Re: Music with a Nuclear Flavor`

[RADPROJECT@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-07-12 00:28:22 EDT, you write:

<< 
 They were not as witty as Tome Lehrer's songs, and the entertainment value
 was somewhat reduced by Art Roberts' vocal skills (he sang the selections
 on the cited record) but they were an interesting record of a special
 period. One was "Take Away Your Million Dollars" (a physicist refusing
 large sums of money for big accelerator constructiion, a wholly imaginary
 occurrence). >>

The comment about a physicist "refusing large sums of money for big
accelerator construction" being imaginary should be reconsidered vs. an
interesting bit of history about Stanford Linear Accelerator reviewed as I
recall in the book: "The Making of the Atomic Bomb". During the final
negotiations on funding by the individual who would become the initial SLAC
director [Wolfgang Panofsky?-I'm going by memory] there was a major dispute
about the old AEC wanting SLAC's research results to be subject to
restrictions on publication and with rights of review by the AEC before new
research result might be made public.

Panofsky refused to accept this restriction on open publication of all
research results and as the Richard Rhodes wrote in effect pushed several
hundered millions of dollars back across the table to the AEC.

I haven't dug out my copy of  "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" to check exact
details but believe the above to be a general summary of a physicist in the
person of Wolfgand Panofsky showing a great sense of academic and intellectual
freedom..


Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Consulting Scientist
Public Health Sciences
19 Stuart St.
Pawtucket, RI 02860

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