B. A. A. S. Meeting

In the valley city of Bristol, England, last fortnight, 3,000 scientists from 20 countries attended the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. They had much to accomplish in their week together. Next year the "British Ass" celebrates its centenary at London. Elaborate plans were made for the entertainment and enlightenment of the thousands who will attend. General Jan Christiaan Smuts, South African statesman, was elected president for the centenary meeting, the first man from the Dominions to hold the office. Another important matter planned for the 1931 meeting was the proper celebration of Michael Faraday's discovery of the principle underlying the electric generator. As every scientist at Bristol knew, 99 years ago Faraday hitched together a contraption of copper, wire, calico and twine, and generated electricity. There were also 300 speeches to be delivered, discussed. Some important observations:

Enough Wheat. Head of B. A. A. S. for 1930 was dignified Frederick Orpen Bower, 74, Regius professor of botany in the University of Glasgow. Contrary to the custom of B. A. A. S. presidents whose addresses usually last long enough to sum up the entire scientific field, Professor Bower limited his inaugural address to a review of the last 30 years' work in botany. Sir William Crookes (radiometer, Crookes' tube) told a meeting of the British Scientific Association in 1898 that, taking into consideration acre yield and population growth, wheat would be scarce enough in 30 years to cause a famine. This year's world wheat surplus (see p. 16) is sufficient commentary on Sir William's prediction. Because of the development of synthetic nitrogen used in fertilizers, and the improvement in wheat strains by selective breeding, the limit of wheat growing has been extended farther north, the acreage yield increased. This Professor Bower pointed out as an example of the contribution of experimental botany to the maintenance of civilization. Realizing the importance of the scientists' research, Englishmen have founded new Botanical Institutes in many parts of Great Britain, India, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Big-Brained Animal. "Man did very well before he was a man at all and nobody has given any reason why he ceased to be an ape. ... In producing a new and cunning big-brained animal with hands, nature overshot her mark and we are now struggling with the consequences," asserted Dr. H. S. Harrison, curator of the Horniman Museum and Library, London, to B. A. A. S. anthropologists. Later Paleolithic man was as smart as modern man. If he were living today, he could easily become a good mechanic or a bishop. Much of what passes for intelligence in our present civilization is simply imitation. The so-called educated man of whom our generation is so proud, only repeats in parrot fashion the knowledge inherited from the past, is lacking in the intellectual audacity necessary for true progress. The big-brained animal has created an artificial material environment and moral code for himself, has not developed sufficient brainpower to use his creation wisely.

Spiritism. Laymen showed more interest in what Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, physicist, spiritist, had to tell them than in any other speech. Over 1,000 packed themselves into a church seating 600 to hear him reprimand scientists for limiting their researches to the material field. "The real fact is we are in the midst of a spiritual world which dominates the material. . . . We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses and helpers beyond the range of our sense organs. Our activities on earth form but an insignificant part of our whole existence." Hybrid Tobacco. The ordinary tobacco used today is the hybrid offspring of two closely related wild species, announced Dr. T. H. Goodspeed, University of California. In breeding experiments with wild varieties, he produced a plant which looked like the cigaret variety and showed the same cellular formation. Subjecting tobacco seeds to X-rays, he has developed a stronger plant with more flowers.

Electronic Universe? Dr. P. A. M. Dirac, young Cambridge physicist who has studied up on relativity and the nature of electrons, made a speech which many older scientists did not understand. He told them from his work in the quantum and relativity theories he had decided that the electron is probably the fundamental particle which forms all things. Protons, positive particles, are really electrons which switch from negative to positive energies. Although he did not understand the theory in detail, Sir Oliver Lodge praised it highly, called it the fundamental secret of the atom. Other scientists accepted it with reserve.

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