Developments in Atomic Energy on the Sciences

The author of the following article is professor of mathematical physics at Princeton University. He has contributed greatly to the development of uranium reactors, being directly involved in the design of the reactors at Hanford. Dr. Wigner recently received the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute for his work in atomic physics. 

The importance of the imhindered and vigorous development of science for technical progress has often been discussed. I wish to deal, on this occasion, with the reverse side of the picture, with the stimulating influence which so many branches of science received from technological accomplishments in the field of atomic energy. 

Based on an address given at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at Cleveland, Ohio, on December 28. 

I will attempt to review some of the influence of the developments in nuclear energy on the sciences under four headings provision of research tools, progress of nuclear physics itself, stimulation of interest in new problems in other fields, and, last, but not least, the effect on the thinking of so many of us on certain fundamental questions of science. 

The most important research tools with which large-scale nuclear energy 

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In his early survey of computer experiments in materials science , Beeler (1970), in the book chapter already cited, divides such experiments into four categories. One is the Monte Carlo approach. The second is the dynamic approach (today usually named molecular dynamics), in which a finite system of N particles (usually atoms) is treated by setting up 3A equations of motion which are coupled through an assumed two-body potential, and the set of 3A differential equations is then solved numerically on a computer to give the space trajectories and velocities of all particles as function of successive time steps. The third is what Beeler called the variational approach, used to establish equilibrium configurations of atoms in (for instance) a crystal dislocation and also to establish what happens to the atoms when the defect moves each atom is moved in turn, one at a time, in a self-consistent iterative process, until the total energy of the system is minimised. The fourth category of computer experiment is what Beeler called a pattern development... 

Current experimental work in this area is still by and large in the analytical chemistry phase of development. Pertinent biological studies have not yet made significant headway because they are dependent on a firm chemistry base. Principal sponsors of current research, in addition to the Department of Interior, include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), National Science Foundation (NSF), and utility companies (12). 

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