Evening star., 1947-03-23
A Lost Generation
In Scientific Progress
Rockefeller Foundation President
Deplores Wars Waste

AeplOTeS w AT w dStS
The increasing availability of money
for research in medicine Is beginning to
embarrass our medical schools. Where
Is the trained personnel coming from to
make use of these funds?" Raymond B.
Fosdick, president of The Rockefeller
Foundation, asks in his annual Review,
a portion of which is made public today.
The general public has contributed en-
Enthusiastically to such special causes as
infantile paralysis, cancer, heart dis
ease and tuberculosis. Recently, through
the National Institute of Health and
the scientific branches of the armed
forces, the Federal Government al
located over s6o0o,0OO for similar spe-
cialized projects.
But from what source are we to get
the scientists and technicians competent
to work in these fields? Their training
Is q matter Of years of preparation and
1t cannot be extemporized.
There seems to be widespread public
belief in what might be called the
magic-wand theory of medical advance.
This theory has been stimulated by the
dramatic development in recent years of
such remedies as insulin, penicillin, the
sulfa drugs and the blood substitutes,
According to this theory, our research
laboratories stand ready at any time to
turn money into scientific discoveries; in
other words, the bottleneck to further
advance is the lack of funds; it Is the
lack of capable and thoroughly trained
investigators to use the funds. The
medical schools, to which we must look
for these investigators, do not possess
and cannot now obtain the fundamental
facilities through which alone this in
creasing demand can be met. Indeed,
many of'our medical schools are in che
position Of a cook asked to prepare Q
wedding feast for which the champagne
has been furnished but no water to
boil the potatoes.
Nothing that war touches escapes
blight. There is a popular belief that
science made rapid progress between
1899 and 1e45, but this belief has little
basis for support. 1t is now generally
recognized that the feverish activity Of
scientists in wartime is essentially not
scientific. They are primarily engaged
in the application of existing knowledge
to certain specific and narrow problems.
They have no time for pure research,
and their contributions to basic knowl-
edge are infrequent and on the whole
unimportant. They are drawing on the
reserves of the past. They are using UP
the supply of basic discoveries which an
earlier generation has given them. They
are digging recklessly into the stockpile
of existing knowledge. The gap between
knowledge and use in science is always
narrow; the effect of war is to close the
gap almost to the vanishing point.
1t is not in war but in peace that the
advance of knowledge, as distinguished
from the application OF knowledge, finds
it's most favorable environment. The
practical applications Of knowledge are
the dividends which basic science from
time to time declares When basic
science is even temporarily interrupted,
then it is necessary to pay these divi-
dends out of surplus and obviously this
process cannot be long continued with
out bankruptcy,
1t is necessary to drive home the
point that war does not contribute to
basic science. On the contrary, it blocks
its progress and, through perverted ap-
plications, debases the whole concept Of
the dignity and glory of mans conquest
| Of nature.
There is another phase of the matter,
equally vicious. War interferes with
! the proper training Of scientific person.
mel. At least, here in the United States
we allowed it to interfere. Like any
procedure which expends capital re-
sources without providing means of re-
plenishing them, the interruption OF
advanced training in the basic sciences
seems to cost little at the moment, and
it serves an emergency by releasing
manpoWer. But it is a policy OF des-
| peration which places crippling mort
gage on the future. 1t grinds up the
seed-corn Of scientific progress in the
next generation to make days feed
for the war machine.
The consequences of this unintelli-
gent policy are now upon us. There Is
q serious, even an alarming, shortage
of adequate personnel in almost every
field which requires advanced thinking.
Whether in physics or chemistry or the
;e1o SitIl-
alton is the same. In subjects like bac-
teriology, biochemistry, anatomy, bio-
physics and physiology, it Is almost
impossible to find younger men with ade-
quate teaching and research qualifica-
tions. We have sacrificed the seed-corn.
We have lost generation. Our govern
mental policy was dictated by eonsidera-
tions of immediate need and was geared
to the exigencies of the moment.
But this was not the case in Russia
or England. In both these countries
policy was guided by the long view far
more effectively than with us. In Rus
sia, students of ability in most branches
Of science were kept in their labora-
tories, while Great Britain, with some
difficulty, TO be sure, succeeded not in
eliminating, but in minimizing inter-
ruption in the training of her future
scientific teachers and leaders.
American democracy seems to learn
its lessons the hard way. 1t does not
realize, until too late, that human ero-
sion, like soil erosion, can jeopardlGe
the future. Surely out of the bitter ex-