IDEAS

There was a fellow named Leo. he was a good man and a great physicist. One day he figured out how to cause a nuclear chain reaction. he published his work and patented his method. (His story is best told by his friend J Bronowski in "The Ascent of Man".)

Ideas have consequences.

The fellow who built the first nuclear pile (the realization of Leo's idea) was the Italian Enrico Fermi who just happened to have a Jewish wife. When Mussolini had to decide between his two great buddies Enrico and Adolf, he foolishly picked Adolf. Adolf drove 28 of 30 German Nobel Laureates out of Germany.

Werner Heisenberg (and this is my opinion) "screwed up" Hitler's atomic bomb program. As Heisenberg kept telling the SS; do not touch me or any of my people OR you'll never get a bomb. This part is well documented; Heisenberg had no use for anyone who did not understand his work. Now you think I am going to start talking about the evils of the atomic bomb.
WRONG! I am going to talk about the the ridiculous notion of master races. Hitler had the ATOMIC BOMB in his hands, and he drove away the persons that could have brought brutal victory.

Archie Bunker (yeah, I am that old) once reluctantly said that everyman is my teacher in that I may learn from him. I question, I inflame, I coddle to extract every bit of knowledge. I play the fool or the arrogant snob to get information. I remain A CATHOLIC because of the scholarship. I hardly ever attend mass. (Our priest knows less theology than I do. I pumped him as do most everybody). The Bendictine order taught me so many things (that although once I turned away once to compromise), I shall defend my dogma.

When I was 12 or 13, I read a quotation from Neil Armstrong:Lesser people think about people, the better thinkers concentrate on objects. The best people concern themselves with ideas. I am a physician; these ideas have helped more than few people. I have learned a lesson from Leo: stay away from nuclear physics. As Jacob Marley put it to Scrooge: "Mankind is my business".