A Discussion on Animal Viruses as Genetic Modifiers of the Cell || Address of the President Lord...

Address of the President Lord Blackett, O.M., C.H. at the Anniversary Meeting, 30 November1970Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, Vol. 177, No.1046, A Discussion on Animal Viruses as Genetic Modifiers of the Cell (Feb. 16, 1971), pp. 1-14Published by: The Royal SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/76057 .

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Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B. 177, 1-14 (1971) Printed in Great Britain

Address of the President Lord Blackett, O.M., C.H.

at the Anniversary Meeting, 30 November 1970

Award of Medals 1970

The COPLEY MEDAL is awarded to LORD TODD, F.R.S.

Todd has made highly significant contributions to the chemistry of natural pro- ducts, in particular in relation to compounds which play important roles in biological systems. His researches on vitamins B1, E and B12 were most elegant and have had far-reaching implications, but none more so than his structural and

synthetic studies in the nucleic acid field. Here he developed methods for the

synthesis of the nucleosides and for their phosphorylation; his work on the way they are combined made possible the subsequent determination of the three-dimen- sional structure of the nucleic acids thereby providing the basis for much of the

exciting activity in the nucleotide field today. Todd's achievements arise out of a rare combination of theoretical knowledge

and outstanding experimental skill, with the most judicious exploitation of modern techniques. His work and his quality as an investigator have been widely recog- nized by biologists as well as by organic chemists.

The RUMFORD MEDAL is awarded to LORD HINTON OF BANKSIDE, K.B.E., F.R.S.

During his early experience as Chief Engineer of the Alkali Division of I.C.I. and then as Deputy Director General of the Explosives Filling Factories during the war, Hinton developed a wide range of engineering and administrative skills. As leader of the team responsible for the engineering and development of nuclear energy for electricity generation in this country, he retained a close interest in details of design and organization to such an extent that there was little doubt of the importance of his personal contributions. This was particularly the case in the early days when atomic piles, chemical plants and later the diffusion plants, the power reactors and finally the Dounreay fast reactor had to be built with only limited information. After Calder Hall was commissioned in 1957 Hinton became Chairman of the C.E.G.B., responsible for the practical application of the huge development programmes which at the time made the United Kingdom's use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes the largest, most advanced and most successful in the world. Hinton ranks as one of the greatest leaders of engineering teams, particularly those concerned with large projects taking many years for completion. Throughout his career he has shown a continuing professional skill and a remarkable eye for engineering detail.

Vol. I77. B. (i6 February 1971) I ] I



2 Anniversary Address by Lord Blackett, O.M., C.H., P.R.S.

A ROYAL MEDAL is awarded to PROFESSOR K. C. DUNHAM, F.R.S.

Professor Dunham is highly distinguished in his personal research, in his stimu- lation of the research of others, and in his contributions to the organization and administration of the Earth sciences both here and abroad. His researches on the

nature, emplacement and genesis of ore deposits are especially outstanding, and he has also made many significant advances in a wide variety of fields including igneous petrology and sedimentology.

Dunham has an exceptional flair for administration. Under his leadership the department of geology at Durham University had a high reputation and he

developed there a flourishing school of geophysics. He left Durham in 1966 for the directorship of H. M. Geological Survey when it was being reorganized under the Natural Environment Research Council as the Institute of Geological Sciences, and he has exerted a vital influence in broadening its scope and changing its

orientation, with the expansion of fundamental and regional geophysics, economic

geology and studies of the continental shelf. He has taken a major part in the

organization of the Earth sciences in this country and is now President of the International Union of Geological Sciences.

A ROYAL MEDAL is awarded to PROFESSOR W. A. H. RUSHTON, F.R.S.

No part of physiology is richer than vision in the variety of phenomena which have already been described and only someone of quite exceptional gifts can make

significant advances in our knowledge. William Rushton has made such advances in our understanding of night vision, of colour vision and of visual adaptations. He has developed an elegant method of studying the state of the visual pigments in small areas of the normal human retina and of measuring the changes which occur during light and dark adaptation. By shrewd and penetrating analysis he has given us a new insight into the kinetics of bleaching and regeneration of the visual pigments during day and night vision, and into the complex interaction between pigments, receptor cells and neuronal circuits which occurs during visual

adaptation. He has found the spectral absorption characteristics of the photosensi- tive pigments in the central fovea on which human colour vision depends and has elucidated the nature of the pigment defects underlying various forms of colour

blindness, thereby solving problems which have been controversial for over a

century.

