172 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1946 
3. ATOMIC ENERGY AND OUR WAY OF LIFE 
Atomic energy is just one more step along the path of technological 
progress. It may, however, be the supreme gift of physical science 
to the modern age. Clearly its value will be determined by the use 
to which it is put. It is especially worthy of note that, along with other 
technical advances, the effect of atomic power is to force human so- 
ciety into new patterns. This need for human growth to meet the 
responsibility of atomic power is the basis of Norman Cousins’ strik- 
ing statement that “modern man is obsolete.” 
Let me note briefly three such effects of technology on society that 
can be clearly recognized. These are, first, toward greater coopera- 
tion, second, toward more training and education, and third, toward 
evaluating one’s life in terms of service rendered to the community. 
First, the society that is adapted for survival in the modern world 
is one in which an increasing degree of cooperation occurs between 
diverse groups spread over ever larger areas. As an example, con- 
sider the atomic bomb project, in which about a million people of all 
types and descriptions and spread throughout the Nation worked 
together to gain a needed result that could be achieved only by a great 
coordinated community. 
In no field is the growing importance of such cooperation more 
evident than in that of scientific research. Faraday, a century ago, 
was one of the first professional scientists. Working by himself, 
he covered the whole field of electricity and much more besides. 
Sixty years ago Thomas Edison organized what was perhaps the first 
research team to work with him at Menlo Park. Now our country 
has thousands of research laboratories. From 1900 to 1940 our uni- 
versities developed organized research groups for studying specific 
problems. Astronomers built specialized observatories. Research 
centers grew for studying diseases. ‘Teams of physicists built cyclo- 
trons and surveyed cosmic rays over the world. When the war came 
cooperative research became of greatly increased size and effectiveness. 
The development of the methods for producing plutonium is typical. 
At the peak there were engaged on this one problem roughly 5,000 
laboratory workers in more than 70 locations studying its different 
aspects. Not only theoretical physicists and nuclear chemists were 
needed. Equally vital were corrosion experts and metallurgists and 
haematologists and meteorologists, laboratory technicians, mechanics, 
and office workers of many kinds. No one person could be skilled 
in every field or understand even the meaning of the answers to the 
many problems. But somehow the group mind integrates such 
knowledge into the useful form that results in a process that success- 
fully produces plutonium. 
