PRO SCIENTIA

The proposed new physical laboratory to be erected adjoining the present quarters of the Department of Physics will provide much needed facilities in an important field of the University's activity. Without such relief the significant research projects of the department can not go forward unhampered by crowded quarters and inadequate equipment. Nor can the general undergraduate instruction program meet the increasing needs of the day with material equipment several decades behind the times.

Through the generosity of the Rockefeller Foundation and financial aid from friends of the University it would appear that the present unfortunate state of affairs is to be brought to an end. While one is glad to note that efforts to raise the necessary funds for the new laboratory are progressing favorably, there is also an element of wonder that plans which are not new should be made public only at this time.

As the laboratory equipment for the study of science keeps pace with the needs of the University, it is to be hoped that those in charge of the apparatus will enable the student body to obtain the maximum benefit from the improvements. Great as is the need for up to date laboratories, it would seem also important that they should be available for use in the evening by men whose afternoons must otherwise be dedicated to laboratory work. The example of Dartmouth goes to show that evening laboratory study is entirely practical and not beyond the range of possibility. Where apparently no insurmountable difficulty stands in the path of progress, it seems but reasonable to expect that minor details can and should be arranged to provide for the interests of no small number of students. A move to bring longer laboratory hours to Harvard will but increase the value of the material additions being made for the study of science.