“In a country rich in gold, observant wayfarers may find nuggets on their path; but only systematic mining can provide the currency of nations. In the search for natural knowledge, the experimentalists are the miners.” There is a peculiar appropriateness in these words of Gowland Hopkins of Cambridge University at a time when men’s minds are diverted by the great emergencies of war and are upset by the distorted values of every-day life. Nowadays it would require a foolhardy person to maintain that “there is nothing new under the sun,” or to prophesy what cannot be done. The progressive evolution of science is expressed in the arts exemplified daily before us. We marvel at the newest phase of the conquest of the upper air or the ocean depths, at the irresistible force of the newest explosive or the perfection of the latest motor, all too often oblivious of the great strides that experimentation in medicine has brought about.

“在一个盛产黄金的国家，细心的行人可能会在他们的行进途中发现金块。但是只有系统的采矿才能提供国家的货币。在寻找自然知识时，实验者就是矿工。” 剑桥大学的戈兰·霍普金斯（Gowland Hopkins）的这些话有一种特殊的恰当性，当时人们的思想因战争的紧急情况而分心，而日常生活的价值观却被扭曲。如今，这需要一个f强的人来坚持“在阳光下没有什么新东西”，或者说出无法完成的预言。科学的进步是在我们面前每天例举的艺术中表达出来的。我们惊叹于征服高空或海洋深处的最新阶段，最新炸药的不可抗拒力或最新马达的完美表现，