EDITORIAL
A principle of uncertainty The scientist cannot be certain his successful efforts will improve the human situation
n the evening of March 6 in Washington, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey addressed the banquet for the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. He spoke in praise and encouragement of 40 of the best high school science students in the U.S.: cream skimmed from a national body probably unequaled elsewhere in the world for its combination of size and quality. The Vice President spoke of the need for abilities in these bright people in improving a world in which we are threatening to choke, starve, and annihilate the populace. That same evening, it appears, the active Mr. Humphrey had attended a meeting addressed by Barbara Ward, literate British economist and convincing advocate of the view that unless we achieve greater international cooperation, a rapidly developing technology is likely to lead us to destruction. Elsewhere in the world that day, President De Gaulle of France, nationalistic opponent of the North Atlantic Alliance and determined abstainer from the nuclear test ban treaty, retained his power through the results of a national election. In India, proliferating population and lowlevel food production make the prospects for mass starvation the greatest ever. In the United States, members of a farmers' organization are marketing pregnant breeding animals for slaughter, as a technique for reducing oversupply—a result of technology—and thus improving prices; also in this country, the technology of birth control is so developed that, if applied effectively, it could bring any given population under control in a generation. On the other side of the world from us a thorny controversy boils over a tiny place called Aldabra Atoll. There, Great Britain is contemplating construction of an air base. The Royal Society and
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other scientific organizations are vigorously opposing the plan. For Aldabra, it seems, is the last existing home of a species of giant tortoises, as well as a major breeding site for several species of birds, particularly the frigate bird. Dr. George Evelyn Hutchinson, professor of zoology at Yale, has been quoted to the effect that the wholesale disturbance of Aldabra would be one of the worst examples in history of destruction of places where the mysteries of evolution can be unraveled. It would, he said, lead to a permanent gap in our understanding of the living world. Yet, so important, even unique, a source of scientific information may have to be sacrificed to militaryoriented technology that exists because scientific information was made available. The world is not running on a logical base along the track of a single rationale. The new knowledge developed through scientific research makes possible remarkable technology which man can ignore or use either to save his race or to turn against it. The potential of scientific research and of its application through technology offers great hope for making a better world. But rational use of technology in the interest of the race of man is not guaranteed. After all, there is not even agreement on what is best in the interest of the race of man. The scientist cannot feel any greater confidence that his contribution of new knowledge will be used optimally, or even positively, as a contribution to humanity than can any other who makes a serious effort.
MARCH 13, 1967 C&EN 5
