary of the Royal Society of Great Britain; Prof. P. M. S. Blackett of Great Britain; Dr. L. H. Lampitt of Great Britain; Prof. R. M. Field of U.S.A.; and Prof. J. M. Burgers of Holland. Apologies for absence were reported for Prof. M. S. Siegbahn of Sweden, Vice‐President of the Union; Sir Edward Appleton of Great Britain; Commandant Dorsimont of France; Prof. A. Cotton of France; Prof. O. Bergstrand of Sweden; and Prof. F. Verdoorn of Holland, now resident in the U.S.A.]

Union, section, and committee activities

Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Union—A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Union was held in Washington on January 25. On the agenda were plans for the Twenty‐Seventh Annual Meeting, setting up of the machinery for elections by mail ballot in 1947, and reports of various committees. The General Secretary also reported briefly upon the attendance of R. M. Field. W. D. Lambert, and T. A. Fleming at the Executive Committee meetings of the International Council of Scientific Unions and the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics at London and Oxford in December, 1945. A detailed report of the meeting of January 25 will be published in the April issue of the Transactions.

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CO-OPERATION

THE gradual easing of restrictions on travel and on the general release of scientific discoveries has made it practicable once more to arrange international meetings of men of science. The general assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions will meet in London during July 22-24, 1946. Meanwhile its Executive Committee has held a meeting in London attended by representatives of most of the International Unions adhering to the Council.

Dr. P. Pelseneer

PAUL PELSENEER, who died in Brussels on May 5, 1945, was well known to a wide range of scientific men through his connexion with the International Association of Academies and with the International Research Council (now called the International Council of Scientific Unions) which was founded in its place in 1919. But he will be especially remembered by zoologists for his extensive knowledge of molluscs, ranging from embryology to parasitism, and above all for his anatomical work on this group.

The Advancement of Science

THE first quarterly part of the Advancement of Science, the new journal of the British Association which is being issued in place of the annual volumes published by the Association from 1831 until 1938, contains the presidential address of Sir Albert Seward, “The Western Isles through the Mists of Ages”, as well as the presidential addresses to Sections D (Zoology), H (Anthropology) and K (Botany), with abstracts of communications to those Sections. An admirably written introduction reviews the Dundee meeting and the circumstances which led to the premature termination of an exceptionally promising and well-attended meeting, and also indicates the tentative policy of the new journal, which it is hoped will make a wider appeal to lay readers than an annual volume could do. The number also includes reports of research committees to Sections D, H, and K, as well as the report of the Council to the General Committee for the year 1938–39, and the report of the Division for the Social and International Relations of Science for the same period. Among the subjects which have received attention by the latter Division, other than those forming the subject of public meetings, are the incidence of taxation on scientific research; areas and objects worthy of protection on scientific grounds; recommendations on details demanded in census returns and their analysis; scientific news in the Press; scientific exhibitions; co-operation with the International Council of Scientific Unions in relation to questionnaires on science and society; and assisting the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning. The number also includes a first instalment of a scientific survey of Dundee and district.

Science and Social Problems

THE first meeting in London of the British Association's new Division for the Social and International Relations of Science was held in the Eoyal Institution on May 25. Sir Richard Gregory presided and in his introductory remarks sketched the genesis and adumbrated the programme of the new movement. Co-operative work in the special sciences was carried out for sixteen years by the International Association of Academies, and then by the International Council of Scientific Unions, which was formed during the Great War and is still active. Two years ago, on the initiative of the Royal Academy of Amsterdam, an entirely new outlook was adopted by including within the scope of the Council the social significance of the applications of science, thus endorsing the conviction of many that scientific workers can no longer remain indifferent to the social consequences of their discoveries. No definite programme of work has yet been formulated, but the essential idea is to apply the scientific method of inquiry to problems arising from the interactions of natural science and society. The British Association, acting in co-operation with its sister association in America, and through its new Division, is well adapted to promote such inquiries, and with this object in view it is arranging to hold meetings not only at the time of the annual meeting of the Association but also at other times and places as occasion may arise.

International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation

THE report by Prof. G. de Reynold on the Work of the twentieth plenary session of the International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations (Geneva: League of Nations. London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd. C.253.M.150.1938.XII) indicates the services to intellectual life which this organization is rendering both directly and indirectly. Its influence on the teaching of the principles and facts of international co-operation, the revision of school text-books, the investigation of unemployment among university graduates, its studies on the rights of the scientific worker and the inventor and on the contract of publication, the International Studies Conference and the agreement with the International Council of Scientific Unions are briefly indicated by Prof, de Reynold, as well as its relations with the International Labour Office and the International Museums Office. Prof, de Reynold stresses the importance of the National Committees of Intellectual Co-operation and of the efforts of the organization to keep in touch with and respect al forms of culture, and of utilizing the most modern means of disseminating information. Resolutions adopted by the Committee at its meeting on July 16 are included, and among the appendixes are reports of the Advisory Committee on the teaching of the principles and facts of international co-operation, on the teaching of modern languages as a means of promoting mutual understanding between nations; of the Acting Secretary-General of the Rome International Institute for the Unification of Private Law on the work of the Institute in the field of intellectual rights and of the Advisory Committee on Professional Workers.

