204 SCIENTIST 



tion. Many of these contributions reveal the inexperience 

 of scientists in deaUng with questions of broad public 

 policy, but the overall result must certainly be that the 

 pubHc has a much clearer idea of what is at stake in an 

 all-out atomic war than it would have had if all our scien- 

 tists had resolved that they had no concern for the way 

 science is used. 



Much of the confusion of such discussions arises natu- 

 rally out of our real ignorance of some of the most impor- 

 tant effects of atomic bombs. Similar difficulties are likely 

 to arise whenever a relatively new bit of science is offered 

 in the world of practical affairs. Whenever a new technique 

 is introduced, somebody has to make the judgment that 

 its probable advantages outweigh its probable disadvan- 

 tages. But we can never get an entirely clear idea of the 

 advantages and disadvantages until after the technique has 

 been in use for some time. The difficulty of arriving at 

 completely satisfactory judgments in such matters is seen 

 very clearly in the introduction of new drugs and vaccines. 

 Efforts are always made to reduce the risk by carrying 

 out tests on animals, but finally there comes the time when 

 someone must decide to see what the new procedure does 

 to people. This kind of situation gives an opportunity for 

 two rather different sorts of discussion. The first and easiest 

 is a purely scientific debate as to what the risk probably 

 is. This is carried on in terms of the number of animals 

 used, the kinds of tests employed, and so on. There is more 

 room for disagreement here than the nonscientist might 

 imagine. A good example may be found in the introduction 

 of the Salk vaccine at a time when there was a sharp dis- 

 agreement about the probability that some batches might 

 contain live virus. The argument involved several technical 

 issues too complicated for discussion here. The point is 

 that there can be, and in fact usually are, serious differ- 



