Abstract

Popularizing Science

These are the days of popular lectures and familiar treatises on scientific subjects. The popular lecturer on science is exposed to a third temptation: speaking usually on subjects with which his audiences have but very slight acquaintance, he is checked by no fear of competent criticism of his method, or of any immediate reply to loose or incorrect statements. In speaking of the dangers which attend the process of making science familiar, people have no desire to gainsay the necessity of diffusing scientific information as widely as possible. But in pursuing this desirable end, it is of primary importance that nothing but real science should be diffused, and that the methods of teaching employed should be, before everything, characterized by simplicity, fairness, and humility.