Dedication of the New AAAS Headquarters BuildingAuthor(s): Paul B. SearsSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 84, No. 1 (Jan., 1957), pp. 24-25Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/22031 .

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Dedication of the New AAAS Headquarters Building

PAUL B. SEARS

Dr. Sears, the well-known ecologist and chairman of the Conservation Program at Yale University, is president of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science.

T HE American Association for the Advance- ment of Science was founded in 1848 for the purpose stated in its title. Today its rolls

number some 50,000 fellows and members and more than 200 affiliated societies, representing all branches of science. After more than a century of growth and service, it is now for the first time dedicating a building well-designed and truly built for its national headquarters.

The advancement of science rests not only upon observation and experiment but upon communi- cation as well. And it is this communication, among scientists and between scientists and the general public, that is and has been the distinctive function of the AAAS. The Association is not a builder of great laboratories, an organizer of spectacular ex- peditions, or a giver of generous largesse. Through its journals, its meetings, and the quiet work of its many committees, it strives unceasingly to break down barriers to understanding. These barriers, more than anything else, impede the progress of science and limit its opportunities to serve man- kind.

Much has been accomplished. Much more re- mains to be done. Fewer than one-half of the working scientists in the United States are mem- bers of the Association. Fewer than two-tenths of 1 percent of our population are professional scien- tists, although the bulk of our present industrial and business activity, the professions of medicine and engineering, the practice of agriculture, and certainly national defense rest upon the findings of modern science. Also the expenditure for basic science is slight in proportion to the ultimate financial returns.

Even more serious is the widespread misunder- standing of the nature and function of science. Because the applications of science have done so much to increase material wealth, to ease the bur- dens upon men's brains and bodies, and to provide beguiling distractions for their increasing leisure hours, these are thought of as its chief ends. To most of us it is the handy Aladdin of the modern world and nothing more, to be summoned when

wishes remain unfulfilled, or when we have stumbled blindly upon obstacles.

May I suggest, however, that the highest func- tion of science lies not in material wish-fulfillment but in satisfying the creative instincts of the in- dividual scientist, while giving to the generality of mankind a clearer understanding of the great natu- ral world of which Man is inseparably a part and whose laws he may violate only at his peril. His true dignity will, in my judgement, be measured not by the power and ruthlessness he can marshal against the rest of nature but by the degree to which he respects the great processes of energy flow, material interchange and biological activity upon which rests all we have and do. These powers have been in operation for thousands of times as long as man has existed as a species.

Lest I be accused of pompous generalities, let me remind you of the increasing difficulty caused by contamination of air, water, and soil through the waste products of our industrialized life, of the growing scarcity of many raw materials, and of the unceasing pressure for living space and whole- some recreation, best measured by the rate at which the green earth is being smothered in con- crete and asphalt.

That the educated man and woman of today has much to learn of even elementary science can be attested in many ways-perhaps none more vivid than the floods which last year devastated so much of New England. The bulk of the damage resulted from hazards that had been assumed without regard to the simple geology of the area or the normal pattern of stream behavior-and this by a segment of our population that is highly literate.

Not only should the average citizen have a much more realistic knowledge of science than he now gets, but the scientific training for our professions should be better rounded than it is. Lawyers and judges should be able to focus new light on ancient concepts, worked out long ago. Engineers who to- day wield such tremendous power ought to be bet- ter informed than they are about the great bio-

24 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

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Some interior views of the new AAAS building: (top left) a corner of the library, second floor; (top right) the staff room, first floor; (bottom left) one of the editorial offices on the east side of the building, second floor; (bottom right) the board of directors' room, first floor.

logical and geologic phenomena with which they deal. Biologists should overcome their too frequent fear and ignorance of mathematics, while physi- cians and indeed scientists of all descriptions have much to learn from the advances of modem an- thropology and other social sciences.

To bring about changes in these matters re- quires hard, humdrum work, largely in the field of communication. It seems to me, therefore, peculiarly fitting that this well-appointed building of the AAAS is neither a monument nor a shrine. It is, instead, a place of work. Here science will be promoted and advanced through the dissemination,

interpretation, and interchange that is needed to render effective the work of discovery.

I would be remiss if I did not pay my respects to the faithful work of the executive staff, of the board of directors, and of the presidents whom I have had the honor to know and succeed in office. The Association is unusually fortunate to have as its executive officer a man whose quiet but au- thentic greatness we have all come to appreciate, Dael Wolfle. It is my pleasure at this time to dedicate this building to the advancement of science and to open it for inspection by this audience.

uprqfAlto January 1957 25

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