A ROYAL MEDAL is awarded to Sm JOHN BAKER, O.B.E., F.R.S.

Baker's work on the behaviour under load of full-scale steel structures which

started with measurements on the Cumberland Hotel led in 1956 to the publica- tion of a theory and method of design which enabled the mode and load of collapse of a steel frame to be calculated with great accuracy. The method, which took into account the plastic as well as the elastic behaviour of the structure, was first



Anniversary Address by Lord Blaclcett, O.M., C.H., P.R.S.

applied to single-storey industrial buildings and is now used in virtually all major countries with a saving of about 25 % of the steel.

The plastic design method has been extended to multi-storey, all-welded steel frames and is of particular value in the design of structures intended to absorb

energy, an early example of which was the Morrison air-raid shelter built to Baker's design.

In making his important contributions to the theory of structures Baker has combined measurement and experiment, often at full scale, with simple but elegant theory. As Head of the Engineering Department at Cambridge he has taught a

generation of engineers to apply and develop these more realistic methods. In a new text he now makes it clear that the plastic theory need not be confined to steel structures, but is a new developing tool of structural analysis and design.

The DAvY MEDAL is awarded to PROFEssoR C. A. COULSON, F.R.S.

Professor Coulson has done distinguished work on the application of quantum

theory to chemical problems, mostly relating to molecular structure. He has investigated the electronic structure of molecules ranging from very

simple structures such as H+ and CH4, to highly complex polynuclear hydro- carbons, polyenes and heterocyclic molecules. He stimulated much thought, and new experimental work, on the nature of non-integral multiple bonds, on bond order, conjugation, resonance energies, and on electrical charge distribution in bonds and in molecules. He has also applied theoretical methods to the study of such widely different subjects as the structure of free radicals, of the hydrogen bond, the electron band structure in graphite and other related solids, and interatomic or intermolecular forces.

His books have been of great value in the teaching of modern chemistry. His whole achievement has been characterized by its stimulus to the field of structural

chemistry and by the clarity of his exposition.

The DARWIN MEDAL is awarded to MR C. S. ELTON, F.R.S.

Charles Elton is our most influential animal ecologist with an extremely high international reputation. He established for animal ecologists the overriding im-

portance of studying the dynamics of the sizes and distributions of populations which he accurately perceived as primarily controlled by the interactions of different communities. His book Animal Ecology, published as far back as 1927, is a classic in which most current ideas are foreshadowed. It represented a remarkable advance in the coherence of a subject which acquires ever greater significance. The Bureau of Animal Populations which he founded in Oxford has trained a generation of ecologists coming from all over the world. Elton was always the inspiring influence but in a singularly self-effacing manner. His personal contributions have taken the form of a series of extremely effective books. He has worked in a field where Darwin was the greatest pioneer and for that reason, and because of the

I-2

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great advances for which he has been responsible, it is altogether fitting that Charles Elton should receive the Darwin Medal.

The SYLVESTER MEDAL is awarded to PROFESSOR G. F . J. TEMPLE, C.B.E., F.R.S., for his contributions to the understanding of generalized functions. Generalized functions are of exceedingly great importance in physics, since they appear in the solutions of all those equations that describe the propagation of signals from one

point to another.

Using the methods of Dirac, physicists managed to calculate correctly, even

though the mathematical basis of these methods remained obscure until the early nineteen fifties. The work of Laurent Schwarz then placed the matter on a secure foundation but in a form of such mathematical difficulty as to lie outside the scope of the average scientist.

It is to George Temple that we owe the debt of analysing this very basic aspect of all physics in a form that could be used by all of us. It is to him that we owe the debt of banishing obscurity and difficulty. This citation could not end more

appropriately than with a slightly paraphrased form of the dedication given in James Lighthill's book on generalized functions: to Paul Dirac who saw it must be

true, to Laurent Schwarz who proved it, and to George Temple who brought it out into the clear light of day.

The HUGHES MEDAL is awarded to PROFESSOR D. R. BATES, F.R.S.

