Frontiers in Science [antikvár]

Frontiers in ScienceSome time ago I was asked to address a large group of teachers representing all subjects. Eager, as a scientist, to impress on them the value of studying science, I chose to talk about it as "The Endless Adventure." The speech (reprinted in this volume) was not intended to be a profound discourse; rather, it was an attempt to convey to nonscientists some of the intense excitement attached to scientific discovery.For science is a continuous advance to new frontiers. We recognize the adventure of life on a geographic frontier, as in the Old West in America; the laws to be obeyed are not clear, the unexpected happens at every turn, the conflicts between "good" and "evil" forcesbetween order and anarchybecome fierce. But out of such conflicts new nations arise and new social structures are built.The frontiers of the mind offer analogous adventures. There, too, the unexpected is always found. The conflict between good and evil is analogous to the conflict between knowledge and ignorance. And out of this conflict a new area of human understanding will some day be built, which may intimately affect the structure of our own society.The geographic frontiers are disappearing. But the frontiers of the mind are never-ending. Ignorance remains an infinite, unconquered wilderness, and the adventure of this conquest will mount in interest as the centuries go by.Is it possible in a book such as thisin any bookto give some hints of this great adventure? One can probably hope for only partial success; yet here, in the language of the adventurers themselves, are stories of conquest, of battles now being fought3