Plant Growth Substances

FOLLOWING a project first put forward in 1925, the Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations and the International Council of Scientific Unions have agreed to collaborate in the calling of occasional conferences on well-defined fields. The first of these, on the plant growth substances, or phytohormones, was held in Paris on October 1-2, 1937, under the joint auspices of the C.I.C. and the International Union of Biological Societies. The report of the conference,* which has just been issued, contains eight contributed papers and discussion. Prof. Kogl (Utrecht) describes the determination of the chemical nature of auxins a and b and the isolation of biotin. Dr. Niels Nielsen (Copenhagen) discusses the substances promoting growth in the fungi, and the difficulties introduced by the varying abilities of organisms to synthesize different members of the group of active substances. The evidence associating the formation and action of auxins with oxidative metabolism is reviewed by Prof. Koningsberger (Utrecht), the phenomenon of bud inhibition and other correlations by Prof. Dostal (Brno) and the relation between the phytohormones and plant tropisms by the chairman, Prof. Boysen Jensen (Copenhagen). Prof. G. S. Avery (New London, U.S.A.) makes a plea for the consideration of the auxins as protoplasm irritants or 'evocators'. Prof. Bouillenne (Liege) discusses the action of auxins on cell division and root formation, and expresses the rather surprising opinion that although promotion of cambial division and inhibition of lateral bud development occur on applying pure auxins, at concentrations within the physiological range, to a variety of plants, nevertheless "under natural conditions"the auxins do not have these effects. Finally, Mile. Zollikofer (Zurich) reviews the rather unsatisfactory state of the work on the effect of animal hormones on plant growth. It seems unfortunate that Prof. NSmee, who (according to the preface) proposed the conference, and who has long been active in the closely related field of regeneration, should not have been present.

Science and Culture

THE August issue of Science and Culture, published in Calcutta under the auspices of the Indian Science News Association as “a monthly journal of natural and cultural sciences”, includes several important contributions and is in every way a credit to all who are concerned with its production. In the leading article on social implications of science, support is given for the movement represented by the committee on science and its social relationships of the International Council of Scientific Unions and the new Division of the British Association, and it is suggested that the Indian Science Congress Association should discuss the subject in a plenary session at the forthcoming meeting at Lahore. Sir James Jeans's lecture on the origin of the planets, delivered during the visit of delegates of the British Association to India, is published in the issue ; and among the subjects of other interesting articles are: electrical charge distribution in thunderclouds, chemical composition and nutritive value of bananas, and recent advances in the study of plant growth hormones. The speeches made by Sir John Simon and Sir William Bragg at the anniversary dinner of the Royal Society on November 30, 1937, are reprinted in full from the Notes and Records of the Society, the first issue of which appeared in April last, together with notes on the foundation and history of the Society from the same publication.

Science and a World Foundation

ON several occasions, attention has been directed in NATURE to the important work undertaken by the Committee on Science and its Social Relations, set up by the International Council of Scientific Unions, and views have been expressed upon the desirability of establishing an organization for the study of the social relations of science (see Supplement to NATURE of April 23, 1938). Briefly, the function of the former is to survey the scientific work done in certain fields, with a view to the issue at intervals of a report, with bibliography, concerning the influence of science on human society and the reaction of scientific study to the social environment ; while the latter body would seek to advance knowledge on these matters by research and by the discussion and publication of papers, as well as in other ways. It is generally agreed that both bodies should be careful to avoid propaganda and endeavour to be strictly impartial in the exercise of their judgment. Scientific workers are rightly jealous of the high reputation they have earned for their purely objective approach to the questions they study, and it would be lamentable if any ill-considered action resulted in the devaluation of so precious a heritage.

