Science and Public Policy: The Open World 87 



There are enough barriers already in the open world of 

 science leading to the separation of individual research workers 

 not to erect others which may not be necessary. All in all, and 

 on the basis of my own experience, I should, therefore, con- 

 clude that more is lost by throwing security cloaks over the 

 kind of basic science which is done in Government laboratories 

 than is ever to be gained. What is more, I do not believe that 

 anyone has sufficient knowledge and skill to take upon himself 

 the responsibility for imposing any "need to know" principles 

 in these areas of science. 



Secrecy prevents free critical discussion and, as I have said, 

 so conduces to a decline in quality. If basic science must be 

 pursued in Government laboratories, even in Government 

 laboratories which are also concerned with applied and devel- 

 opment work, leading, say, to weapon systems, I would, there- 

 fore, argue that wherever possible arrangements should be 

 made for it to become part of the open world of science. This 

 is the policy which we are trying to implement in the United 

 Kingdom, in the full recognition that occasionally there may 

 be difficulties in differentiating certain kinds of applied science 

 from what is basic. Were this policy to be effective, the men 

 concerned would not only be better able to judge the quality 

 and necessity of their own studies; they would also stand a 

 better chance of gaining prestige and stature in the world of 

 science as a whole, instead of living apart as isolated members. 

 It might be that exceptions should on occasion have to be 

 made to the conclusion I am putting forward; but I must 

 confess that possible ones relating to basic science which have 

 flitted through my mind do not encourage me to weaken my 

 proposition. The thought keeps returning that the same char- 

 acteristics of unpredictability and the same methods of inquiry 

 apply to basic research whether it is "pure" in the sense that it 

 does not relate as yet to some known field of exploitation, or if 

 it is being pursued in a field where the possibilities of practical 

 exploitation are already recognized. The danger that a piece of 

 work, if published, might give a clue to the applied interests 



