Table Of ContentiVi i f .11U | M f | ?11,17,11 •
Science
in Our Lives
R I T C H I E C A L D E R
From James Watt 's invent ion of the
steam engine to the dramatic harness-
ing of atomic energy, here is the excit-
ing, factual story of the beginnings and
development of modern science, the re-
lationship between its special fields —
astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology
— and its impact on human af fa i rs .
A SIGNET KEY BOOK
A World of Wonders
Whether or not you have ever studied sci-
ence, you will have a better understanding
of its miracles when you read this stimu-
lating, fact-packed book.
In this comprehensive, clearly-written volume,
Ritchie Calder, science editor of the London News
Chronicle and chairman of the British Association
of Science Writers, traces step-by-step the origins
of modern science and its methods. He explains its
relationship to religion, industry, anS society. He
shows how scientific progress and development have
changed the world and our daily life.
You will learn about the invention of the steam
engine, the isolation of hydrogen, the detection of
radium, the smashing of the atom, and many other
vital discoveries. Here is fascinating information
about the work of such as Joseph Priestley, Marie
Garie, Antoine Lavoisier, Hans Geiger and Albert
Einstein. You will share in their momentous ex-
periments and experience the tremendous feeling
of awe as they unlock secret after secret of nature.
In a world where science plays such a dynamic
role, a well-rounded knowledge of its rudiments is
essential. This remarkable, easy-to-read book offers
you the rich opportunity to learn the basic facts in
this vital field.
This Book Is Being Released Simultaneously by Michigan
State College Press in Hardcover and by The New American
Library in a Signet Key Paperbound Edition.
SIGNET KEY and MENTOR Books
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A clear and logical explanation of the weather—
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T o OUR READERS
We welcome your comments about SIGNET, SIGNET K E Y ,
or MENTOR books, as well as your suggestions for new
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Ritchie Calder
SCIENCE
IN OUR LIVES
A S I G N E T KEY B O O K
Published by THE NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY
COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY RITCHIE CALDER
All rights reserved
Published as a SIGNET KEY BOOK
FIRST PRINTING, JANUARY, 1955
Science in Our Lives is also available
in a cloth-bound edition published by
Michigan State College Press.
SIGNET KEY BOOKS we published by
The New American Library of World Literature, Inc.
501 Madison Avenue, New York 22, New York
P R I N T E D IN T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S OP A M E R I C A
C O N T E N T S
Part One: MERCHANTS OF LIGHT
1. The Lunatics, 7
2. The Fencing-off of Science, 16
3. Science and Culture, 20
4. The Challenge to the Arts, 24
5. Science and Religion, 23
6. Science and Education, 28
Part Two: SCIENTIFIC METHOD
1. Science Goes to Trial, 30
2. The Detective and the Atom, 33
3. The Jargon of Science, 36
4. How Science Began, 36
5. The Twilight of Science, 40
6. The Dawn of Modern Science, 41
7. Scientific Lawmaking, 42
8. Certainty in the Nineteenth Century, 46
9. Humility in the Twentieth Century, 47
10. Chance Is Back, 49
Part Three: GREAT DISCOVERIES (I)
1. The Method, The Man and The Moment, 50
2. The Unknown Discoverers, 54
3. Social Influence on Discovery, 57
4. The Climate of Discovery, 61
5. The Makers-Possible and The Makers-to-Happen, 64
(n)
1. Ir&ne Has Fifteen Teeth, 66
2. Those Naughty, Naughty Rays, 67
3. The Electric Pips, 69
4. The Uranium Mystery, 70
5. Radium, 71
6. Into the Atom, 73
(in)
1. The Birth-Cries of the Stars, 80
2. The Pedigree of an Infant Science, 83
3. Radar, 85
4. The Astronomer's Apprentices, 88
(IV)
1. The Dog that Did not Bark, 91
2. The Magic Bullet, 95
3. The Sulfa Drugs, 97
4. The Discoverers of Penicillin, 99
5. American Antibiotics, 101
GREAT DISCOVERIES (V)
1. Here Be Dragons, 103
2. Beyond the Sound Barrier, 106
3. Human Endurance, 109
4. Into Space, 110
Part Four: SCIENCE AND SURVIVAL
1. Cain and Abel, 113
2. How Many People on the Land? 115
3. Peanuts, 116
4. The Lost Civilizations, 118
5. C = B : E, 123
6. The Ghost of Malthus, 125
7. The War on Pests, 129
8. Frozen Ancestors, 131
9. Food from the Desert, 133
10. Food from the Jungle, 135
