The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 18, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 23, 1967 Page: 2 of 12
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World scientific conscience lost;
controversial atom physicist dies
Clocks have a way of ticking off the hours—one by one,
in sequence. Everywhere we look, we are reminded of the
passage of time, eroding away our lives, dashing our hopes
and aspirations.
Yet there has been a clock ticking for the past 20 years
that has been known to go backwards. No matter what our
; plans, we do not wish the hour to strike,
| for when it does, all plans are useless, and
i all hopes are dashed. The hot date we had
! for the next day need not be remembered,
for that day will not dawn.
Since June of 1947, the "Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists" has displayed a clock
face on its cover. Starting without explana-
tion ana without comment, the "conscience of the scientific
world" has constantly displayed the world's proximity to the
final disaster that the use of nuclear weapons would necessarily
bring about. The clock moved from eight minutes until mid-
night at its start to three minutes 'til in October of 1949, then
two minutes short as the arms race intensified in 1953, serving
as a grim indicator of the tensions that held the civilized
world in their grip throughout the fifties.
One of the chief voices of the scientific conscience that
brought the world at large to awareness of the brink to which
the Manhattan Project had brought it was stilled by death on
Saturday, and we are much diminished by its loss.
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer was not an easy man to under-
stand. A brilliant nuclear physicist and a scathing social critic,
an activist on the Old Left in the days when such activism
was perhaps more highly suspect than the doings of the SDS,
el al, will ever be, he was a linguist, a student of Eastern
philosophy, and an authority on baroque and classical music.
His engimatic politics saw him supporting military control
of atomic energy, then facing about later and supporting the
McMahon Bill, which created the civilian Atomic Energy Com-
mission.
Dr. Oppenheimer was, above all, painfully aware of the
destructive implications of the force he and his colleagues had
helped to unleash. In %his support of regulatory measures, of
testing bans and of multilateral controls, he was bound to
incur the disfavor of people in all echelons of public policy,
and, in 1954, he was refused renewal of his security clearance
and declared a security risk with "fundamental defects in his
character." The "father of the A-bomb" was relegated to a
life of purely theoretical work in a field in which his knowledge
of nuclear power might have helped increase the practical use
of a largely untapped source of energy in a world running
low on other types of fuel. ~ '
In the September, 1953, issue' of the "Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists," the hands of the ominous clock moved to
two minutes before midnight as the Russians exploded their
first thermonuclear device. At the same time, the security
proceedings against Dr. Oppenheimer began, spurred by the
displeasure of Edward Teller, whose development of the H-
bomb he had opposed while all such work was still on the
theoretical level.
At the beginning of 1960, the "Bulletin" announced the
"dawn of a new era" and moved the hands back five minutes.
Dr. Oppenheimer lived on in relative obscurity until President
Kennedy invited him to the White House banquet for Nobel
Prize winners. The October, 1963, issue saw the hands moved
back beyond the ten-minute mark, and on December 2 of the
same year, Dr. Oppenheimer received the $50,000 Fermi Award
of the Atomic Energy Commission.
For all of the contradictions of his character and of his
public utterances, Dr. Oppenheimer is perhaps one of the
most striking and poignant illustrations of courage of convic-
tions in the present time. He never denied his associations
with known Communists, nor would he retract his moral reser-
vations regarding the use of atomic weapons. He could not
see Hiroshima as the monstrous crime that many on the Left
have seen it, yet strove to the utmost to prevent a recurrence.
The "Bulletin's" clock may never again swing close to the
hour of doom, but we remember with some awe the life and
career of the man whose life was so closely paralleled by the
movement of the pedulum. —BARRY KAPLAN
Thresher
Sandy Coyner, Editor
Bob Easton, Business
Manager
Barry Kaplan, Executive
Editor
Phil Garon, Managing Editor
Rice students can, in a. simple way, take
small steps right here in Houston to help
the farm workers' strike in Rio Grande
City.
An important supporting activity for
the strike is the boycott of produce grown
at La Casita Farms, the largest in the
valley. Students can easily help this boy-
cott—even if they don't regularly buy
produce — simply by visiting grocery
stores and asking if the fresh vegetables,
primarily lettuce, are produced in the
valley. It is the consumers' right to know
what he is purchasing, and although the
produce manager may not know where
his wares come from, he will be disturbed
enough by the sincere questions to find
out from his buyer.
