ABSTRACT
This age of ours has had its great revolutionary movements, but it also staged some strange wild-goose chases. About ten years ago there suddenly arose in Britain a movement for the planning of science. The books which spread this new doctrine became best-sellers and they attracted a great number of followers. Their forces foregathered in a new division of the British Association founded in 1938. The movement penetrated widely into the masses of scientifically trained people through the Association of Scientific Workers which expanded under this impetus to a membership of over 15,000. In January 1943 the Association held a crowded conference in London which was presided over by Sir Robert Watson Watt, and filled the Caxton Hall to overflowing. Sponsors and speakers included some of the most eminent scientists in Britain. It was taken for granted from the start that all scientific work must be integrated under the guidance of planning boards on the model of those established in wartime. Speaker after speaker condemned in angry and sweeping terms the traditional modes of conducting scientific activities, and a detailed description of Russian planning went uncriticized. Professor Bernal declared that in the wartime organization of science “we had learned for the first time how to carry on scientific work rapidly and effectively”.
