From Hiroshima to the Moon
Author: Daniel Lang
Release: January 1, 1959
Tagline: Chronicles of life in the atomic age.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Genre: History, Technology, Atomic Energy, Politics
ISBN-10: 1125865113
ISBN-13: 978-1125865118
Declassified by Agent Palmer: From Hiroshima to the Moon is an incredible atomic time capsule
Quotes and Lines
Now and then, as the reader will note, I have had to inform myself on some technical situation or other, but it is the human comedy of our scientific age that engrosses me, and I am emboldened to explore it by the thought that I stand as good (or poor) a chance as the next fellow of guessing individual’s motives and objectives.
“Remember,” Strout, the Monitor man, told them, “the average politician is a baby kisser, a cracker-barrel fellow. You men may know who to play with oscilloscope tubes, but he’s better at small talk. We have a system in this country whereby the most intelligent people don’t necessarily come to Congress, and even if some of them do, they don’t inevitably become chairmen of committees.Russia and the cost of living are big enough problems. Now you fellows come along with the biggest, most complicated problem of all. I’m not so sure Congress–or, for that matter, man–is civilized enough to solve it. So be patient, will you?”
“Just where does it lead?” I asked.
“Probably to more fundamental research,” he answered. “For a man of science, it’s enough to say, ‘We’re learning more.’ Once in a while, we get our emotions worked up and decide we’re fond of a theory and analyze our data to prove it, but if we can’t, we just go back to learning more about something or other. It’s hard to explain.”
Out West, in the beautiful state of New Mexico, the great weapons of the last war, the Nazis’ V-2 rocket and the American atomic bomb, were arranging their peace more successfully than nations were. Indeed, at opposite ends of the state, the details of their forthcoming nuptials were diligently rehearsed. When finally, the match was made, a new reality came into being–a missile that could go places, and do things when it got there.
Major Boggs sighed. “Time was when people used to make a wish if they saw a shooting star. Now they telephone the Air Force.”
To many laymen who have come to expect scientists to be starkly objective in their approach to technical problems and whose schooling pretty much encouraged the belief that there is always only one right answer to any question concerning science, the current disagreement among the authorities is both exasperating and baffling, if not actually frightening. Part of the trouble is, of course, that in this instance the question is not purely scientific but is also a matter of ethics, statesmanship, and clairvoyance–three notoriously treacherous quagmires for theorists.
The only concerted opposition to Project Vanguard has come from people who don’t like it for religious reasons. While the fanatics among them berate scientists as the architects of a diabolical plan to appropriate God’s firmament, more temperate misgivings have been voiced by those who see the satellite as an undeniable harbinger of space travel, and wonder if we–mankind as a whole–know what we are getting into and can be sure we aren’t finally pushing our cleverness too far. Quite a number of people lare uneasy at the thought that the discoveries of a space age may ultimately challenge their beliefs.
One important officer, Lieutenant Colonel George R Steinkamp, of the Space Medicine Division at the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine, in San Antonio, Texas, said recently, “It’s just plain not American. We put women on a pedestal, and they belong there.” The pedestal apparently should be anchored firmly to the ground.