The boycott may eventually progress
to the picketing stage, and students
would be most welcome as picketers. In
the meantime, students who are willing
to work on mailings and similar publi-
cizing activities should volunteer them-
selves to the organizing group. For infor-
mation contact David Pace, History De-
partment, or Barry Kaplan, Thresher
office.
An Easter Caravan to Rio Grande City
will support a different aspect of the
strike: providing support and sustenance
for those striking workers in the Valley
who are suffering most. Student contri-
butions and participation—caravans are
fun—would provide direct support.
It takes little effort for Rice people
to support this fight for decency; and
the cause is respectable. We urge all stu-
dents to contribute something — be it
great or small—for the rewards of in-
volvement accrue to the giver as well as
to those who receive.
Threshing-it-out .
Lee Vardaman reduces Taurog's mountain to mole
To the Editor:
I'm sure that it will come as
a great surprise to Mr. Taurog
(Thresher, February 16) that
there are some of us (I am not
.the £>nly ..one) whp ",tak,e ad.-.,
vantage of their physical en-
dowments" that ai-e literate
enough to answer his biased
letter. However, I've quit
swinging through the trees
long enough to try.
I do not say that the fight
Jones coeds leap
to angry defense
To the Editor;
We have been told that Rice
University is dead and that the
college system is dying. We ad-
mit that not too much life rests
in concrete buildings or in the-
oretical systems. However, in
typical Rice pseudo-intellectual
tradition, the obvious human
element has been obscured.
Pessimism and apathy exist
only in print, superimposed up-
on the Rice student body. At
the individual level—the level
at which we live—with its per-
sonal contacts, we find that
Rice is more flexible than a set.
of continuations, and more chal-
lenging than a utopia.
Rice is people, and people are
alive, and an education is dis-
covering the obvious.
JANICE MOORE
Jones '70
BECKY ROSENBERG
Jones '68
Galambos noisy
To the Editor:
I would like to thank Mr.
Burgess for his kind remarks
about me, but I would like to
point out one serious error in
his letter. Mr. Burgess sug-
gested that I am quiet. I am
obviously not quiet. I am noisy.
My friends, enemies, all agree
that I am noisy.
LOUIS GALAMBOS
Department of History
which occurred at the end of
the Texas game was in order,
but I think that it should be
recognized for what it was and
forgotten. Namely, an unfor-
tunate incident caused by..high
emotions and feelings in the
midst of a heated contest that
many people thought was not
conducted as fairly as might
have been possible.
As far as the fight being a
"case of infantile values," I feel
that it is far more infantile to
steal opponents' equipment
such as occurred at this game
or to steal opponents' mascots
or costumes such as at the L.-
S.U. game this fall or the Duke
game this fall or the Duke
game last fall. Why did you
have no comment on these
events Mr. Taurog? Perhaps
because no athletes had part in
these infantile activities.
As for his suggestion that
the Athletic Department "af-
ford contesting players ade-
quate protection from the phys-
ical assaults of spectators,"
What would you do Mr. Tau-
rog? Perhaps enclose the entire
court in a strong wire cage?
.Ox ..station ...-twenty _ policemen
around the court with orders
to shoot at the first sign of
crowd discontent?
Ridiculous suggestions, of
course, but ones which I think
are in keeping with the whole
tone of Mr. Taurog's letter; i.e.
that he is making a mountain
out of a molehill.
LEE VARDAMAN
Will Rice '69
Oogluk's totem sales soar
Dere Rise Thracher Peepul—
Thenk u 4 runing thoz adds
4 mi totum poal stor. Mi biznis
haz dubbeld cins u toald evri
boddy abowt me—i now have 6
custumcfrs!!! pleez giv me an-
nuthur add.
OOGLUKT P K
Rice '16
ilfir
THE RICE THRESHER, FEBRUARY 2 3, 196 7—P AGE 2
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Coyner, Sandy. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 18, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 23, 1967, newspaper, February 23, 1967; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth244993/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.