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we have become convinced that the need for extending knowledge in this field is so pressing that UNESCO is justified in undertaking the project, though its limits may seem hazy and the methods to be adopted may be as yet far from obvious. Chapter VI: Natural Sciences It was in the Natural Science Section that UNESCO made most progress during 1947, partly because the Section had a very able and vigorous head, and partly because the natural sciences are already partially organized at the international level. The amount of work done within a few months was most heartening. Three Field Service Co-operation Offices have already been established, one in the Far East (Nanking), one in the Middle East (Cairo), and one in Latin America (temporarily at Rio de Janeiro). The function of these offices is to maintain contact between the scientists and technologists in the scientifically " dark " areas of the world with their colleagues working in the main centres of learning and research. Already a steady flow of requests for information is reaching the headquarter's Secretariat from these liaison offices, and is duly directed to appropriate persons and institutions in various parts of the world. After the signing of a formal agreement with the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), an ICSU Office was established in UNESCO House. With assistance from UNESCO, new unions were formed during the year for Crystallography, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and History and Philosophy of Science. UNESCO made grants totalling $231,319 through ICSU, as a result of which no fewer than 143 separate projects were undertaken during 1947. Some five hundred scientists were helped, directly or indirectly, to travel on international work from nearly every country in the world; sixty-one important scientific meetings were made possible ; seventynine publications were assisted; international scientific laboratories were helped to recover their footing; and international stockrooms and collections were established. The most ambitious single science project is in the Amazon Basin. There are many scientific problems involved in living in this area, problems that are common to all regions falling within the tropical forest belt. Although their solution might open up great areas of the earth's surface for settlement and for the supply of food and natural products, no large-scale and comprehensive plan of research has ever been undertaken in the Amazon Basin, largely because of the multitude of national interests involved. There are nine countries