Some unconnected ramblings purporting to be an article for " Salient " resulting from being trapped when in a weakened stale at the end of a lecture.

It is a widely-held and not entirely unfounded belief that the scientist is the present-day Philistine. (This modern swear word does not mean lover of beer.)

Oh yeh! Contrary to what appears to be the opinion of many so-called scientists, science is in fact an art. The joy of being able to add another strand to the fabric of knowledge is only to be compared with that of painting a picture, making love, writing a poem or composing music. (The scientist if, of course, not the only one capable of adding to knowledge, but his attitude and methods are very successful.)

Fanatical Inquisitiveness

By John Elder, Physics Department.

He is driven by a fanatical in quisitiveness into an extraordinary This is surprisingly similar to the attitude of the artist or poet and just as the artist or poet focuses his attention on—or rather his imagination is captivated by—certain aspects of his world, so does the scientist.

It is interesting, and perhaps upsetting, to notice by the way that this singular ability of the mind to focus its perceptiveness can be stimulated in an ordinary person by the drug mescalin (often also in a minor way by alcohol), which merely alters the glucose metabolic rate in the brain. I use here the phrase "ordinary person" In the sense non-poet, non-scientist, etc. But are such "ordinary" people incapable of being poets, say?

Human Vegetables

Not at all! I hale any sense of essential superiority of one man over another, and as well as insisting that all men deserve equality of opportunity I believe that all men are capable of sensing, understanding and participating in the higher things of the intellect. And yet you say such a high proportion of people (particularly in New Zealand) are little more than human vegetables, self-portable pieces of chemistry that merely eat, sleep, vinced that this now self-perpetuating disease arises through a social and educational system that goes out of its way to kill some of our most precious possessions: Imagination, initiative, inquisitiveness and individuality. Have you ever wondered about the redness of roses, the touch of a lover? Have you ever painted a shriek? Do you know what it is like to be crucified? Do you think Galileo ever regretted going blind? Have you ever had a virgin thought or perceived a new piece of knowledge?

"Datagatherer"

The scientist is in the first instance an artist, not a philosopher. He sees certain aspects of the universe and describes how these aspects are connected together, but makes no attempt to question why these aspects or their connections exist—that he leaves to God and the philosophers. The colours with which he paints his picture are certainly different from those in the paint pot of an artist, but they fulfil the same function. In fact, in the more "sciency" sciences (e.g., Physics), these colours are numerical. The beauty of this approach is that the most highly-developed branch of science, mathematics, is very adept at handling numerical lection of paint pots and a canvas even today do not constitute a painting, neither does a mere collection of numbers—no matter how difficult the collection—constitute science. In fact, such data is in it-self incredibly dull. By the way, that brings me to a second swear word, "datagatherer," a word which applies to those so-called scientists who believe that the mere collection of data is of value.

It is at this point that the scientist becomes rather like a detective. He begins to notice regularities in his data and by a process of abstraction attempts to see, as it were, what is behind this raw data: To see if his mess of data is consistent with some simple general principle, especially some principle which dovetails into the knowledge fabric already existing. The terrific power of his method comes from his regarding each regularity as a numerical fingerprint by comparing the fingerprints obtained both from his process of abstraction, often painted in the mathematical manner, with fingerprints obtained from other collections of data, collections often dictated by his abstract ideas.

This desperate urge to abstraction, to go beyond the superficial outer shell of experience, is not essentially different from that of the artist. What a thrill to match two fingerprints! What a thrill to capture that moving colour on a canvas!

At first sight it would appear that the scientist does differ from the poet in that the scientist is mainly conscious of the exterior world while the poet is more conscious of himself and even in portraying the exterior world is often dealing with his own problems. This may be so, but both require imaginative vivacity—a mind capable of seeing things in an unusual, in an unconventional way.

Crushed By Inhibitions

This requires a childlike attitude, an unselfconsciousness and a continual questioning. It is quite terrible in New Zealand how the personality of each child is crushed as it becomes more and more loaded with inhibitions. Why must we limit page 2our minds and prostitute our talents? Why do we have to be so afraid of the attitude of others? Who can hurt us but ourselves!

Our university should be a brain factory. Heaven forbid it should become a technological institute! Unfortunately there are large numbers of people, including scientists, who think that science must be useful. These people are the real Philistines! It is like saying a poem has to be useful (for example, it portrays a particular political idea).

Knowledge Is Beyond Price!

Of course many parts of science are immensely useful and rightly many scientific investigations are initiated by practical problems, but the fabric of knowledge is not complete until every strand is in place whether it is a practical strand or not. I am sure it was an Enzeder who formulated the uncontested idea that only projects for which a practical return could be achieved in a few years were of value. Knowledge is beyond price!

Another widespread misconception is that to teach a man what science is about requires deluging him with as many rather dull facts as possible. It has perhaps not occurred to such people that to linger over a few of the best pictures in a gallery is far better from the point of view of learning a little about art than dashing madly past every picture in the place. Such people argue that because only a few per cent of those who start in Stage I pass Stage III of a science subject that it doesn't matter. What rot! It matters all the more in that such a short time is available to give most people the insight into what it is all about. Not to know what people like Newton and Einstein did is to be compared with not having heard of Shakespeare, Picasso or Beethoven.

Of course you realize that it is attitudes like this:

that science is really a bit dull;

that students are really a bit slow on the uptake,

that the solution of our problems isn't really in our own hands,

that the simplest way of cutting the teaching load if you can't get more staff isn't to simply cut the lectures and lab clauses to half,

that the problems we have in New Zealand are unique,

that you shouldn't speak your mind because Treasury mightn't like it and to ask for only a 20% increase, rather than an immediate 200% increase,

that timidity is preferable to intellectual aggressiveness,

that students are in fact apathetic as a result or hereditary factors,

that I suppose I'll have to teach it because it is traditional but God I hate it,

that it isn't possible to change the system at all in a year,

that the most important words are "never," "impossible," "too expensive,"

that we should have lots of universities and D.S.I.R. departments spread widely all over the country,

that you can have this or that (never both) …

that make it difficult to induce scientists to come to New Zealand, drive others away (e.g., me), and almost suggests that only a miracle will ever alter the situation.

Well, all I can hope is that portions of this Irish stew have been digested and that you will see how in my mind words such as art, passion, socialism, inhibitions, love, aggressiveness, Imagination, data-gatherers, are a bit mixed up. Two things I wanted to talk about but didn't have time for—the unfortunate idea that science only progresses by logical methods and to wonder why so many people are ashamed of their hormones. So next time you see a nude man running down the street shouting, "Eureka! Eureka" don't laugh, but be sorry it's not you.