Deserving better science

A scientist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory stunned his audience a few months ago with an unexpected appeal for greater activism in protecting valuable scientific facilities. Julius Hastings, a physical chemist, was speaking at a memorial service for Richard Dodson, who had been chairman of Brookhaven's chemistry department from 1947 to 1968, and who died in autumn last year. Dodson had helped to guide Hastings into a career investigating the magnetic properties of materials at the lab's Graphite Research Reactor. Hastings went on to participate in the design of Brookhaven's High Flux Beam Reactor (HFBR) – one of the principal neutron sources in the world – and worked there for almost three decades.