Other Voices: Scientists make life better for all of us
By Paul Laufman
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12:01 a.m. PT Mar 26, 2008
I found myself drawn to respond to William Larsen's Other Voices column of March 13, "Who will we blame for destruction of Spaceship Earth?"
What captured my attention was not so much Mr. Larsen's articulate argument (with which I ardently disagree) that America is exploitive, wasteful and all-things-bad for the environment, has issues regarding war and is insensitive to poverty. I was more moved to respond to his implication that people of science are indifferent to side effects and will carry on with their alleged destructive agendas regardless of the impact on Earth.
The example Mr. Larsen employs as evidence of scientists' cavalier attitudes is especially unsuited to his argument. I spent a career in rocketry as a member of the science community that Mr. Larsen demeans and feel I owe it to that community to address his misconception.
His anecdote advances the claim by a then-recent mathematics graduate, Dick Hamming, employed as a minor computer assistant on the Manhattan Project (atomic bomb development) at Los Alamos. While employed only tangentially on the effort, Hamming heard rumors that the weapon had the potential to ignite the entire atmosphere, thereby reaping a firestorm of destruction throughout the world.
The account has Hamming, tear-driven and frantic, confronting a colleague (an "old scientist" and thereby, we're to believe, hardened sufficiently to rationalize away any responsibility in order to "protect his reputation") with "feverish" concern. The crusty old scientist is alleged to have dismissed the concern, apathetically implying that if that horror actually happened, no one would blame Hamming.
I took the time to explore the career of Dick Hamming. He did indeed become an esteemed member of the mathematical community and contributed to the development of certain computer theories. While impressive, Hamming could hardly be considered a scientist. He was maybe, at best, a theoretician on the edge of science but most assuredly not a scientist.
The scientists that Hamming and devotees such as Mr. Larsen decry are those who actually produce something useful, usually referred to as applied scientists (in order to distinguish from those who philosophically dabble in the world of theory). Don't misunderstand me, theoretical scientists are vital, but they are usually never the source of producing anything of practical utility to the world.
Einstein was one of the rare theoretical scientists who could bridge the divide and extrapolate his theory into practical use. He was the convincing authority who caused FDR to approve the development of the A-bomb and Truman to employ it. And it was Einstein who determined theoretically, and convinced his scientist associates and FDR, that there was no possibility of causing a cataclysmic ignition of the atmosphere - well before Hamming ever heard the gossip.
Hamming, it seems, was just an overzealous victim of a typical, ill-informed gossip mill. The problem is that Hamming has tried, over his subsequent career, to make the incident a denunciation of actual scientists' real motives. This causes me to consider him as less than authentic and, therefore, an unacceptable source for making Mr. Larsen's point
Applied scientists and their corporate employers are the source of the everyday conveniences we enjoy today. The typewriter or computer Mr. Larsen used to produce his column, the electricity in the office or home in which he wrote it, the automobile and fuel he may have used to deliver it to The Union, and, yes, even bombs and rockets, were all developed and produced by applied scientists and their "evil" corporate employers. Let us all be judicious in what we read and accept as credible.
Paul Laufman is the retired founder, CEO and chairman of United Paradyne Corporation, provider of presurrants, fuels and fueling services for all our nation's space missions. He lives in Grass Valley.
