International Scientific Unions Research Articles

Activities of International Scientific Unions

Activities of International Scientific Unions

Forthcoming Congresses associated with International Scientific Unions

Forthcoming Congresses associated with International Scientific Unions

Department of Scientific Research, India

THE Government of India has created a Department of Scientific Research with effect from June 1. The Department will be in the charge of the Prime Minister of India, and Sir Shanti Bhatnagar, director of scientific and industrial research, has been appointed secretary and principal executive officer. The Department will take over the work of the Board of Research on Atomic Energy and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. The latter body, although attached to the new Department, will retain its unofficial character and will continue to function as before. The new Department will deal also with scientific advice to Government departments, ad hoc scientific research in universities and research institutions, research scholarships in applied scientific subjects, international scientific unions, scientific liaison offices, the Scientific Consultative Committee and such other subjects as may be transferred to it. The Department will co-ordinate the scientific activities of the other Ministries, and in this work it will be assisted by a co-ordination committee consisting of eminent men of science.

Mass Education and International Understanding

THE discussion on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation which took place at the British Association meeting at Dundee attracted a very small audience; no doubt this was due in part to the fact that the meeting clashed with other important and topical discussions; but a more important reason is the general lack of knowledge of the activities of the Organisation. Sir John Maud, it is true, headed members of the British co-operating body, and expounded most ably the aims of the Organisation; he believes it should attempt to instruct the peoples of the world on the realities of the situation, so that they can understand, better the causes of peace and war and thus make the politicians' task of direction easier. He sees its task as primarily that of helping people to learn that they need one another, and to deepen their sense of social responsibility, thus pursuing much the line of thought in more general terms that Mr. Henry Stimson follows in his article in Foreign Affairs on “The Challenge to Americans”. Prof. F. J. M. Stratton dealt with the relations of the Organisation with the international scientific unions, and other speakers in the discussion indicated the wide range of fascinating subjects with which it is already concerned. Its major activities have since been reviewed in a progress report by Dr. W. H. C. Laves, the deputy director, in the United Nations Weekly Bulletin. Already some 72 million dollars' worth of material has been collected by voluntary agencies, chiefly in the United States, under the Temporary International Council for Educational Reconstruction, and fifty sets of laboratory equipment have been collected for consignment to forty-one selected laboratories in five countries. Technical needs in the fields of the Press, radio and films have been surveyed in some eight or ten war-devastated countries. It is expected that a conference at Nanking will encourage a pilot project on fundamental education, for which the Organisation will provide an adviser; and consultant-advisers for pilot projects in the same field are also to be provided for the Governments of Haiti and Nyasaland. The Organisation is also vitally concerned with mobilizing social scientists throughout the world for an inquiry into the tensions affecting international understanding, and a preliminary outline on this study has been distributed to nearly five hundred workers in this field in twenty-nine countries. Preparations are under way for a conference on the social sciences in 1948.

The activities of the Society: British National Committee for Co-operation with UNESCO in Scientific Affairs

UNESCO is, in this country, in the province of the Ministry of Education which has recently appointed an Advisory Committee. The President of the Royal Society, as one of the United Kingdom delegates to the Paris Conference, is a member of this consultative body. The separate sections of UNESCO will be represented by further National Co-operating Committees, e.g. those concerned with Rehabilitation, Education, the Arts, Mass Media of Publicity, and, of course, Science. The Royal Society was invited by the late Miss Ellen Wilkinson to advise her on the scientific aspects, and it is now agreed that the Society will organize the British National Committee for Co-operation with UNESCO in Scientific Affairs. Various bodies will be invited to nominate representatives. It is not yet known exactly how much work the Committee will be called upon to do, but it is probable that its activities will increase from year to year. New International Scientific Unions may be discussed and fostered, but the existing ones will function as at present, the British National Committees remaining in existence and working as now in direct relation with their appropriate Unions and through the latter with the Council of International Scientific Unions.

International Council of Scientific Unions

The first General Assembly of this Council since the war has concluded its meetings, which were held at the rooms of the Royal Society of London, under the Presidency of Dr H. R. Kruyt of Utrecht University. Over seventy representatives of the principal Scientific Academies, of a number of National Research Councils and of the various International Scientific Unions, were present. The countries officially represented were Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Great Britain, India, Italy, Netherlands, Netherlands East Indies, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and Yugoslavia. In addition, as guests, a welcome was extended to Monsieur A . Establier and Madame Malterre of the International Organization of Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations, and to Dr Needham, head of the Scientific Division of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

International Council of Scientific Unions

THE first General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions since the War has just concluded its meetings, which were held at the rooms of the Royal Society, London, under the presidency of Dr. H. R. Kruydt of the University of Utrecht. More than seventy representatives of the Principal scientific academies of a number of national research council and of the various international scientific unions were present. The countries officially represented were Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Great Britain, India, Italy, Netherlands, Netherlands East Indies, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and Yugoslavia. In addition, as guests a welcome was extended to M. A. Establier and Mme. Malterre of the International Organisation of Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations, and to Dr. J. Needham, head of the Scientific Division of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

