ACCOIl:lrZS‘ OF CHEXICAL RESEARCH” Registered in U S . Patent and Trademark Office;Copyright 1985 by the American Chemical Society
VOLUME 18
NUMBER 6
J U N E , 1985
EDITOR JOSEPH F. BUNNETT ASSOCIATE EDITORS Joel E. Keizer John E. McMurry EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Robert Abeles Richard Bernstein R. Stephen Berry Michel Boudart Maurice M. Bursey Charles R. Cantor Marshall Fixman Jenny P. Glusker Kendall N. Houk Keith U. Ingold Maurice M. Kreevoy Theodore Kuwana Josef Michl George W. Parshall Kenneth N. Raymond Jacob F. Schaefer Richard C. Schoonmaker Anthony M. Trozzolo BOOKS AND JOURNALS DIVISION D. H. Michael Bowen, Director
Journals Department: Charles R. Bertsch, Head; Marianne C. Brogan, Associate Head; Mary E. Scanlan, Assistant Manager; Anne C. O’Melia, Assistant Editor Production Department: Elmer M. Pusey, Jr., Head Research and Development Department: Lorrin R. Garson, Head
The American Chemical Society and its editors assume no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors. Views expressed in the editorials are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the official position of the American Chemical Society. Registered names and trademarks, etc., used in this publication, even without specific indication thereof, are not to be considered unprotected by law.
The Nuclear Warfare Chain Letter In recent months I have received several letters from distinguished chemists expressing concern about the dreadful menace of current nuclear weaponry. Each correspondent has expressed his concern in his own words. The essential message was stated by one: “[We] hope that a strong mandate from the scientific community for serious negotiations towards nuclear disarmament and a no-first-use-of-nuclear-weapons agreement would carry weight with those who are responsible for getting us out of this frightful impasse.” The existence of this chain letter movement has been noted in the scientific news press.’ Apart from the importance of the message, what impresses me about these letters is that they come from scientists who are leading figures, very productive in research, conservative in image, and by no means political activists in the usual sense. Chemists as serious as these seldom divert their time and effort from research. That they have done so in regard to this issue shows how desperately important they consider it to be. When the crucial question about nuclear warfare becomes “Will anyone survive?”, even the launchers of a pre-emptive strike, these major scientists clearly believe that unless the human race and our civilization continue, their research efforts will be for naught. The letters state that the chain letter movement was started by Yosiaki Ito, Professor of Entomology at Nagoya University. Each recipient is urged to send a similar letter, in his/her own words, to 10 selected colleagues, and to forward with each letter the lists of 10 selected by previous “links” in the chain. The participants have positions in academia and in industry, and in many nations of which Argentina, the Federal Republic of Germany, South Africa, U.S.S.R., United Kingdom, France, Finland, Japan, and U.S.A. are representative. Inasmuch as I have chosen to write my “letter” as this editorial, space limitations preclude my sending along the lists from preceding correspondents in my chains, or the list of persons to whom this missive is addressed. I would be pleased to have readers of this editorial become nuclei for new chains within the worldwide scientific community, but I suggest that it would be more important to communicate the concerns of scientists about the awful danger of nuclear warfare to the general public. We must also convince persons in the political structure that getting the nuclear powers to meet and agree on a cautious program to forswear the first employment of nuclear weapons and to dismantle existing stockpiles should be the top priority of our day. I urge each reader personally to write at least one letter to a local newspaper and four to major political figures concerning this issue. Joseph F. Bunnett (1) Norman, C. Science (Washington, D.C.)1985,228, 309.
