[ RadSafe ] Nuclear Physics Political Demise at Oregon State University

Sat Mar 26 03:27:36 CDT 2011

It is nice to hear from you, Franz.

Hitler, thankfully, made many serious blunders. If he had made fewer, I
agree that World War 2 would have included Britain's defeat. Because of the
distances involved and the large American economy, I doubt that he would
ever have occupied any part of North America, but he would have made the
world a scary place.

However, if he had developed nuclear weapons, the confrontations between the
United States and the Hitler Empire would have been much more serious than
the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union. I doubt that the "Hitler
Cold War" would have ended peaceably.

Conjectures on this topic can go on endlessly. The best I can say is the
world is a much better place without Hitler in it.

Returning to the main topic of this thread, I am appalled about what I am
hearing about the Nuclear Engineering Program at Oregon State University.
Kathy Higley and Jack Higginbotham are both friends of mine and I have never
had any reason to doubt the integrity of either. I hope the story is not
true. We are only hearing one side of it, so I am reserving my opinion for
the moment.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Franz Schönhofer
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 5:10 PM
To: 'The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList'
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Nuclear Physics Political Demise at Oregon
StateUniversity

Bob, 

I appreciate your thoughtful message. I have the impression that Howard Long
is a very nice person, maybe the ideal family doctor, but sorry to say he
seems to lack some knowledge in radiation protection and history.......

Let me start my answer with a standard statement of mine: If this Adolf
Hitler had not been so extremely silly to suppress Jews, to persecute them,
to force the more wealthy to emigrate and to kill the poor ones, he would in
my opinion have won the war. The "brain drain" was so unbelievable, that
whole university and research institutions were without their leaders and
even the second and third row. "German science" had to be thaught -
neglecting all the principles of modern physics. Scientists had to work on
the nuclear bomb (or at least a reactor), but were not allowed to use
Einsteins equation, because this was Jewish science. Just one of many
examples.

If you look at the people involved in the construction of nuclear bombs, you
will find almost only European emigrants, not only from Germany, most of
them being jews.  

I am very interested in the history of nuclear physics and especially
nuclear energy and bombs. I have a large collection of books on this topic,
partly bought during my many visits to the USA, especially at Los Alamos,
Santa Fe, and at the book store of the Atomic Museum in Albuquerque. I have
been twice in Hiroshima, once in Nagasaki, I succeeded a few years ago to
visit the Trinity Site, have been three weeks on Mururoa as the head of the
terrestrial working group of the IAEA, was heavily involved in the aftermath
of the Chernobyl accident both nationally and internationally etc. I try to
distill from all those vast amount of informations a picture of the whole
for myself and I sincerely believe that I am now able to judge nuclear
accidents, nuclear war etc. 

Immediately after WW II there was a race between the US and the Sovjetunion
to capture the most important German scientists. Just for an example: The
USA succeeded to capture Wernher von Braun. The Sovjets got a lot of nuclear
scientists, but information is very scarce on their contribution to the
Sovjet bombs (except Klaus Fuchs) and the rockets.

As for your question on chemistry and biology I do not have any detailed
information. There is no doubt that the same as for physicists occurred to
them. If they were jewish it did not matter what their profession was -
ancient history, egyptology, school teachers, mathematicians, etc. - they
lost their jobs, were expelled or killed. 

Sorry these are the terrible facts. Has the world learnt anything from it?

For more information, please contact me again. I am not almighty, so I
cannot tell you about the accurate content of books.

Best wishes,

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD

MinRat i.R.

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Wien/Vienna

AUSTRIA

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] Im Auftrag von
bobcherry at satx.rr.com
Gesendet: Freitag, 25. März 2011 21:17
An: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Betreff: Re: [ RadSafe ] Nuclear Physics Political Demise at Oregon
StateUniversity

"Germany also had political command of science in the past, with great harm
to 

science."

This is true to some extent for science in general. However, the greatest
harm, ironically and appropriately IMO, was to German science specifically.
Many, if not most, of the best German physicists, including Einstein, left
Germany for better (i.e., safer) conditions. This was of great benefit to
American science in particular. This "lost" generation of German physicists
made great lasting contributions in their new countries, both in their own
right and in their education and mentorship of subsequent generations of
physicists. German physics, once the greatest in the world, has not
recovered from this exodus.

I don't know about other basic sciences. Did something similar occur in
chemistry and biology?

Bob C

---- garyi at trinityphysics.com wrote: 

> Howard,

> 

> Thanks very much for sharing this.  Because it is a nuclear physics
program, the relevance is 

> obvious.  If it was a medical school, I would still be interested but 
> I
would expect the medical 

> professionals to take the lead in any intervention or investigation.

> 

> -Gary Isenhower

> 

> On 24 Mar 2011 at 19:09, Howard wrote:

> 

> Franz,

> Germany also had political command of science in the past, with great 
> harm
to science.

> I do not agree that policial bribery to determine scientific degree 
> (or
obstruction thereof) is 

> "geographically very confined" and should be ignored if not in one's 
> own
institution.

> Howard Long

> 

> On Mar 24, 2011, at 4:31 PM, Franz Schönhofer
<franz.schoenhofer at chello.at> wrote:

> 

> > Howard et al.,

> > 

> > Do you really think that this geographically very confined political
story

> > is appropriate for a so called "International Radiation Protection
(Health

> > Physics) Mailing List"? I do not think so. 

> > 

> > Franz

> > 

> > Franz Schoenhofer, PhD

> > MinRat i.R.

> > Habicherg. 31/7

> > A-1160 Wien/Vienna

> > AUSTRIA

> > 

> _______________________________________________

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