Unlimited Use of a Limited Resource: Popular appreciation of the value of intellectual resources is bringing heavy demands

I n a thoughtful address before the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, analyzed the relations between society and science (C&EN, Jan. 8, page 45). In speaking of international political problems involving science and technology, he said that while he could find no basis for arrant optimism, neither did he find reason to stop trying. "In the absence of any foreseeable breakthrough in diplomacy," he said, "it would appear that the best condition of the world we can hope for is a continuing crisis. In the competition of ideas which will accompany the crisis, the victory may be won by the successful evolution, here, of a society combining science and freedom." During the past few years we have been hearing increasingly of scientific brains as a national resource. There has been an awakening on the ...