Knowledge Increases; Wisdom …

DEEPER AND DEEPER—The day of the all-around naturalist is over.… Even within a specific discipline, such as genetics, no one person can be conversant with all of the literature in that field. This is an indication of rapid acceleration.… There have been many spectacular breakthroughs.… There has been no such rapid growth of knowledge in any previous period of history.—Dr. IRVING W. KNOBLOCH, “Biology,” Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, March, 1962, p. 25.

FASTER AND FASTER—A supersonic transport plane that will climb beyond 70,000 feet and cruise at a fantastic 2,000 m.p.h. is being planned by North American Aviation.—Advertisement, The Wall Street Journal, of a joint government-industry project whose development costs are put at $500 million to $1 billion.

DESCENDING INTO THE DEPTHS—A rugged and immobile kind of submarine, the Trieste, has already carried men 6.8 miles down to the bottom of the Pacific. But other men are trying to find ways for the free diver—the Scuba diver—to leave the confines of such machines to swim and work deep down.… Hannes Keller, a young Swiss scientist … has developed a secret mixture of gases which, breathed by the divers, enables them to descend to once-unheard-of depths.—“Death in the Depths, the Price for New Knowledge,” Life, Dec. 21, 1962.

PROBING THE MULTIVERSE—Mariner II has accomplished its mission in a way that constitutes a truly great moment in the history of man’s never-ending quest for more and more knowledge about his own solar system and the multiverse beyond it. In the words of Sir Bernard Lovell, Britain’s renowned astrophysicist, the event certainly deserves to be hailed as “by far the most splendid scientific achievement” recorded to date in the exploration of the boundless reaches of space.… Mariner’s report … will not be thoroughly evaluated for some weeks to come, but there seems to be little doubt at the jubilant National Aeronautics and Space Administration that results will amply justify the fact that this spatial project has involved 2,360 man-years of effort and an estimated outlay of $47 million.—The Sunday Star (Washington, D. C.), Dec. 16, 1962.

INTERNATIONAL EAVESDROPPER—A super-secret American satellite, so sensitive it can eavesdrop on Russian telephone messages, is now orbiting the earth, Newsweek magazine reported.… Newsweek said the satellite, which was developed by Lockheed Aircraft and RCA, can tap Soviet microwave telephone links and pinpoint missile launch sites by their radio guidance signals.—UPI report.

LIFE ON VENUS—Mariner II found no evidence that Venus has a magnetic field. This finding … keeps alive … a theory that Venus is cool enough to support some form of life.… Paul J. Coleman of the University of California … was quick to point out that this did not mean that Venus totally lacks a magnetic field.… There is always the chance that Mariner merely missed detecting a magnetic field.—HOWARD SIMONS, in The Washington Post.

SOUNDING THE ALARM—Education authorities say that cheating in schools is reaching “alarming” proportions. At one New York City high school, estimates were that half of the students cheated in examinations.… Street crime in many cities has reached a stage described as “alarming”.… Juvenile delinquency continues to rise.… Bank embezzlements, too, are at an all-time high.… In Washington, D. C., a recent inquiry into 92 welfare cases showed that more than 50 per cent of the families were wrongfully getting aid for dependent children. An official investigation last year found that at least 14 basketball players at 10 colleges took bribes or failed to report bribe offers to “fix” athletic contests.… Doubts, as seldom before in the nation’s past, are being raised about America’s moral standards.—“Is There a Decline in U. S. Morals?,” U.S. News & World Report, May 21, 1962, pp. 60 f.

FRINGE OR FABRIC?—“We are told that only the ‘fringes’ of our industries engage in dishonest practices,” said [Evan Wright, president of the Association of Food and Drug Officials of the United States].… “If this be so, the fringe is larger than the garment.… Today false advertising and misbranding are more prevalent than ever before. The difference is that the suckers are being born faster, and there are more rapid and sophisticated means of getting them than in Barnum’s time.”—The Washington Post, June 20, 1961, p. 3.

57 VARIETIES—Men’s magazines, specializing exclusively in out-of-focus pictures of nude women, sell at the rate of about $50,000 a year in the District according to conservative estimates.… One newsdealer has 57 varieties of the magazines in his downtown store.—WILLIAM DUKE, “Girlie Magazines Do a Thriving Business Here,” The Sunday Star, May 28, 1961.

‘THE GREAT POX’—Only five years after syphilis had apparently been conquered in the U.S. and was rapidly declining elsewhere, “the great pox” is making an unexpected comeback.… Of 106 nations reporting to the World Health Organization, no fewer than 76 have a rising incidence of syphilis.… A staggering 9,000,000 Americans are estimated to have syphilis, or to have had it.… Teen-agers, either ignorant or overconfident, account for much of syphilis’ increase.—Time, Sept. 21, 1962, p. 74.

CHANGING FASHIONS—It disturbs me much that many women in America let Paris determine what they shall wear. But it disturbs me more that many ministers in America let German theologians determine what they believe. They spend more time with Barth, Brunner and Bultmann than they do with the theologians of the Old Testament and New Testament, and so they end up in confusion and turmoil over what is essential to the biblical message.—Dr. R. B. CULBRETH, Pastor, Metropolitan Baptist Church, Washington, D. C.

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