Until 1945 There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever. What man's mind can create, man's character can control. Thomas A. Edison Newspaper interview, August 22, 1921. In some crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.
Science has nothing to be ashamed of, even in the ruins of Nagasaki.
Jacob Bronowski 1945 to the Present Warfare as practiced by man has no parallel in nature. Within the more highly developed animal populations of this earth, there is not now nor has there ever been similar destruction within a species itself. The discovery of nuclear chain reactions need not bring about the destruction of mankind any more than did the discovery of matches. We only must do everything in our power to safeguard against its abuse. Only a supranational organization, equipped with a sufficiently strong executive power, can protect us.