Where there鈥檚 physics there鈥檚 brass. This message comes over loud and
clear in a report commissioned by Britain鈥檚 Institute of Physics (see This
Week). The main purpose of commissioning the report was to demonstrate unequivocally
to politicians and other doubters that physics makes a huge contribution
to wealth creation in Britain, and is not simply an abstruse hobby pursued
at vast public expense by hair-brained boffins in ivory towers.
The report achieves this quite neatly and shows, for example, that sales
by companies reliant on physics rose from 拢40 billion in 1980 to
拢86 billion in 1989. Exports of these companies trebled to $78 billion
in 1990 from $26 billion in 1983.
But bad tidings take the sheen off the findings and should give politicians
and the scientific community something to think about. The worst news concerns
education. The number of British physics graduates dipped by 224 to 2286
between 1983 and 1991 and this, as the report correctly notes, 鈥榠s an obvious
cause for concern鈥�. Equally alarming, next year鈥檚 crop of undergraduates
opting to take physics represents just 1.78 per cent of all undergraduates,
as against 2.61 per cent in 1983.
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What makes the trend away from physics graver still is that in key competitor
nations, the pendulum is swinging the other way, at least if the numbers
of students entering science generally is anything to go by. Japan attracted
16 per cent more undergraduates into science between 1983 and 1989 and Germany
61 per cent more.
It is all very well banging the drum and saying 鈥榣ook how lucrative
physics is鈥�, and any repetition of the message is welcome. But if the trends
in education continue, there will be no one in coming years to keep the
industry buoyant.
The chemicals industry has been banging the drum for years to alert
people to the massive contribution it makes to Britain鈥檚 wealth, with an
annual turnover of some 拢30 billion. Yet the industry still attracts
a poor public image and has grave fears for the future because of the dwindling
numbers of chemistry graduates.
The IOP鈥檚 survey is welcome, and vindicates the institute鈥檚 claim that
physics is a key contributor to the economy. But the report also exposes
underlying weaknesses in the British educational infrastructure that will
ultimately destroy all industries based on science and engineering unless
the tide of adolescent antipathy to these subjects is stemmed now.