Bates is a theoretical atomic physicist who has made, and continues to make,

many distinguished contributions both to atomic physics as such and to its application to the interpretation of phenomena in the upper atmosphere, in stellar atmo-

spheres, in plasmas and in the operation of lasers. Our present understanding of the processes which lead to recombination of

positive ions with electrons and/or negative ions is largely due to him. Ile was the first to recognize and establish the importance of dissociative recombination between electrons and molecular ions, both in laboratory physics and in the iono-

sphere. In the study of collisions between heavy particles, atoms and ions, Bates is a

world leader. There is hardly any aspect of heavy particle collision theory to which Bates has not contributed effectively.

Another major direction in which Bates has been a pioneer is in the interpretation of airglow and auroral phenomena in the upper atmosphere in terms of the basic atomic and molecular reactions.

Since the War there has been an explosion of activity in atomic physics. Through- out this Bates has maintained his leading position and both through his own work and his inspiration of the work of others has played a leading role in the rapid advancement of the subject.



Anniversary Address by Lord Blackett, O.M., C.H., P.R.S.

The MULLARD MEDAL is awarded to MR S. W. K. MORGAN, O.B.E., DR S. E. WOODS, MR J. LUMSDEN, MR B. G. PERRY and (the late) MR L. J. DERHAM, of Imperial Smelting Corporation Ltd, Avonmouth.

The concept and successful development of the zinc blast furnace permit for the first time the continuous smelting at high efficiency of both lead and zinc from one furnace; silver, gold, antimony, bismuth and copper can also be recovered from the furnace. One of the key problems was to devise a method for the conden- sation of vaporized zinc to liquid zinc without its reconversion to zinc oxide in the presence of the cooling furnace exit gases. The ingenious solution was to shock chill the zinc vapour in a spray of molten metallic lead droplets in a specially designed cooler-condenser. Outstanding economic and technical advantages are thus obtained, and the process has been licensed in eleven countries with fourteen furnaces in operation or under construction. During the past ten years there has thus been a vast saving in imports to the United Kingdom, and substantial annual licence fees have been obtained. Success has not easily been achieved, and great credit is due to the team effort in which determination, originality and deep in-

sight into the scientific principles involved were combined with novel solutions to the major difficulties and marked interplay of the engineering development with the basic research.

* * * * * * * *

At the formal opening of these new premises of the Society by Her Majesty The Queen three years ago on 21 November 1967, I posed the question: in what

specific ways are we to make use of them? I remarked that the first benefits would be to increase the efficiency of our established activities. This has surely happened. I then cited:

(a) international relations of science, particularly in relation to Europe; (b) the organization of discussions and symposia both on broad fields of science

and also on multidisciplinary subjects; (c) cooperation with sister organizations in science, technology and the arts,

especially in relation to the use of our lecture room and other facilities; (d) increased cooperation with the engineering professions including in this the

relationship between universities and industry; (e) the role of the Society in sounding scientific opinion. It may be of interest if I make a few remarks in relation to these forecasts of

three years ago.

The Society's role in international relations in science has made significant advances. We now have exchange arrangements which cover nearly every country in the world where worthwhile scientific research is carried out. There has been the major development of the European Exchange Scheme started in 1967 under the vigorous leadership of our Foreign Secretary, which I will discuss in detail in a

5



6 Anniversary Address by Lord Blackett, O.M., C.H. P.R.S.

moment. We continue to operate exchange agreements with the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. and the academies of other Eastern European countries.

Additionally, exchange arrangements have been made with a number of Latin American countries and Israel. The Commonwealth Bursaries scheme, supported by Commonwealth countries, the Nuffield Foundation and additionally from this year by the Commonwealth Foundation, goes from strength to strength. With the support of the Leverhulme Trust we are able to appoint Royal Society Leverhulme Students to gain experience in developing countries and to appoint Royal Society Leverhulme Visiting Professors. The Government also provides the means to appoint Visiting Professors to developing countries in the Commonwealth. In all the Society is in a position to appoint 12 Visiting Professors each year.

The lecture room facilities in our new premises have enabled the Society greatly to extend its capacity to mount significant discussion meetings and to extend invitations to a much wider audience than could ever be accommodated in Burling- ton House. In the 1969/70 session 11 Discussion Meetings were attended by over 3000 persons averaging 280 persons per meeting. This is just over the normal

seating capacity of this room. We now have regular luncheon facilities capable of

handling 200 lunches at our Discussion Meetings and currently averaging over 70 lunches on other days, and we are capable of expansion.

