Physical Thinking

Abstract

The standard pattern of science education in Britain in the 1970s is that school pupils up to the age of 15 or 16 have a selection from (or all of) physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology thrown at them whether or not they are interested. Likewise those who are fortunate enough to know their own minds at that age, and would have opted for science, have an equally formidable array of subjects thrown at them (e.g. English literature and language, history, Latin, etc.). In 1968 the Duke of Edinburgh formed the Schools Science and Technology Committee (SSTC) with the aim of bringing school science teaching up to date in a modern technological society. As I myself had expressed anxiety over this in public I was both honoured and delighted to join the Committee, which met once a month for several years, often under the personal chairmanship of His Royal Highness.