Roush+Week+11+assignment

The Franck report represents an interesting point in the relationship between science and politics where scientists are suddenly needed for policy making. Up until the making of the atomic bomb, the more complex consequences of quantum theory didn’t really matter to the “real” world. After the atomic bomb, it became the scientists who really had the most legitimate and undiluted knowledge of the most pressing political issue. The Franck report begins by saying, “ The scientists on this Project do not presume to speak authoritatively on problems of national and international policy. ” After this concession of modesty, the report continues, “  However, we found ourselves, by the force of events, the last five years in the position of a small group of citizens cognizant of a grave danger for the safety of this country as well as for the future of all the other nations, of which the rest of mankind is unaware.” This statement sets the tone of the rest of the report, which could be considered a scientist’s perspective on how to avoid doomsday. The report summarizes a set of guidelines as to how the American government should handle its newfound power which lay in the nuclear bomb. Most of the advice comes from a perspective of sheer dread of the military use of the bomb. This is clearly evident in the fact that all measures proposed are purely preventative. What this implies is that, in the perspective of the scientists who wrote the Franck report, any use of nuclear weapons could easily lead to the whole world falling down a slippery slope at the bottom of which was an explosion which would see to the end of humanity. Despite the fact that the scientists, who worked on the bomb and who are the only people on the planet who really understand the consequences and abilities of nuclear weapons at the time, say that the first atomic bomb should never be used in war, the government decided to ignore this suggestion when the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. This pressing of the issue of nuclear power meant an antagonism which went exactly against the recommendations of the Franck report. The Franck report and its subsequent being ignored by the politicians is an example of how scientists, even when they are in the best position to make decisions, will always be second to the will of the politicians.