On the matter of the use of our premises by sister organizations some figures may be of interest. No fewer than 41 such organizations have used our rooms on 169 occasions during the first three years of our occupancy. In addition there have been many international bodies which have met here in conferences and this gives us particular pleasure.

In March 1970 a delegation consisting of the Foreign Secretary, the Treasurer, the Physical Secretary, Sir William Hawthorne, Professor A. L. Hodgkin and the Executive Secretary, visited Japan at the joint invitation of the Japan Academy and the Science Council of Japan. The delegation was most cordially received and had valuable discussions on the organization of science and technology in Japan and the United Kingdom, and the members of the delegation, through visits to

University and other Research Laboratories, were given the opportunity to become

acquainted with Japanese scientists and their work. A principal object of the visit was to discuss the establishment of an arrangement for increasing scientific ex-

changes between the two countries. We are confidently expecting these arrangements to be concluded within the next few months and the Society is looking forward to welcoming a return delegation of Japanese scientists in March next year. Through the generosity of a grant from the Wates Foundation the Society has

already been able to initiate exchanges, and eleven study visits to Japan, two

research fellowships to Japan and three research fellowships from Japan have been authorized. We look forward to the fruitful development of these exchange arrangements.

I should like to take this opportunity of expressing warmest appreciation of the




generous action of the Wates Foundation, not only for the grant which has enabled us to initiate this scheme, but for two earlier grants which enabled the Society to take pioneering action in establishing exchange schemes in others parts of the world, notably through the European Exchange Programme.

We have continued our liaison with the Council of Engineering Institutions and during the past year we have set up an Industrial Activities Committee under the

chairmanship of Professor James Lighthill. The Royal Society produced a booklet Metric units in Primary Schools and

sold 68000 copies-that is, an average of two to each of the 33000 primary schools.

We have also set up an Education Committee under Professor Clifford Butler to coordinate the many educational activities of the Society, and an Education Officer has been appointed to the Society's staff. During the last six months the Education Committee has cooperated with the Schools Science and Technology Committee in examining how best to coordinate and otherwise encourage the many local centres where school teachers can meet with local university staff and in- dustrialists to discuss new developments of science and technology with a view to improving science teaching. In October Professor F. S. Dainton took the chair at a meeting, jointly sponsored by the Society and the Schools Science and Tech- nology Committee, to explore how communications between science school teachers and agencies desirous of assisting them might be improved. Representatives of scientific and professional societies, industrial companies, foundations and trusts attended as well as school teachers. The Education Committee has made plans to conduct a thorough inquiry into the training of science teachers and in this is

receiving excellent cooperation from the educational organizations and institutions concerned.

The Council for Scientific Policy wished to obtain views on the subject of certain aspects of the development of the European Molecular Biology Organization and a meeting of Fellows and others closely concerned was held on 21 October 1969. On 3 July 1970 we held the first meeting on university development during the next decade, when once again the Society provided a forum for the expression of a variety of opinions. In the all important field of science education we have held a series of meetings ranging from school teaching of science to postgraduate training in engineering. We have also given strong leadership in the use of SI units.

It might also be appropriate to mention a development which has characterized the past few years-namely the gradual growth of a close, even a symbiotic, relation between the Society and governmental scientific departments, notably with the Department of Education and Science. For many years now a few Fellows were to be found in full-time government service and very many in part-time work on committees and as consultants. A recent count of Fellows holding whole or part- time appointments in government or quasi-government bodies, including service on important scientific committees, came to about 120, which is about 20 % of

7




the Fellowship in the U.K. It is a statutory requirement that the President of the

Royal Society be consulted by the Secretary of State for Education and Science about the appointments of the scientific members of the Medical, the Agricultural, the Science and the Natural Environment Research Councils. By invitations of these Councils and also of the Social Science Research Council, the Council of the

Royal Society appoints assessors to all five of them. These assessors bring to the notice of the Royal Society Council any matters they consider relevant. Apart, however, from these formal arrangements there is a greater mutual confidence between the Society and the Research Councils and the Council for Scientific

Policy. This is also true with the National Commission for Unesco and other depart-

ments of the former Ministry of Overseas Development, now part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and more especially with the Council for Scientific

Policy and its International Scientific Relations Committee on which the Society is represented by the President, the Foreign Secretary, another Fellow and the Executive Secretary.