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 RELATIONS OF SCIENCE

THE report, “International Relations in Science: a Review of their Aims and Methods in the Past and in the Future”, by the late Dr. W. B. Cannon and Dr. R. M. Field*, was prepared for the Division of Foreign Relations of the U.S. National Research Council. It is based on a questionnaire issued in March 1944 to all available officers of the international scientific unions and international scientific congresses, and represents a definite attempt at a factual appraisal of past experience as a guide in framing the instruments now required to secure the continuity of international co-operative research and the conditions for effective international co-operation in the scientific field. It is thus of considerable interest when the first attempts are being made to resume international meetings, and the activities of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation are under discussion. Three of the six specific questions of the questionnaire-about the interchange of information, other than for war purposes, during the past two years, specific scientific projects requiring international co-operation, and whether experience suggests that post-war international co-operation in science and education could best be served by other organisations than international scientific unions or congresses-are indeed designed to provide exactly the information required for decision as to whether new forms of international scientific co-operation are required or whether existing institutions would be adequate.

Conference on the Present Tentative Program of the Commission on Continental and Oceanic Structure of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics

The Commission welcomes this opportunity to discuss with the American Committee of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics a tentative program in international geoscience. Our principal desire is to help keep the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics alive—not merely in cold storage—until its whole membership can again unite in the support of world-science for post-war problems. We also feel that our endeavors, at this time, may be of interest to other international scientific unions, which, for several reasons, have entirely ceased to function or even to maintain contacts between their personnel in the allied countries. The International Commission on Continental and Oceanic Structure was appointed, as most of you will recall, at the Edinburgh Assembly (1936) of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics with the instructions that it seek to stimulate and facilitate the accumulation and correlation of factual information: First, as to the nature of the crustal structures characteristic of continental and oceanic areas; and second, as to the nature of the terrestrial processes responsible for the recurrence of certain crustal structures and patterns over the entire Earth's surface.

The Swiss Society of Natural Sciences

THE recent issue of the Verhandlungeti der Schweiz-erischen Naturforschenden Gesellscha contains an account of the annual meeting of the Society held at Solothurn in August 1936 and also reports of the work of the previous year. The object of the Society is to promote the study of all branches of natural science in Switzerland. Between the annual meetings for the presentation and discussion of papers, the work of the Society is carried on by a number of commissions. Some of these are concerned with the administration of endowments, while others undertake field work in various sciences. The latter are financed partly from members' subscriptions, but mainly from Government grants. Among the commissions performing work of national importance is the Geological Commission, which is engaged in the publication of a geological survey of Switzerland on scales of 1: 25,000 and 1: 200,000. In addition to the purely scientific commissions, there is a Commission for the Preservation of Nature, which is doing valuable work in preserving sites of scientific interest or scenic beauty, as well as in promoting legislation for the protection of forms of wild life which are in danger of extermination. Besides administering Government research grants, the Society also acts as the official representative of Switzerland on international scientific unions, and the volume under notice contains the reports of the Swiss delegations to a number of such unions.

Solar Activity and Terrestrial Phenomena

IN 1924 the International Research Council (now transformed into the International Council of Scientific Unions) formed a Commission for the Study of Solar and Terrestrial Relationships, a field of science which extends over the domains of at least three of the International Scientific Unions. This Commission, among other activities, has published triennial reports, reviewing the state and progress of knowledge on solar and terrestrial relationships, and, where necessary, making recommendations regarding action that may conduce to further progress. These reports are distributed to certain libraries and to institutions and individuals occupied in work relating to the subject. The fourth report has recently been issued (Conseil International des Unions Scientifiques: Quatrieme Rapport de la Commission pour PEtude des Relations entre les Phenomenes Solaires et Terrestres; pp. 159. Firenze, 1936) under the editorship of the president of the Commission, Prof. G. Abetti, Astrophysical Observatory, Arcetri, Italy. It differs from its predecessors in being better and more attractively produced, and in having a valuable 28-page introduction by the editor, giving a general survey of the subject for the past three years. The remainder of the volume consists of twenty-one brief articles on different aspects of the subject, by various authors.

Recent Actions Taken By the Symbols, Units, and Nomenclature (S.U.N.) Committee Of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (I.P.U.) in Reference to C.G.S. Magnetic Units

In reference to the C.G.S. magnetic units, a brief historical outline is presented of the actions taken by international electrical congresses from 1893 to 1904, and by international technical and scientific unions from 1904 to 1932. Emphasis is laid on the results of the S.U.N. Committee meeting of July, 1932, as the latest development. The present status of international agreement on C.G.S. magnetic units is unofficially presented, in the light of the historical background. Turning to future possible developments, certain questions are pending for consideration, by either or both committees, in order to clear up any outstanding differences of international opinion over magnetic units in the classical C.G.S. system. In order to convert the existing series of practical electromagnetic units (ohm, volt, ampere, coulomb, farad, joule, watt, henry and pramaxwell) into a complete system, international agreement must first be reached upon the two outstanding questions: (a) Subrationalising (4π NI or NI for mmf). (b) The unit of length to be adopted (meter or cm). Suggestions are offered along both these lines.

Recent actions taken by the symbols, units, and nomenclature committee

IN REFERENCE to the cgs magnetic units, a brief historical outline is presented of the action taken by international electrical congresses from 1893 to 1904, and by international technical and scientific unions from 1904 to 1932. Emphasis is laid upon the results of the meeting of July 1932 of the symbols, units, and nomenclature committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, as the latest development.