Princeton University - Bric A Brac Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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Chalrman, Department of Chemistry Professor N. H. Furman, Professor A. W. Tucker, Chairman, Department of Mathema.tics science: the real science is the work now in progress on the frontiersof knowledge. Our Princeton scientists are happy explorers, feeling their way, settling new ground, enjoying a sense of conquest that is a sense of growing understanding. Where shall wisdom be found: and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof . . . Job XXVIII We alLseek wisdom. We read the work of wise historians, consult wise humanists, study nature with wise scientists and we profit greatly as we thus 'build our own philosophy. Bu-t when we 'turn to text books and encyclopedias we are disappointed because we are wise enough to see that we are not gaining wisdom but only collecting information. The essential -difference between information fuseful but dullj and full knowledge or wisdom seems to be 'gunderf standing in the old sense that the Bible gave it. Humanf istis, historians, scientists, all educated men seek underf standing and delight- in it. So our happy scientists, who wants to share his interests with the next generation, writes and -teaches and welcomes students to join his club. Science specialists depend on him for information and knowledge-also for grades, though the good scientist can best write his own grade, pace the Deans. But these scientists are their own slavedrivers in Professors F. B. Van Houten, P. MacClintock, E. Dorf, Department of Geology Professor L. Spitzer, Jr., Chairman, Department of Astronomy

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Professor H. Cantril, .M ProfessorsyH. S. Taylor, C. E. Birchenall, G. Dougherty, Professor W. Feller, Department of Chemistry Department of Mathematics Professor Turkevitch, Department of Chemistry as the next man-more often if he has to deal with ofhcialdom. He is capable, clear, and happyg his science is systematic and imaginative, powerful for practical uses and delightful as an intellectual resource. He goes and tries things and abides honestly by his experimental results, which he codifies into lawsg he devises new ideas couraf geously, even outrageously, then he tests them experif mentally or uses them as language in expressing his knowledge. He dea.ls in knowledge of Nature, not witch' craft. His interest in art and politics and religion are as lively fand prejudicedj as those of his unscientific neighf bors. Though he tries to be extra critical and logical, he finds the effects of his scientiic training are mainly restricted to his own work, unless his science has given him heartfelt ideals-a love of accuracy, or a ruthless delight in logic, or a great faith in appeal to experiment. In his work, he is a happy man and a humble one. He enjoys using his curiosity and knowledge to pry into Nature. He is humble because he knows how little he knows. His combination of observing and extracting information with clever flexiblefminded thinking-extperif ment with theory-is science. The man who does this is a scientist. To him, the science already known and long since settled is, in a way, dead museumfstuff: the facts and ideas yet undiscovered, unformulated, are not yet Chairman, Department of Psychology -,...g,,

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Professors R. H. Dicke, A. Wheeler, Department of Physics Professors E S Wallis, H N Alyea, C E Bricker, Department o Chemzstry laboratory and reading and thinking and dreaming. Their understanding of science is of their own making. We offer understanding: facts and principles woven together into knowledge, ending with a sense of science as structure of knowledge. This may be disappointing, because underf standing is a delicate thing to hang an hourftest on, compared with brute facts that can be learned for immediate use! But brute facts rather like that dreadful liniment of turpentine that grandparents used on childrens' chests: impressive at -the time, then irritating, then Vanishf ing into a smell of pine woods, with no lasting value- except to the turpentine manufacturers. Princeton is not an intellectual -turpentine factory. Yet understanding, ill though it looks when asked for in examinations, has lasting benefits. It makes a Princeton engineer a irstfclass engineer, who knows what he's doing in contrast with the thirdfclass engineer, a necessary foreman with a wellfthumbed handbook. It can make a Princeton doctor a great surgeon, alive to the developments of his science. Gr it can make him a successful general doctor with a happy intellectual background. We also welcome the pure nonfscientist. To him we offer understanding of science, as background for working with scientists in industry, in government, in the armed forces, and as an intellectual resource in later life. Some may doubt whether mankind is made much happier or even better by insistent telephones, longfstoring iceboxes, pushbutton wifefsavers, or new and deadlier weapons, yet the real life of science lies not in these technical applications but in the growth of mankind's knowledge and understanding of Nature, of machines and materials, of rocks and living things, of this Earth and man himself, body and mind. Such growing under' standing is Science, and a sense of it is a part of Liberal education which Princeton owes to every student. Professors S. R. Heath, S. S. Tomkins, C. C. Pratt, Department of Psychology