In this area of international scientific relations the Society plays a role of a kind it is difficult for government as such to play, and the government, on the other

hand, has access to information and facilities which can be helpful in the promotion of non-governmental scientific relations. The financial and other help provided, for example, by the Department of Education and Science has been invaluable in the development and success of the European Exchange Scheme. For this and other help we are extremely grateful, but in expressing thanks we do so in the

knowledge that the Society through its Fellows, is also contributing valuably in a

way no other organization can do. We are proud of our independent non-governmental role and that it is possible to maintain this and at the same time act jointly with government agencies to our mutual benefit. This is a development of recent

years which is, to my mind, a beneficial achievement reflected in the increasing size of the Parliamentary Grant-in-Aid to the Society over the past five years from ?400000 in 1965/66 to ?1M in 1970/71.

During the last year the Royal Society has started to forge a closer relationship with the British Academy, which in many respects plays, in relation to the human- istic studies, a somewhat analogous role to that of the Royal Society in relation to the sciences. One very successful event was a two-day joint symposium on carbon- 14 dating, dealing both with the physics of the method and with the archaeological results obtained with it. An interesting novel activity took place earlier this year: this was a symposium in Bucharest on Statistics in Archaeology arranged jointly by the Romanian Academy and the Royal Society. Here the initiative was taken

by Professor D. G. Kendall. Most European academies embrace both the arts and the sciences. The Royal Society is one of the few which do not: so there is good reason why the Royal Society should cooperate with the British Academy where this is possible. In fact, the Royal Society has been able to help the British

Academy to raise funds to increase the number of exchanges of arts scholars with




foreign countries and has also been able to give useful advice on the organization of such exchanges.

Work on the data gathered during the two-year expedition to Mato Grosso in the Amazon Basin is in progress. A discussion on the geographical results was held in April at the Royal Geographical Society, and an extensive paper on the soils of the area has been published. During September three days of informal discussion of results by most of the participants in the expedition was held in The Royal Society. It was attended by Professor L. Labouriau of the University of Brasilia

who, with Professor Lobato Paraense who visited this country earlier in the year as a guest of the Society, is responsible for continuing certain aspects of the research in Brazil.

The eight main buildings for the Royal Society research station on the atoll of Aldabra in the Indian Ocean have been built and equipped during the year. They include a laboratory block, accommodation for permanent staff and visiting scien-

tists, together with store rooms and workshops. Water is provided by collecting rain water and by a specially designed solar distillation plant expected to produce up to 700 litres of fresh water per day from sea water. The first director of the station, Lieutenant-Commander G. R. Lush, M.B.E., R.N. (retired), supervised its construction. The facilities can now be used by scientists throughout the world for research on the atoll, which has been described as a 'living laboratory'. The director is also responsible for enforcing the conservation regulations for Aldabra.

The management of the station is supervised by Council's Aldabra Research Committee under the chairmanship of Professor T. S. Westoll, and the Committee has formulated a quinquennial programme of research to be coordinated by Dr D. R. Stoddart. Close liaison on all aspects of Aldabra research is maintained with the National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution of the U.S.A.

The European Exchange Programme originated at a meeting of representatives of academies or equivalent organizations from twelve European countries held at the Royal Society in London on 1 December 1966, the day after the Anniversary Dinner. A survey by the Royal Society of the then recent European exchanges had suggested that an increase of exchanges among scientists was desirable, for both senior scientists and younger postgraduate workers. A proposal to promote such exchanges received the enthusiastic approval of the representatives from overseas.

From private funds the Royal Society was able to obtain for this purpose about ?40000 per annum for each of the years 1967, 1968 and 1969, to be used flexibly for exchanges with other European countries. In January 1967, therefore, the

Society started the programme by circularizing its Fellows and institutions in the United Kingdom, inviting applications for short study visits, fellowships, and assistance for small specialized research conferences.

The response was immediate and encouraging, and it became clear that the funds

9




available to the Royal Society would be insufficient for the quantity and quality of the requests made. In order to enlarge the programme a 'balancing' mechanism was proposed, by which the Royal Society agreed, using new funds promised from the Department of Education and Science, to match sums made available by the

organizations in other countries. Under this plan, problems of currency transfer would be largely eliminated. Subsequent meetings have been held at Bad Godes-

berg, Amsterdam, London, Paris and Copenhagen. At the present time-autumn 1970-fifteen countries are partners in the scheme including the U.K.

