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Page  John G. Wright  The Scientists and Atomic Energy  (June
1946)  From Fourth International, Vol.7 No.6, June 1946,
pp.188-190.  In a recent public speech at St. Louis, Dr. Harold
C. Urey, Nobel Prize winner and one of the world’s outstanding
physicists, expressed the fear that he and all those associated
with him in nuclear research will be “cursed by generations to
come.” Dr. Urey’s somber prediction puts into words the mood of
pessimism verging on prostration which prevails among the
overwhelming majority of the men of science.  It might appear
that the explanation for this pessimism is to be found in the
very nature of their discovery. The scientists made atomic
energy initially available on a large scale in the form of an
explosive. But in and of itself there is nothing alarming in
such a development.  In the first place, it is much easier and
simpler to gain releases of energy at slow rates and in small
amounts than it is to obtain such va