The Open World of Science 



The Impact of Security on the Balance 



and Quality of Scientific Effort 



by 



Sir Solly Zuckerman 



United Kingdom Ministry of Defense 



Those, and I imagine there may be many, who are unfa- 

 miliar with the nature of the U.S. Office of Naval Research will 

 no doubt find it paradoxical that the organizers of these cele- 

 brations should have proposed for a convocation address the 

 theme of The Open World of Science. Some bewilderment 

 could well be excused. Far from an open world of science, a 

 closed environment regulated by the demands of military 

 security is what one would ordinarily equate with an organiza- 

 tion whose basic purpose is to underpin with the best technical 

 knowledge the most powerful navy in the world of today. 



Happily, the Office of Naval Research, whose twentieth an- 

 niversary we are here to celebrate, is in no conceivable sense 

 ordinary. The succession of brilliant men who have directed 

 its affairs have continuously exemplified the basic unity of the 

 open world of science and the kind of science from which the 

 technology of modern defense stems, and have been as much 

 concerned to encourage the growth of basic science as they 

 have to promote the technological pre-eminence of the navy 

 they served. They have also proved that neither goal could 

 have been achieved if the closest relations had not been en- 

 couraged between scientists within the American Government 



Copyright © Sir Solly Zuckerman 



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