Physicists in the present emergency

Physicists are presently much concerned as to the part they can and should take in the continuing emergency facing our country. There are few of us to whom World War II did not bring considerable dislocation of career. The younger among us had our training interrupted and large numbers of the older ones were employed in the existing defense laboratories and in additional establishments which were set up to help develop weapons. Some of these establishments achieved such spectacular success that our military men now tend to lean far more heavily on the work of scientists than they have previously. Extrapolating from the experience of World War II, we can but wonder what lies ahead of us.