Word: scientists
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...their theoretical value. They would enable the Committee on General Education to obtain the services of some of the great scientific experts on the Faculty who are not sufficiently interested to teach a survey course but who might be extremely interested in presenting their particular specialty to the non-scientist...
Applying Research. President Crosby, a self-taught scientist who did not graduate from college ("I am probably the only rocket-company president without a degree"), credits much of Thiokol's fast climb to its investment in research. Thiokol's top executives, almost all scientists, put 9% of sales into research, mostly applied research because Crosby holds that some scientists spend too much brainpower on basic research, have "too damn much independence from management." On the other hand, Thiokol encourages all of its 450 scientists to devote 10% of their time to their own pet projects, even more time...
...scientist is likely also to be an ethical purist. For what never exists in the laboratory, what Robert Oppenheimer discovered with a great sense of shock in the world outside, is 'sin.' We may understand 'sin' to express the way in which the evil mingles with the good in life, the way in which the noblest efforts of man can somehow become entangled in moral catastrophe. This 'sin' is not to be found under the microscope...
...Laboring under these handicaps, the scientist is prone to fall into three errors with reference to public affairs. He may, like the medieval anchorite, withdraw from society by living in the cell which is his laboratory. Or, emerging from his cell, with its austere discipline and chaste aspirations, he will be profoundly shocked to see the way his own truth and power are prostituted to ends with which he cannot become reconciled. He will then do like all pietists before him: propose simple solutions to complex problems, see all issues naively and out of context, and make absolute moral judgments...
...There are ways that do not lead to such dead ends for the scientist, but they are difficult ways. One is the way of a Conant or a Killian: deliberately to enter into the experiences and to assume the responsibilities and the disciplines that have to do with the art of human relations. The product of this dual discipline, in the scientist-statesman, can be one of our most valuable public servants in times like this. "For those who do not have a genius for the double task, there is another choice. This is simply to put their truth...