Edwin Lyman, contributor
NOBEL
laureate and eminent scientist Joseph Rotblat was a man of
inexhaustible energy, optimism and dedication. In this new biography,
author and radiation oncologist Andrew Brown faithfully captures his
character. Keeper of the Nuclear Conscience chronicles
Rotblat's journey from his beginnings in a prosperous Jewish family in
Warsaw, Poland, before the first world war, to his rapid rise from
electrician to internationally prominent nuclear physicist, and
ultimately his committed opposition to nuclear weapons.
A protégé of neutron discoverer James Chadwick, Rotblat had been one of the scientists on the Manhattan Project.
Yet he left in 1944, and after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan
in 1945, his concern about the misuse of nuclear science drove him to
become a vocal opponent of nuclear weapons. He went on to pursue a
career in medical physics, and with the like-minded Bertrand Russell,
organised the first Pugwash conference in 1957 in Canada.
Even as
cold war mistrust reached fever pitch, this path-breaking and audacious
event brought together Soviet and western scientists to discuss risks
from weapons of mass destruction. Its success led to a series of
conferences, continuing to this day, that helped lay the groundwork for
a number of arms control agreements, including the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty. Rotblat and the Pugwash conferences were jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1995.
Brown's great respect for his subject is apparent, but this is no
hagiography. He hints at a personality that could be prickly and
arrogant, and also takes a closer look at Rotblat's famous resignation
from the Manhattan Project. By Rotblat's own account, he lost interest
when Allied intelligence was convinced the Nazis had abandoned their own
atomic bomb project. Although his moral qualms clearly were a major
motivating factor, Brown presents a more complex story.
Whatever
his motivations, Rotblat's departure from the Manhattan Project sealed
his fate as an outsider: he learned about its "success" from a news
report. Still, he was determined to play a major role in establishing
policies to control the bomb that he had helped to develop.
His
stature as a nuclear physicist enabled him to provide high-level expert
advice and his public warnings about the dangers of fallout from
hydrogen bomb tests soon rankled with the US and UK nuclear weapons
establishments.
At times, Keeper of the Nuclear Conscience
seems as much a history of the Pugwash conferences as a biography of
Rotblat. Yet Brown makes a convincing case that the two were so closely
intertwined that Rotblat deserves some credit for all its
accomplishments.
Beyond its successes, the book also
details Pugwash's many internecine conflicts - such as whether the
organisation should pursue Rotblat's vision of an internationally
verified nuclear weapon-free world or a more pragmatic, incremental
approach to arms control. Rotblat, who periodically flirted with the
idea of world government, was long concerned that the concept of
national sovereignty enshrined in the UN charter hindered the
international inspection and enforcement necessary to abolish nuclear
weapons, and ultimately war itself. Today, when many nations routinely
invoke "national sovereignty" to block international initiatives to slow
the proliferation of sensitive nuclear facilities, increase the
security of nuclear materials and strengthen the safety of nuclear power
plants, it is hard to deny that Rotblat had a point.
Though
he could do without so much speculation about the feelings of various
players, Brown's use of numerous interviews, including one with Rotblat
himself, make for compelling reading. Overall, Keeper of the Nuclear Conscience
is a fine work that lucidly depicts the challenges faced by Rotblat and
his Pugwash colleagues as they relentlessly pursued a more peaceful
world.
http://www.newscientist.com/
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