Craftsmanship and science : (Presidential address to the British association, September 5, 1928) / by Prof. Sir William Bragg...with two supplementary addresses.

  • Bragg, William Henry, 1862-1942.
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Craftsmanship and science : (Presidential address to the British association, September 5, 1928) / by Prof. Sir William Bragg...with two supplementary addresses. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    are the consequence of discoveries of the past: that, for example, Faraday’s discovery of electro-magnetic induction laid the foundation of all the electric develop¬ ment of our time; that Pasteur’s researches in bac¬ teriology gave us new insight into the meaning of disease and new powers to fight it; and that the work of the organic chemist has given us a host of new colours for our pleasure. We know that in a thousand ways the results of research have added to our riches, removed our disabilities, and eased our pain. If science has also been turned to sad purposes, as in the poison gas, we can say justly that, for one life it has been made to take by evil use, it has saved a hundred in the hands of those fit to employ it. We cannot escape from the need to defend our country and establish her in the world : it is true, however sad it may be, that if we do not develop research among us so that we may improve our fighting capacity, then other nations can bring us to defeat and shame. Further, if we fail to bring the efforts of research to the help of our industries, we run the deadly risk of losing our means of livelihood. Wilty-nilly, we must research, and with all our energy. Here are various reasons for the encouragement of research : the benefit of the student, the addition to human knowledge, power, and riches, and the needs of defence, military and industrial. But I think we still have failed to include the most important reason of all, the real reason of which the others are only derivatives. It is that the spirit of research is like the movement of running water, and the absence of it like the stagnation of a pool. Scientific research, in its widest sense, implies, of course, far more than exploring the questions of physics and chemistry and biology. It is not a religion; but it is the act of one. It is the