Educator, scientist, and author, President Conant has set out to introduce the realm of science to the layman in his book, "On Understanding Science," to be published Tuesday by the Yale University Press.

"On Understanding Science" was written, according to the publishers, to help combat "the peril to democracy of a situation in which the ideas and forces that are moving mountains have become increasingly inaccessible to those outside the laboratories."

Uses Historical Approach

The latest book to from from Conant's pen, "On Understanding Science" approaches its subject historically. The lives and work of leading scientists from the time of Aristotle to the atomic age are explored, to bring the reader a better appreciation of what research is and how he can understand it. Conant believes that no man is equipped to play a part in the world today without a knowledge of the basic principles and achievements of science.

Referring again to the lives of great scientists for his factual material, Conant analyses and explains the so called "scientific method" in lay terms. Though he has written many books relating to this subject in general and Chemistry in particular, this is the first designed for a popular audience.