84 Research and National Purpose 



which no doubt they would already have put to use had they 

 judged it in their political interest to do so, and had they 

 had the resources, scientific and financial, which the enter- 

 prise would have demanded. 



What, then, did we gain by the imposition of secrecy? The 

 main prize was obviously time. And essentially this is probably 

 all that security ever gains in any scientific ;field. In the end, in 

 most cases sooner rather than later, we can expect other people, 

 our opponents or competitors, to discover what we know. The 

 purpose of security in the technical field is to prolong the 

 time it takes them to learn, and so to add to their costs. In the 

 case of the bomb the prize was at first priceless. It has been 

 argued by some that the additional military security which we 

 can attribute to the nuclear secrecy of more recent years has 

 been all but counterbalanced by certain political problems 

 which it has also generated. 



In the light of this story I turn back to my three questions: 

 How far should we keep the basic researches we do in Gov- 

 ernment laboratories secret; who should decide; and what 

 does the "need-to-know" principle mean in this area of science? 



The answer to all these questions is, to my mind, pointed 

 by the fact that the most potent knowledge which ever emerges 

 from the pursuit of basic science can never be recognized as 

 such, and consequently that it can never be guarded at its 

 birth. In spite of the fabulous influence it was to have on 

 military and political affairs, could anyone today conceive in 

 retrospect of any reason why news of Einstein's work should 

 have been suppressed when it first emerged? Why was the 

 enormous importance of D.D.T., on the one hand, and anti- 

 biotic action on the other, not recognized at the start? If it had 

 been, would some pharmaceutical house have been justified in 

 suppressing the information? What conceivable good could 

 have resulted from any efforts to suppress the basic work which 

 lead up to radar — at a time when its practical significance 

 was, in fact, not recognised? 



Another consideration which affects my own answer to 



