Abstract
Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat was one of the most distinguished scientists and peace campaigners of the post second world war period. He made significant contributions to nuclear physics and worked on the development of the atomic bomb. He then became one of the world’s leading researchers into the biological effects of radiation. His life from the early 1950s until his death in August 2005 was devoted to the abolition of nuclear weapons and peace. For this he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, together with Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (that he helped found) in 1995. His work in this area ranked with that of Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell and this article is an attempt to summarise his life, achievements, but in particular outline his views on the moral responsibilities of the scientist. He is a towering intellectual figure and his contributions to mankind should be better known and more widely understood.
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Notes
I have also made extensive use of The British Library Sound Archive (call number F7208). This is some 20 hours of a series of interviews given to Katherine Thompson in his own home from May 1999 to 2002. An invaluable resource, that to my knowledge has been little used in the literature on Rotblat. Transcripts, to my knowledge, are not available.
National Security Archive-Cold War Interviews (November 15,1998), Episode 8, SPUTNIK). This is a non-governmental, non-profit organization of scientists and journalists providing a ‘home’ for former secret U.S. Government information obtained under The Freedom of Information Act. Full transcripts are available on the internet.
This is discussed in [BL], see footnote 1 and [1, pp. 50–55].
This is discussed [BL], [NA] see in footnotes 1, 2, and [2, pp. 281–288].
References
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Underwood, M.C. Joseph Rotblat and the Moral Responsibilities of the Scientist. Sci Eng Ethics 15, 129–134 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-009-9117-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-009-9117-6