Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-07-02
World Adventure

Man now is engaged in something he
has never tried before. This is the world
wide cooperative program he has Just
launched in an effort to increase his
knowledge Of the universe It is the
program called the International Geo.
physical Year, which will actually con-
tinue for the next 10 months. It is an
undertaking without precedent in history,
a project altogether new under the sun.
And the sun itself, as if aware of that
fact, has quite fittingly heralded the
event with one of its own major explo-
Sions.
Henceforth, now that this unique
new year has begun, we probably will
be reading lot of stories under headlines
featuring the letters ICY. They will be
stories telling us about the labors and
speculations and firm discoveries of some
10000 scientists representing no fewer
than 81 different countries. These Scien-
lists, like the countries themselves, are
located on both sides of the Iron Curtain
in Russia, for example, as we'll as in
the United States. But ideologieS will
not divide them. For they will operate,
on the whole, in wall-leSS world of their
own, sharing information without stint,
exchanging data on an deliberately or
ganized basis, co-ordinating their efforts
as i there were no such thing as the cold
war, but only common agreement to
work together for the good of humanity.
And what it is that these men will
be dealing with? Specifically, the sub
JectS OF greatest interest to them may
seem to be rather far removed from the
average individuals everyday concerns.
Climate, solar energy, cosmic rays, the
status OF glaciers, the flow of ocean cur
rents, the exact shape and makeup of
the earth-these and hundreds of other
kindred matters will constitute the sub
stance of the ICY studies in every corner
OF the globe, and they will involve the
most far-reaching cooperation of its
kind ever attempted since peoples first
organized into groups and formed them
selves into separate nations. Moreover,
although the fields to be covered may
appear to be remote from the PRACTICAL
ties of existence, the many new things
likely to be learned about them-with
the help OF such fantastic instruments
as the artificial moons to be launched by
our own country and RusSia-can hardly
fail to promote human betterment, slowly
but surely, directly and indirectly.
So President Eisenhower has not ex-
aggerated in hailing the advent of the
International Geophysical Year as zone
OF the great scientific adventures of our
time" AS he has said, it promises to be
an adventure that will result in discov-
cries or enlightenment of incalculable
value to mankind-a value likely to be
translated eventually into concrete ap-
plication of new understanding and new
power over the forces Of nature" And
beyond that, as far as clashing ideologies
are concerned, he has we'll summarized
the projects significance by declaring
that it demonstrates "the ability of
peoples Of all nations to work together
tremendously for the common good" the
sort of cooperation that may yet be
applied to every field of human endeavor.
True, the accumulation of knowledge,
such as the knowledge of how to make a
hydrogen bomb, seems sometimes to be a
curse rather than a blessing. Yet the
fact remains that the more we learn
about all the animate and inanimate
things that intrude upon our existence,
the greater will be our chance of improv-
ing upon that existence, even to the
extent of Kidding it of the danger of
annihilating wars. In that respect, the
ICY program is certainly full of immense
promise.