tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post8836992416635288590..comments2024-03-28T17:13:01.117+10:00Comments on Condensed concepts: The peaceful atom is a bombRoss H. McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09950455939572097456noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post-84975726825776081782015-03-18T13:30:10.123+10:002015-03-18T13:30:10.123+10:00Vipin,
Thanks for the comment.
I think the compari...Vipin,<br />Thanks for the comment.<br />I think the comparison with Einstein is weak. He did not supervise building the US bomb. He also did not open up the IAS library to people working on it.<br />The mission of the IAEA and of ICTP was not to build a bomb. Hence, using their resources to do so is problematic. Did the board of directors of ICTP know what was going on? Did Salam inform them?<br />I don't doubt he was a great physicist and had genuine concerns for peace, particularly later in life.Ross H. McKenziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09950455939572097456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post-40904673821384603292015-03-16T19:13:05.940+10:002015-03-16T19:13:05.940+10:00I think whatever role Salam may or may not have pl...I think whatever role Salam may or may not have played in developing Pakistan's atomic bomb, it does not seem very different from that of Einstein's in his letter to Roosevelt recommending its creation; especially, given his long-standing pacifism and association with the IAEA, his position as Scientific Secretary for the Geneva conferences of '55 and '58 (at the ripe ages of 29 and 32!), his work with the Atoms for Peace Foundation, and so on, it seems to me that any involvement of his with a bomb-project is to be more rightly seen within this context (apart from the 1971 war etc.) i.e. as an unforeseeable outcome of the then ongoing science and technology transfer, which as we know he'd always strove not to make a prerogative of the developed nations. Salam is certainly on record stating that he would like all politicians to lobby for complete disarmament: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBLfxsKmiXE.<br /><br />Salam also touches on some related matters in his insightful collection of speeches and essays, Ideals and Realities.Vipinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17332111746990936509noreply@blogger.com