The objects of the International Geophysical Year have been fully described in the Journal. The idea itself was first conceived in 1950 at a social gathering in the home of Professor J. A. van Allen, in Maryland, U.S.A. The small group included Professor Sydney Chapman of Great Britain and Dr. Lloyd Berkner of U.S.A., now respectively the President and Vice-President of the special committee for the International Geophysical Year. They considered that recent advances in geophysical science were such that an interval of fifty years, such as lay between the First and Second Polar years, would be too long. Moreover an interval of twenty-five years from the Second Polar Year would coincide with a period of maximum sunspot activity. Later in the same year the International Council of Scientific Unions adopted the idea and in the following year set up the special committee; at the same time the nations adhering to I.C.S.U. were invited to form national committees, of which there are now more than sixty. Their programmes make up the vast international world-wide effort. A duration of eighteen months, July 1957 to December 1958, for the Year was agreed.