L. V. Berkner

University research and government support

We have been considering the broad questions of the need for research and its effective utilization in terms of industry, the universities, and the Federal Government. Now we come to the all‐important question of who is to foot the bill and why.

President's page: Research planning in physics of the atmosphere

The march of geophysics in these post-IGY days is so rapid and significant that important news comes from every side. In the last issue, the review of the Helsinki General Assembly summarized scientific progress in geophysical science, emphasizing our enlarged vistas of solar and terrestrial relations and of the solid Earth. The present issue turns to progress and plans to make possible new opportunity for geophysical research in meteorology. The establishment of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, after three years of planning, represents a dramatic step forward to meet vital needs for the progress of meteorology as a global science. The new laboratory will rise on Table Mountain at Boulder, Colorado, in close proximity to the National Bureau of Standards and the University of Colorado. It is sponsored by the 14 universities that grant graduate degrees in meteorology in order to supplement their individual facilities for advanced and World-wide meteorological research. The AGU congratulates the leaders of these universities and their Corporation, the University Corporation on Atmospheric Research, the National Science Foundation, the High Altitude Observatory, the State of Colorado, and especially Dr. Walter Orr Roberts, who will direct this new meteorological center, for their solutions of difficult organizational problems, that have laid the foundations for this vital enterprise. The United States will now have access to facilities that are comparable to the scale of the problems of global meteorology, built in close juxtaposition to our related university facilities.

The role of the national laboratory in American scientific progress

The national laboratory as an adjunct to research activity is emerging during our lifetimes as an essential element of scientific progress. Consequently, it seems worthwhile to examine the roles and the special characteristics of the national laboratory that differentiate it from the traditional laboratories of the universities and other establishments conducting undirected and fundamental scientific research. I shall not, however, refer to the outstanding engineering, applied, and generally directed research activities that are often conducted by these national laboratories, since these activities have much in common with the general industrial research carried on throughout the whole fabric of American scientific life.

Is Secrecy Effective

We print below the final portions of an address titled “Social Adjustment to the Technological Revolution,” which was delivered on the occasion of the Great Issues Course, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 22, 1954. Dr. Berkner is president of the Associated Universities, Inc., a group of twelve universities administering Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Science and national strength

This evening I would direct our attention for a few moments toward a fundamental problem that is the mutual concern of both science and politics. It is the problem that arises from the growing power of the atom as an offensive weapon, and the lack of comparable progress in defensive measures. The continual improvement of nuclear weapons, the increasing potentialities of biological and chemical warfare, have strengthened the potentialities of the offense to such an extent that if it remains unchecked it may soon be capable of destroying our present civilization. To put it bluntly, the United States has acquired a terrific punch with which to meet an all‐out war; but it has at the same time acquired a “glass jaw,” because of its own vulnerability to atomic attack. The problem I would have you consider is this: How can the ideas emerging from science be employed to restore balance between the offensive and defensive capabilities that influence nations in their acts and policies, so that our choices of action...

Science and Military Power

The article below is adapted from a speech delivered in a recent debate before the National Conference of Editorial Writers on the problems of national defense and science. Dr. Berkner is president of Associated Universities, Inc., a group of twelve universities administering Brookhaven National Laboratory. The other participants in this debate were Thomas K. Finletter and Mervin J. Kelly.