For his contributions to the development of nuclear energy, he has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the Enrico Fermi Award, the Harvey Prize, and the Atoms for Peace Award. From 1958 to 1961, he served the United States government as a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee, and in 1974 he was White House director of energy research and development. Weinberg, now 78, is the author of seven books. The most recent, a collection of his writings titled Nuclear Reactions: Science and Trans-Science, published late last year by AIP Press in New York, covers a wide range of subjects pertinent to the inner workings of the science community and its complex relationship to the world at large.
The following excerpt draws upon two essays from that book, one written in 1970, the other in 1984. Weinberg urges the reader of this excerpt to consider--in addition to his ...
