Some scientists were in despair. One was the British physicist Martin Ryle, who helped to develop radar during World War II and then became a founding father of radio astronomy. In 1983, he wrote an anguished letter to the Brazilian scientist Carlos Chagas. It came to light after Ryle's death in 1984. In it he declared:
"At the end of World War II I decided that never again would I use my scientific knowledge for military purposes; astronomy seemed about as far removed as possible. But in succeeding years we developed new techniques for making very powerful radio telescopes; these techniques have been perverted for improving radar and sonar systems. A sadly large proportion of the PhD students we have trained have taken the skills they have learnt in these and other areas into the field of defence. I am left at the end of my scientific life with the ...
