John Desmond Bernal - The social function of science (1939)

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[The goal of efficiency was] a system in which all relevant information would be available to each research worker in an amplitude proportional to its degree of relevance.

John Desmond Bernal
The very bulk of scientific publications is itself delusive. It is of very unequal value; a large proportion of it, possibly as much as three-quarters, does not deserve to be published at all, and is only published for economic considerations which have nothing to do with the real interests of science.

John Desmond Bernal
In science men have learned consciously to subordinate themselves to a common purpose without losing the individuality of their achievements. Each one knows that his work depends on that of his predecessors and colleagues, and that it can only reach its fruition through the work of his successors. In science men collaborate not because they are forced to by superior authority or because they blindly follow some chosen leader, but because they realize that only in this willing collaboration can each man find his goal.

John Desmond Bernal
The problem of the re-organization of science will not be solved by administrative or financial changes. It will also be necessary to reorganise in a most comprehensive way the whole apparatus of scientific communication.

John Desmond Bernal
Hogben's Science for the Citizen would be an admirable text-book for such teaching.

John Desmond Bernal
In England, more than in any other country, science is felt rather than thought...A defect of the English is their almost complete lack of systematic thinking. Science to them consists of a number of successful raids into the unknown.

John Desmond Bernal
It is not possible in any published book to speak freely and precisely about the way science is run. The law of liable, reasons of State, and still more the unwritten code of the scientific fraternity itself forbid particular examples being held up alike for praise or blame.

John Desmond Bernal