A Distant Light: Scientists and Public Policy

ISBN-13: 9780387988337 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 318 str.

Henry Way Kendall

Opis

A collection of essays by a Nobel Prize Laureate on a wide range of critical issues facing the world, and the role of scientists in solving these problems. Kendall has been closely involved with the Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that began as an informal assocation at MIT in 1969 to protest US involvement in Vietnam and is today an organization with an annual budget exceeding $6 million, with 100,000 supporters worldwide. UCD is today a voice of authority in US government science policy, particularly with regard to environment issues, most recently the worldwide initiatives on global warming. Together, these essays represent both the sucessses and failures of science to impact public policy, the challenges facing scientists, and offers practical guidelines for involvement in science policy. The essays are roughly chronological, organized by subject with introductions, beginning with the controversies on nuclear power safety and Three Mile Island, then followed by sections on national security issues, global environmental and resource problems, and radioactive cleanup and other current issues. Kendall's Nobel Prize lecture as well as a more popular version thereof is also included (and is the only really technical material in the book). The photos in the book are Kendall's, from an 1992 exhibition of his work. Henry Kendall was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics (jointly with J.I.Friedman and R.E. Taylor) in 1990 for his research in the structure of the proton and netron. In 1969, he was one of a group of physicist who founded the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and is currently Chairman of its Board of Director

Spis treści

Beyond March 4.- One Nuclear Power.- Press Release: Nuclear Power.- Nuclear Reactor Safety: An Evaluation of New Evidence.- Cooling Water.- Nuclear Safety.- The Failure of Nuclear Power.- Two Science.- Structure of the Proton and the Neutron.- Deep Inelastic Scattering: Experiments on the Proton and the Observation of Scaling.- Three National Security and Nuclear Weapons.- News Release: Announcing Declaration on the Nuclear Arms Race.- Declaration on the Nuclear Arms Race.- Spaced-Based Ballistic Missile Defense.- The Fallacy of Star Wars.- Accidental Nuclear War.- Dismantle Armageddon.- Four Global Environmental and Resource Issues.- Appeal by American Scientists to Prevent Global Warming.- Speech to the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee.- Press Release: Announcing World Scientists' Warning to Humanity.- World Scientists' Warning to Humanity.- Constraints on the Expansion of the Global Food Supply.- Meeting Population, Environment and Resource Challenges: The Costs of Inaction.- Bioengineering of Crops.- Five Cleanup of Radioactive Contamination.- Alternative Futures for the Department of Energy National Laboratories.- Six Current Issues.- Quenching the Wild Wells of Kuwait.- Post-Conflict Mine Clearing.- 10.1007/978-1-4419-8507-1_26.- 305.