Abstract
WHILE there is no interruption to the flow of reports and papers discussing scientific and industrial research—the statements “A Post-war Policy for Science” issued by the Association of Scientific Workers and “Problems of Scientific and Industrial Research” from Nuffield College are among the more recent—there is some reason to fear that even from the point of view of educating public opinion as to what is required, many of the contributions to this discussion are not so effective as they might be. One of the main reasons is that discussion, not to say opinion, is becoming confused because of the failure to distinguish clearly between tactics and strategy. Admittedly the distinction is not always easy to maintain in practice, but it is all the more important that the effort should be made at a time when the short-term and long-term aspects of these problems may vary considerably in urgency. Unless our broad objectives are clearly seen and defined in terms both of programmes and in respect of the type of men required to serve them, there is grave danger that steps may be taken to meet our short-term needs which may prove serious obstacles to the more fundamental developments which are also required.
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Scientific and Industrial Research.–I. Nature 154, 249–252 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154249a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154249a0