Unfashionable pursuits

I am delighted to be talking today as a representative of the Institute for Advanced Study to an audience of Humboldt Foundation alumni, since the Institute and the Foundation are both trying to support science on an international scale and are facing similar dilemmas and difficulties. We are both trying to carry on the tradition established by Alexander von Humboldt 150 years ago. Wanting to learn a little about von Humboldt, I went to the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, printed in 1910, and found a splendid article written by the historian of science Agnes Clerke. If you go to later editions, you find Clerke's account only in shreds and tatters. In her article she describes the work of von Humboldt in setting up the first international network of meteorological and magnetic observation stations and concludes with this resounding sentence: "Thus that scientific conspiracy of nations which is one of the noblest fruits of modern civilization was by his exertions first successfully organized." So that is what we are trying to do, the Institute and the Foundation, following the good example of von Humboldt. We are trying to strengthen and extend in our own era the scientific conspiracy of nations. finally I shall say a few words suggesting how we may try to deal more wisely with the problem in the future. It has always been true, and it is true now more than ever, that the path of wisdom for a young scientist of mediocre talent is to follow the prevailing fashion. Any young scientist who is not exceptionally gifted or exceptionally lucky is concerned first of all with finding and keeping a job. To find and keep a job you have to do competent work in an area of science which the mandarins who control the job market find interesting. The scientific problems which the mandarins find interesting are, almost by definition, the fashionable problems. Nowadays the award of jobs is usually controlled not by a single mandarin but by a committee of mandarins. A committee is even less likely than an individual to break loose from the fashionable trends of the day. It is no wonder that young scientists who care for their own survival tend to keep dose to the beaten paths. The leading inst i tut ions of higher learning offer security and advancement to those who