During the three-year period 1 January 1967 to 31 December 1969, 267 fellow-

ships were awarded, grants were made for 284 study visits and assistance was given to 19 conferences. The total number of fellowships and study visits for the three

years 1967, 1968 and 1969 is 551. Almost without exception, fellowships and grants for study visits from the U.K.

were given to postdoctoral workers (and not to postgraduates) and a similar level seems to have been maintained among those from overseas.

The largest number of exchanges has occurred between the U.K., Germany, Italy and France, and a substantial proportion with the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden.

The rate of increase of fellowship exchanges awarded is shown from the follow-

ing figures. For each of the three years 1967, 1968 and 1969, the numbers were 33, 104 and 131 respectively: the extrapolated number for 1970 is 160. The Foreign Secretary has estimated that this number might be doubled, without loss of quality, during the next three or four years, so giving about 300 fellowships a year by about

1974-assuming the necessary finance is available. Still larger figures in my view should not be ruled out. For instance, Dr P.

Aigrain, French physicist and Adviser to the French Government on Science

Policy, expressed the view that the training of a research scientist is incomplete unless he has spent a period, early in his career if possible, working abroad.

In 1966 the 11th General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions [I.C.S.U.] took place in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in

Bombay. Towards the end of the week of meetings and discussions, several

delegates expressed the view that I.C.S.U. should attempt to do more to help the less developed countries of the world. It was pointed out that the tra- ditional activities of I.C.S.U. were mainly concerned with the organizational needs of the basic sciences in an international setting, and that it fulfilled this role

very well. The Royal Society is an adhering body to I.C.S.U., which is a very successful

organization, and regularly brings together the international science interests of

nearly 100 nations. The main activities of I.C.S.U. take place in the 16 scientific

unions, each covering a major scientific discipline, and in a number of special committees. To cooperate with these bodies the Council of the Royal Society is advised

by some 50 British Committees and Subcommittees, each representative of the




national interest in the subject concerned. These national committees prepare the briefs for presenting the British viewpoints at international meetings of I.C.S.U. and its related bodies.

Naturally, therefore, I.C.S.U. has been more concerned with the advancement of science for its own sake, rather than with the use of science for the practical purpose of improving the welfare of mankind. Of course, over periods of decades the advancement of basic scientific knowledge provides the possibility of greatly improved living standards for mankind. But scientists are becoming increasingly aware that the application of new scientific knowledge to increase human welfare is a long and expensive matter-often much longer and more expensive in man-

power and money than the acquirement of the new knowledge itself. The suggestion made at the 1966 meeting was essentially that I.C.S.U. should seek

some activity which would encourage the application of scientific knowledge to increase the well-being of the poor but developing countries. After much discussion the Assembly brought into being a new body with the title 'Committee on Science and Technology in Developing Countries-Costed'. The members were drawn from 12 countries, with myself as chairman.

It was clear from the outset that Costed could not hope to acquire big enough financial resources to play an important direct role as a provider of money or technological aid to the developing countries. This is evident when one remembers that the total financial aid from the developed countries to the less developed countries is over 1010 U.S. $ a year.

After much discussion Costed concluded that it might do a valuable service if it made a detailed study of how science and technology can lead to the economic and social betterment of the less developed countries.

It was decided that a small book with the title The role of science and technology in developing countries should be produced which would be intended to be of use to scientists and technologists who work in less developed countries or are otherwise interested in their problems. At the same time the book should be offered in a more tentative manner to people in positions of responsibility both in the less developed countries and also to those in developed countries who are concerned with the Aid and Development Programmes.

The following arrangements were made by Costed to get such a book written. The finance to engage an author full time for two years to work under my general direction was shared between I.C.S.U. and the Royal Society, and I was to write an introduction explaining the origin and purpose of the book.

After making wide inquiries Mr Graham Jones was appointed to this post. His experience suited him well for the task, as it combined initial training as a chemist, with subsequently many years of scientific and technical administration in several less developed countries in three continents.

The book is intended to be primarily concerned with economic development rather than with the broader and more philosophic viewpoint in which science is seen as an important element in culture and learning.

11




The content of the book was planned taking fully into account the large literature already existing on the problems of the developing countries. This literature covers a very wide range of subject and form, from wide global surveys to highly detailed studies. It is not to be expected that the book will contain any very novel

insights-rather its main aim is to use this extensive literature to help to create a climate of opinion realistically favourable to economic and social development. In effect the book is intended to be a guide book to a complex scene rather than a work of new learning. Clearly any such book will be controversial: for the issues are highly complex and there can be many different views, which can be legiti- mately held, on many aspects of the problems.

