Abstract
THE so-called magnetic mine and the device recently used by Germany for laying mines at sea by means of aircraft are reminders—if such reminders are necessary—of the increasing use which is being made in warfare of recent research and invention. This must not be placed either to the credit or debit side of the balance sheet of science. Very few indeed of the scientific developments now being widely used in the present war are the outcome of research directed towards their present purposes; rather they are adaptations of results obtained by men of science in their inquiries into natural phenomena, and many of them have a history of much useful service to mankind before their powers for destruction were utilized. Scientific curiosity, the urge to know how and why things work, must never be stifled; and in time of war, this is especially true. It is all the more regrettable, therefore, that the powers that be neglect to release information which would satisfy the curiosity of scientific workers. Speculative articles in the lay press carry little conviction; it should not be unduly difficult to keep men of science informed of the general principles of so-called new weapons without giving information to the enemy; this would do much towards allaying the doubts aroused by official silence. As was pointed out in the leading article in NATURE of October 14: “In the fighting services themselves the methods of defence and offence are largely scientific. Some of these methods are highly secret; others are well known to the enemy. There could be no conceivable harm, and there might be great good, in informing the public freely of the latter. . . . The present danger is that everything scientific may be censored, even laws of Nature.” Publication of scientific facts already well known to the enemy—for example, the structure of various of his own instruments captured in action or otherwise recovered—would prove not merely of interest to men of science but also probably of the utmost value in forming the topic of scientific discussion.
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Science and Censorship. Nature 144, 971 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144971a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144971a0
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