30 



reasonable way, and I do believe they will support SSC at the end, 

 not necessarily financially but in the exploitation. 



Mr. FuQUA. I appreciate your saying that we don't need a science 

 policy management agency. It would probably be the worst thing 

 that we could ever do, and I want the record to be clear that I am 

 not advocating that. I was only propounding as the devil's advo- 

 cate. 



Dr. Weisskopf. May I say to this that in my experience over the 

 last 50 years, I believe that scientists in this field have shown a 

 great sense of collaboration, so that I am very optimistic that we 

 will reach a reasonable solution among us, among the scientists. 

 Whether we get the financial support from the Government, that is 

 another question. 



Mr. FuQUA. The scientists have been able to agree international- 

 ly much more conclusively than we politicians. [Laughter.] 

 Mr. Packard. 



Mr. Packard. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I am certainly grateful to have you here. Dr. Weisskopf Your ex- 

 perience and expertise in this field have certainly excelled, and you 

 bring a great deal of dignity to this hearing. 



You mentioned in your testimony — and I almost caught it as a 

 passing thought rather than a part of your printed testimony— that 

 you thought that to lose the young generation of physicists would 

 be a death to the field, and I think you were referring primarily to 

 the United States and its competitiveness in this field. 

 Dr. Weisskopf. Yes. 



Mr. Packard. Beyond the SSC, what should the United States be 

 doing to not only develop but to excite the young generation of 

 physicists in the United States? 

 Dr. Weisskopf. Do you mean apart from the SSC? 

 Mr. Packard. Above and beyond the SSC. I can see where that, 

 in and of itself, will excite young people, but what else can we be 

 doing? 



Dr. Weisskopf. Well, I think that is a very important problem. I 

 do believe, for example, that we should support the present labs, 

 like Fermilab, which has now enlarged its energy, and SLAC, 

 which has a new way of colliding. This should be supported more 

 generously than it is at present in order to have young people be 

 given an opportunity to do experiments there. 



The same is true about supporting universities in preparing, and 

 sometimes even doing, such experiments. I personally believe that 

 this field of physics is underfunded compared to the possibilities. I 

 mean, if we had fewer labs, it would be not underfunded. But the 

 trouble is that at present we just cannot do the experiments that, 

 in principle, technically we could do, and that, of course, discour- 

 ages the young people from getting into this field. They have to 

 wait too long until the experiment is approved. 



In other words, to answer your question, apart from supporting 

 the SSC— which, of course, gives a future so people will enter the 

 field, because they will think, "Aha, we will have opportunities; 

 here is the future" at the same time, I think also we have to create 

 more opportunities so that they can learn this field or work, be- 

 cause you can also make wonderful discoveries with the present 

 machines, and I hope we will. 



