Science and national affairs

It is indeed an honor and a pleasure to have the opportunity of addressing you on the occasion of Science Day of the sesquicentennial celebration of the founding of Hebron Academy. It is perhaps somewhat rash of me to undertake the presentation of a topic as ramified and complex as the relations of science to national affairs, but the profound significance of this subject, both for the individual and for the country as a whole, has provided me with the courage for such an undertaking. I am deeply concerned about a number of rather widespread misunderstandings about these matters, and I hope to be able in the following remarks to clarify some of the subtler points which, when viewed superficially, lead to erroneous and even to potentially harmful conclusions. My remarks, I trust, will be applicable with equal validity both to the physical sciences—mathematics, chemistry, physics, geology, etc.—and to the life sciences—biology, botany, zoology, etc.—and you will forgive me if I draw most heavily on physics because of my own more intimate acquaintance with this science.