Professor Smith was, at the time of the publication of this essay (in the Ohio State University's law journal), midway through a 20-year span as chairman of the

Professor Smith was, at the time of the publication of this essay (in the Ohio State University's law journal), midway through a 20-year span as chairman of the Ohio State physics department. He basically works his way through history to demonstrate the development of the modern experimental method and extrapolates that society would be best served by extending the scientific method to many more aspects of society (social and cultural issues, etc).