One reason why it was thought that such a book would be timely is that in recent years important advances in understanding have been made, both in the

developed countries and in the less developed countries, of just how the process of innovation takes place-meaning by the word 'innovation' the whole process from scientific discovery or invention to the final emergence of a marketable product, or a social service. Only when the product is marketed is the country made more

wealthy. In 1968 the Central Advisory Council for Science and Technology published an important booklet entitled Technological innovation in Britain. Much of

the argument applies with great force to the less developed countries. This is not the time or place to discuss these complex problems in detail. What

I will do is to outline a few points which are relevant to the task facing a less de-

veloped country in applying modern science and technology to increase its economic and social welfare. These points are by no means new and are discussed in the

book. The first point relates to the innovation process in manufacturing industry,

and states that the total cost of putting a new technologically advanced product on the market is seldom less than ten times the cost of the initial research and

development. It follows that it is generally not worth while embarking on the initial

research and development unless the resources in men and money to pay for the

much more expensive later stages of prototype, engineering, production, marketing and sales, are also available. Neglect of this rough rule can lead to a waste of

national resources in money and manpower, and disillusionment among the

scientists. The importance of being realistic about the innovation process is

especially important in the less developed countries, because of their general shortage of scientific manpower and investment capital.

The second point is that, in all but the giant nations, an adverse balance of

royalty payment, usually held to be bad, may often be a sign of wise national

management, including sensible use of the available local indigenous scientific

and technological manpower. This is clearly linked with my first point, particu-

larly in relation to the production of new and advanced production goods. Even

an advanced country like the United Kingdom can only contribute some 10%, or 20% at the most, of the world stock of new production goods and processes. The United Kingdom would be unwise to install in its factories only machines which




had been invented in the United Kingdom. Access to foreign technology and know- how can be obtained in many ways, by buying a manufactured product, by licence

agreement, forming joint companies, etc., or sometimes by just copying. A good motto is 'never re-invent unless you have to'.

Of course, a favourable balance of royalty payments is a legitimate goal for an advanced country spending a large part of its gross national product on research and development. But if attempted in the smaller and poorer countries, it could be a dangerous goal, and could lead to the impoverishment of the country.

My last point is a highly controversial one and relates to the severe limitation on the use of modern science and technology in a poor but developing country set by the shortage of investment capital, and so of the possibility of making or buying all the desirable advanced production goods. It is in the form of advanced production goods, such as machine tools and process plants, that such a country can make use of much advanced technology. But such production goods available to a less developed country are generally both very expensive in terms of local wealth

per head and moreover, employ few people. It follows that the greater the use by a less developed country of advanced science and technology, the greater may be the

unemployment. A direct clash now exists in many less developed countries between the goal of

attaining the greatest possible rate of rise of gross national product and that of

providing adequate employment. The great social danger resulting from heavy unemployment has led some economists to plead for an abandonment of the goal of maximizing the rate of growth of the gross national product and substituting the goal of maximizing the rate of growth of employment: this means a deliberate use of less capital intensive production goods, embodying generally less advanced science and technology, compared with the types of production goods in use in the

developed countries. Out of this dilemma arises the need for production methods which are at the same time labour intensive and efficient producers.

The reason I have brought these rather complex considerations, embracing science, technology, economics and politics, to your notice is that I believe that

any scientist who wishes to play a part in furthering the greater use of modern science and technology in the industries of the developing countries must think on these or similar lines. A major objective of the Costed book is to facilitate such

thinking.

Before I end this, my last, presidential address, I want to pay some tributes. The first is to ask you all to join with me in congratulating our Biological Secretary, Sir Bernard Katz, on the award of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. I am told that it is the first time that a Secretary of the Society has received this honour during his period of office.

Then I want to express my delight that, earlier this year, a knighthood was conferred on our Executive Secretary, David Martin. I believe that this recog- nition received widespread acclaim throughout the world of science in Britain.

13




I am deeply grateful to all my fellow Officers, Vice-Presidents, members of Council and indeed to all Fellows who have given their time and wisdom to the business of the Society.

Lastly I must pay tribute to all the permanent staff who, under the guidance of Sir David Martin and Dr Ronald Keay, have contributed so much to the running of the Society.



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