International Committee on Social Relations of Science

The Committee on Science and its Social Relations (C.S.S.R.), instituted by the International Council of Scientific Unions, in May of last year, held its second meeting in Paris this year, when a number of organizational questions connected with the work undertaken were discussed. From a report prepared by the secretary the following points may be mentioned:

Prof. N. E. Nφrland, For. Mem. R.S

AN unusually wide circle among men of science, including mathematicians, astronomers and geodesists, will approve and appreciate the election of Prof. N. E. Norlund to the foreign membership of the Royal Society, Prof. Norlund has since 1923 been the director of the Danish Geodetic Institute, an office always previously held (as in the case of the OrdnanceSurvey in Great Britain) by a military officer. In recent years, he has undertaken a new first-order triangulation of Denmark, and in Greenland also he has instituted a new triangulation which will extend up to 76° N.—a most valuable contribution to the determination of the figure of theearth. In mathematics, his works include memoirs on the theory of difference equations in the complex domain; on divergent series; and on continued fractions. In astronomy, at the University Observatory of Copenhagen, he has worked especially on the errors which affect the meridian observations of fixed stars, and has also made an important study of the double star ξ Ursæ Major is, concluding from a very slight perturbation inits orbital motions that it is a triple star, the observable pair havingan invisible satellite. Prof. Norlund has held many distinguished offices in his own country, and has played a prominent part in the international organization of science ; he has presided over the Baltic Geodetic Commission, the International Time Commission, and the International Council of Scientific Unions. He is a foreign member of the Academies of Science in Paris, Rome (Lincei) and Stockholm, and an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Publication of Old Scientific Works

A SMALL committee, presided over by Prof. B. Nemeč, met at Prague on December 3 and 4 to study, on behalf of the International Organisation for Intellectual Co-operation, the possibility of publishing old scientific works. This question had been raised by Prof. Nemeč, on behalf of the Czechoslovak Research Council, and had been adopted as part of the plan of scientific work of the International Organization for Intellectual Co-operation, by the executive committee of the International Council of Scientific Unions, acting as a committee of scientific advisers. The committee at Prague unanimously agreed that it would be desirable to publish a number of manuscripts or works on the exact and natural sciences, printed copies of which are extremely rare or almost inaccessible. A series of this kind would show the common origins of modern scientific culture and would be of great value to all savants interested in the historical development of the sciences. Considering the strictly international character of the undertaking, the committee felt that it should be entrusted to the International Organisation for Intellectual Co-operation. Further, the series should not be confined to one branch of science alone and it should embrace all the periods in the development of science since the Middle Ages.

Committee on Social Contacts of Science

THE Committee on Science and its Social Relations (abbreviation: C.S.S.R.), instituted by the International Council of Scientific Unions (I.C.S.U.) at its meeting in April last, and appointed in July (see NATURE, 139, 870, May 22, 1937 ; and 140, 358, August 28, 1937, for the members nominated), has recently met in London. It has elected the following officers: President: Prof. F. J. M. Stratton (Cambridge) ; Vice-President: Prof. S. Chapman (London) ; Secretary: Prof. J. M. Burgers (Delft). As a development of the original terms of reference, the Committee has adopted the following more precise statement of the objects of its activity: "to consider the progress, interconnections and new directions of advance in the mechanical, physical, chemical and biological sciences, especially in order to survey, at suitable intervals, and to promote, thought upon the development of the scientific world picture, and upon the social significance of the applications of science“(the corresponding French version reads: “pour examiner les progrès, les rapports rèciproques et les orientations nouvelles dans les sciences mècaniques, physiques, chimiques et biologiques, spècialement afin de rèsumer, à des intervalles convenables, et de contribuer à 1'ètude du dèveloppement de la reprèsentation du monde par la science et de 1'importance sociale des applications de la science”).

Plant Hormone Investigations

A STUDY meeting on the subject of "Phytohormones“ as held at the International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation on October 1 and 2. This meeting, which was organized by the International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation and the International Union of Biological Sciences, was the first of a series that will be held in the course of the coming months and which will discuss a variety of questions such as "The New Vitamins", "Nomenclature of Genetics", "The Double Electric Layer", etc., included in the plan of work of the International Council of Scientific Unions, which acts as a committee of scientific advisers to the Intellectual Co-operation Organization. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Prof. P. Boysen Jensen and reports were discussed on various aspects of the study of phytohormones, prepared by the following: Prof. F. Kögl, Utrecht ; Prof. Niels Nielsen ; Prof. N. J. Koningsberger, Utrecht ; Prof. G. S. Avery, Connecticut ; Prof. R. Bouillenne, Lié ge; Prof. C. Zollikofer, Zurich; Prof. K. Dostal, Brno; and nomenclature of phytohormones, by Dr. Janot, Paris. The question of the nomenclature of phytohormones gave rise to an exhaustive discussion and positive results have been reached. The reports and the discussions to which they gave rise will be published under the auspices of the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation and the International Union of Biological Sciences. This publication will be revised by Prof. Boysen Jensen before being issued. The second meeting of this character will be held at Copenhagen at the end of September 1939. Profs. Boysen Jensen, Laibach and Koningsberger have been invited to organize this meeting from the technical point of view, in collaboration with the International Union of Biological Sciences.

Announcements

PROF. JOJI SAKURAI, president of the Imperial Academy and of the National Research Council of Japan, has been elected vice-president of the International Council of Scientific Unions in succession to the late Marchese Marconi.