The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, January 30, 1946. SCIENCE—SAVIOUR OR MENACE?

Grey River Argus, 30 January 1946, Page 4

The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, January 30, 1946. SCIENCE—SAVIOUR OR MENACE?

Worship of human potentiality, so rampant last century, was inspired in a large degree by the marvellous progress of physical science. Its propagandists, often distinct from the actual investigators, predicted perfectibility in the. mundane sphere when man had advanced further towards conquest of nature. Since then, some of the wisest scientists have warned of an order in nature which is above not only physical, but mathematical interpretation, an order that, denotes alike the intelligence and the will of a designer. Meantime, the application of science, insofar as it. is subject to the human will, has not been such as to verify those altruistic forecasts of exponents of pure humanism. If the atomic bomb, for instance, be a triumph of the scientific spirit, it looks like proving more of a menace than a blessing. Revelations of radioactive substances have been truly wonderful, and a bid ■ for yet greater wonders may partly be the motive of those who now announce having made contact, not alone, with the moon, but oven with the sun. Still more marvellous things are being predicted of cosmic rays, and there might even be a revival of former expectations of beneficieuce did it not occur to many responsible people that the atomic bomb ought to be outlawed before it gets the chance of proving its full capacity to destroy men and all the works of men. Americans predict that in a few’ months’ time their bombs will generate in the nearby Pacific a, temperature of a hundred million degrees Fahrenheit, and wind of a. velocity of from five hundred to one thousand miles an hour The islanders are to be evacuated for the sake of their safely. An American Senator proposes that instead of U.X.O .<>-uaranines of preserving peace, the first requisite is an independent, world conference for the abolition of atomic warfare His own country, he contends, should retain its

atomic secrets until there, is general agreement not to use those secrets destructively. Yet it was precisely for a destructive purpose that the bomb secrets were pursued, whilst the perfecting of the particular art of atomic warfare is the object of the further experiments for which the Americans are preparing in one of the atolls which they have taken from the Japanese. Precept and practice. therefore, scarcely appear to square, except it be assumed that the much more destructive bomb now reported will in the Gilbert Islands demonstrate that science, instead of being a servant, can be one of the very greatest menaces to humanity. Looked at in this light, it does seem that those who like the Senator mentioned, reckon a moral influence greater than a physical influence, arc right in their approach to this new problem of atomic energy. If natural forces are to take precedence of moral ones, then every new discovery in the material order is as liable' to he used destructively as it is to he used constructively. It at least is significant that in the case of atomic energy the immediate use should have been, and should still be. in the direction of destruction. No doubt Americans have characteristically been prone to apply invention in a practical fashion, and the war has doubtless influenced them in their application of the atomic technique in the meantime. Many people will certainly think that the more fearsome they do prove the atomic bomb to be, the more likely are they to hasten the day when all warfare will itself be outlawed. It will be time to judge of that when the full secret is out.