11. The Challenge, 136
Part Five: SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY
1. Millions of Men with Teaspoons, 137
2. Machines versus Men, 139
3. Slave Electrons, 141
4. Electrons Doat Pay Union Dues, 143
5. Operations Research, 144
6. Coming to Terms with the Machine, 149
7. The Speed of Change, 150
8. The Atom Goes to Work, 152
9. Atomic Power of Underdeveloped Countries,
Part Six: SCIENCE AND THE FAMILY
1. The Atom Comes to Dinner, 156
2. The Present from the Past, 158
3. Health for the Home, 160
4. The ABC of Vitamins, 161
5. The Case History of Bu, 164
6. The Cautionary Tale of Cortisone, 166
7. The Clue to the Worry Diseases, 167
8. Mid-Century Medical Checkup, 169
9. "Eastern" becomes "Western", 170
10. The Price of Progress, 171
Part Seven: SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
1. Rip Van Winkle Comes to Town, 173
2. The Shrunken World, 178
3. Jabu and the Jukebox, 180
4. Crated Civilization, 182
5. The Radiance of a Thousand Suns, 183
6. "A Bold New Program", 185
7. The Misery-Go-Round, 187
8. Science Belongs to Humanity, 189
INDEX, 190
PART i s Merchants
of Light
. . . But thus you see we maintain a trade, not for
gold, silver or jewels, nor for silks, nor for spices,
nor any other commodity of matter; but only for
God's first creature, which was light; to have light,
I say, of the growth of all parts of the world. . . .
SIR FRANCIS BACON
1. T H E L U N A T I C S
IN THE ENGLAND OF THE 1770'S, The Lunatics used to
meet once a month on the night of the full moon. And
there was method in their madness because the moon was
the lantern which had to light Erasmus Darwin home to
Lichfield, "imprisoned in a post-chaise, joggled and jostled,
and bump'd and bruised along the king's highroad," and
Josiah Wedgwood on his forty miles' ride from Birming-
ham to The Potteries. Or, at least, it would help their
horses to find their way, because Darwin and Wedgwood,
abstemious men by the drinking standards of their day,
were invariably intoxicated by the ferment of ideas which
they had imbibed at the dining table of a coterie which
helped to change the history of mankind.
Never more than ten ever sat down to dinner at The
Lunar Society of Birmingham (inevitably called "The
7
10 S C I E N C E I N O U R L I V E S
Lunatics"). No record was ever kept of its proceedings,
lest the informality of its free-ranging discussions should
be embarrassed; there were no transactions, no agenda, no
resolutions and no programs of action. The one attempt of
Matt Boulton to formalize it failed; it was like trying to
pick up quicksilver with a fork.
They would discuss poetry and religion, arts and politics,
music and science, with minds unbuttoned like their
breeches-bands. Theirs was the spirit of universal inquiry
which, somehow, we have lost today in a world in which
the common ground of understanding has been fenced off
into faculty estates and a barrier wall has been built be-
tween the humanities and science. We know more and we
share less.
No such inhibitions or prohibitions restrained discus-
sions of The Lunar Society which met in the homes of its
sundry members. It was a free-for-all. James Watt, the
inventor of the condensing steam engine, would argue
music with William Herschel, the military bandsman who
had become Private Astronomer to the King. Erasmus
Darwin, physician, poet and philosopher, when he was
not expounding creative evolution, would be telling Matt
Boulton, Watt's partner, how to improve on some new
mechanical invention. Josiah Wedgwood, the Prince of
Potters, would exchange ideas about the separation of gases
with Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, who pres-
ently would be leading the debate on some theological sub-
ject. Samuel Galton would support Mr. Collins, the "rebel"
guest from America, and Priestley would interrupt to read
his latest letter from Benjamin Franklin.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the influence of The
Lunar Society in terms of the men it brought around its
table. They were a company of "Merchants of Light," as
Francis Bacon called the twelve Fellows of The House of
Salomon (in New Atlantis) whose commission was to seek
everywhere for the facts of Nature and of human experi-
ence to illumine the minds of men.
The three founders of The Lunar Society were Matthew
Boulton, William Small and Erasmus Darwin. Boulton
was a toy maker ("toy" in those days meaning fine orna
