82 Research and National Purpose 



results. In the pursuit and exploitation of new concepts we 

 almost always seem to find several laboratories moving along 

 in parallel. We can recall only too well how much parallel de- 

 velopment of the same projects occurred in Engand and 

 America, on the one hand, and Germany on the other, during 

 the course of the Second World War. 



Secrecy, of course, plays a powerful role in the commercial 

 world. It is indeed difficult to conceive of an industrial under- 

 taking which diverts its own resources to research, revealing 

 to its competitors knowledge which it may have gained at 

 great expense. But the question is to what extent should 

 commercial scientific secrecy be taken? I would not go so far 

 as some who declare that it would pay to publish everything, 

 in the hopes that doing so would be more likely to confuse 

 than benefit a rival firm, which would otherwise be focussing 

 its intelligence efforts on trying to find out what really mat- 

 tered. But I have a feeling that a contrary policy of publishing 

 little or nothing probably goes too far. In any event, there 

 are considerations more important than secrecy which affect 

 the assessment of the commercial value of the results of indus- 

 trial research and development — but this is an issue which is 

 of only peripheral interest to the theme I have been set, and 

 I cannot pursue it here. 



The point which remains central to my topic is the extent 

 to which it is wise to carry secrecy in the basic researches 

 which we pursue in our Government laboratories, whether 

 their motivation is "pure" or "mission-orientated". A further 

 question which arises is who should decide — the scientists or 

 an independent body of security officials? What, to put a third 

 question, does "need to know" mean in the field of basic 

 science — I am, of course, excluding from consideration the 

 need for security when we talk of development for clearly 

 defined weapons systems. Here there can be no question — 

 security is an essential rule. 



To try and illustrate the problem, let us turn to one of 

 the best technical secrets of all time, the work which led during 



