Evening star., 1946-01-20

average hotel cocktail room most of
these fellows would be indistinguishable
from the rest of the younger SET"
They dance the newest dances, hum the
newest swing tunes
Came From Varied Background.
BY far the majority of them are men
of good will. They incline toward lib
eral political and religious philosophy.
This is natural enough. Very few of
them have any vested financial inter-
ests. They are mostly sons-or daugh-
ters-of poor parents. Perhaps the ma
jority of them are second generation
Americans, although many are them
selves emigrants from Europe. They
have waited on tables, collected laundry,
driven milk wagons to earn their way
through college. They have rubbed
shoulders with all elements of society.
I know one who had a brief career in
the prize ring.
Few of them have made any money
during their professional careers. They
have not considered it worth their seri-
GUS attention. This is not to say that
they are unworldly Few of them pass up
any loose checks. They are bad gang
with whom to play poker. But to most
Of them the gods of the market place are
idols made of old rags compared to the
gods of shining light with whom they
have communed in the far places of Gre
alton. Often one discerns among them
a thinly veiled contempt for the busi-
nessman and the politician. They have
looked down on creation from great
heights.
For the most part they are well-read
men, They keep in touch with the news
OF the day. They read the scientific jour-
nails. They have more than superficial
knowledge of biology. Psychology, phi
losophy. There is long g-standing myth
that scientists are impractical-tha they
live in clouds, make poor executives, are
incompetent in business affairs. A few,
OF course, might be so described.
As a rule they try to avoid admins
trative jobs, as not worth their time
and effort. But when placed in such posi-
tions they usually are extremely efficient
executives-as evidenced by the general
greater efficiency of Government SCI
entific bureaus headed by scientists to
most other branches of the Government.
The nuclear physicists are by nc
means snooty set. They are, on the
whole, less inclined toward conceit and
exclusiveness than any other learned
group one is likely to encounter. In
the past the perfect democrat usually
has been the astronomer. The nuclear
physicist is even more at home with
the crowd. One cannot explore the
worlds where he has travelled in his
research and retain conceit
Atomic bombs such as were used
in the closing weeks of the war prob
ably could be duplicated by mechanics
physicists and chemists who could fol-
low minute directions. But they could
not go one step further without the
nuclear physicist, and these bombs were
only hits of what lies beyond the
threshold of the new day. If every
nuclear physicist in the United States
today should drop dead this country,
"ASAA o3A AVG foot 4CcOulC CCo, COQlu llOL
go one step forward. The smallest ma
tion with one competent nuclear physi-
cist would be in far better position.
And it is very doubtful if commit
tee formed of all the presidents of
universities and all the heads of uni
versity physics departments in the
United States at this moment, given
all the money and manpower they
asked for, could make an atomic bomb
by their own efforts alone-if there
were none of these young nuclear
physicists on whom they could call.
1t will be far different tomorrow.
The younger generation of physicists
coming out of the universities everv-
where have been started in this new
way of thinking. Whereas there are
only about thousand men alive today
who are competent in this field there
may be 10000 in the next generation,
They have learned to think in hyper
dimmensional terms.