OCR Text |
Show Gerard Judd Writes oi Wor And Eleseareh on Atomic Itotnh Dear Mr. Beckwith, Perhaps the following would be of interest to you as a news item in the Chronicle: Immediately after graduation from Uie University of Utah with a B. A. degree in the school of chemistry, March, 1944, I left Salt Lake City and came to Buffalo at the request and expense of Linde Air Products Co., a unit of the U-nion U-nion Carbide and Carbon Chemicals corporation. There I was given several alternatives al-ternatives to work as a research chemist and, although I didn't realize re-alize the fact then, the alternative I chose was in connection with the "budding" atomic power problem. Research was well under way by that time, but practically, the new weapon was still untenable so far as 1 know. During the past year and a quarter quar-ter until my vacation which I spent in Utah three weeks ago, I spent doing chemical research on special phases of the problem, gaining not a complete, but a fairly clear picture pic-ture of the problem as a whole. This new development of scientists scien-tists is one which was brought forth only by concentrated effort and research of the most technical nature. Many fields of chemistry and physics were opened and investigated in-vestigated thoroughly that had previously pre-viously hardly been touched. Pro fessors and doctors from numerous renowned colleges and universities devoted all their time to the development de-velopment of this ultimate source of energy as did innumerable other workers with a lesser degree of education. ed-ucation. Several of my L. D. S. associates as-sociates from the University of U-tah U-tah as well as other western colleges coll-eges worked on related parts of the project located at various sites throughout the United Stales. British Brit-ish and American reports of progress pro-gress in code were circulated a-mong a-mong authorized members of the group with the greatest secrecy, which is still maintained. This is one achievement of scientific men which was made by careful, me-; thodical procedure, almost void of J chance or accidental discovery. But now that the concentrated element Uranium 239, is in the hands of our scientists and military leaders, what is its significance to :our destiny? Here in this weapon is the means of destroying the life of all known living things upon the earth. Not only is it dangerous because of its tremendous explosive power caused caus-ed by the heat from its degeneration, degenera-tion, but if but a few of the atoms (much less than a millionth of a gram) were to enter the body of a hum.-m. he would die in a short period of time because of the ra-( ra-( Continued on page S) Atomic ISotnb (Continued from page 1) dio-active emanation and disintegration. disinte-gration. Now, this is just the mildest mild-est of the details, for the element has the ability to make every other oth-er known element radioactive in contact with it. The food we eat, the air we breath, the water we drink could all be made equally deathly by the use of this element in sufficient quantities. The whole earth could be destroyed or melted by a chain or continuous action which this tremendous energy can begin when it is not properly controlled. con-trolled. Perhaps you will say "nonsense" "non-sense" to these horrid speculations; nevertheless, the men who developed devel-oped and experimented with this U 239 know that these things are true, as they knew from the beginning begin-ning what they were trying to harness. Although this source of destruction destruc-tion is in the hands of good or good-hearted men, it is a cold-fact cold-fact to pay attention to that it is not in righteous hands; might never nev-er made right the only righteousness righteous-ness there is, is in serving the Lord in faith, and a good share of the I men responsible for this terrible weapon only take time to mention the Lord when they blaspheme his name upon their lips. These men have learned to search out the truths of the earth and control them to a certain extent, but the cobwebs of mysticism and tradi-iton tradi-iton handed down through the ages by the old mother church still veil them from a knowledge of the true anl living God which we should a-vail a-vail ourselves as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And so we should learn what is right and then teach others of our country what is right either through example, or as missionaries. mis-sionaries. Then, when we begin to feel the effects of our work inthis blessed land, and then only will we be able to control such tremendous power for the welfare and joy ol mankind. Sincerely yours, Gerard F. Judd. |