Physics in Switzerland

As one of the few European countries which has been spared a direct and active participation in World War II, Switzerland has enjoyed a comparatively undisturbed decade of research in physics. Even during the war years, basic research progressed although difficulties in procurement of materials and the effects of the mobilization of the citizens' army hampered the work to a certain extent. Since the Swiss Physical Society has its own scientific journal, the Helvetica Physica Acta, where papers are published in any one of the three major national languages, the communications of Swiss physicists have often not come to the attention of as broad a readership as might be desirable, particularly in the Anglo‐Saxon countries.