Must we always be gadgeteers?

As far as this writer can discover, the typical response of the physicist who wished to contribute to this latest international crisis has been to go to Los Alamos, or some other government laboratory for weapon development, for a summer or a year. No doubt this has been a valuable contribution to solving the present crisis and no doubt it has made the contributor feel he is “doing his bit”. But is this all the physicist can contribute, the development of more and fancier weapons? Is the only contribution of physics, to the year‐by‐year needs of this country, to be more and fancier gadgets?

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