Men And Ideas - William L Laurence (1953?)

the L jeene future scope a television production of men and ideas a program of the lene whor watch company maker of L jeene the world's most honored watch and wnor distinguished companion to the world honored long jeene in the medium price field whenever a man gather ideas flow at home at the club or here over Cofe in the long jeene with no Trophy Room the men are Dr Carter Davidson president of Union College SKC New York and Mr William L Lawrence Peter Prize winner and noted science writer of the New York Times men and ideas ideas that govern the destiny of men let's listen Lawrence I've been reading your articles in the New York Times for the last 25 years with great admiration and with great interest in this field of science what would you say was the most exciting event that you have ever reported to the world through the newspaper Pap Dr Davidson is a TSA between two of them one night on the desert of the Mexico on July 16 1945 I was privileged to be among those who watched the test of the first atomic bomb and I saw for the first time a light such as no human eyes had ever seen on Earth before a light the equivalent of many suns concentrated in one and I knew then that the new atomic age had come I also knew that the greatest world war in history was about to end as soon as this was used and then 3 weeks later to I was in a plane that dropped the second and the last atomic bomb over Nagasaki and I watched the city of 200,000 human beings go up in atomic fire and so I don't know which one I would say was the more thrilling I would say that they certainly were thrilling moments would you say that you were more depressed by the thought of the destruction that this bomb might bring or by the benefit it might be to mankind here again you might say the feelings were mixed it is no pleasure to watch a city of thousands of human beings go up in atomic Vapor but you also knew at a time that that meant the end of the Great war in history and that it meant that eventually that in the end it will mean the saving of more lives than we being lost so you were happy that the war was definitely coming to an end but you were also very sad that it had to be done this way and that the greatest discovery of man you might say had to be used at the beginning for mass destruction you say the greatest discovery of man you can see then a good many positive benefits to man that could oh certainly president David because this is really a discovery that could change the face of the earth into a paradise that it has Untold advantages for the human race provided it is used for for constructive peaceful uses what are some of those uses that we could make it they stagger your imagination you might say as one of the scientists once told me before the bomb was dropped when I was behind the you might say the atomic curtain talking to the scientist and discussing the future of this they said this is the dream of the Ages come true because man and during the Middle Ages as you know had dreamed about a philosopher stone to turn base Metals into gold and others dreamed about an elixir of life to keep us Young Forever you might say or to at least postpone the coming of age well with this both of these dreams can be realized we can create wealth by actually literally we don't have to do it that way but we can let's say make gold out of mercury what we won't do it that way we can make other things infinitely more valuable than gold and furthermore with that we are learning some of the major secrets of life and with that we could prolong life indefinitely prolong the useful years and make life a much richer Adventure than it is today tell me one way in which medicine for instance might prolong life for the use it is already prolonging life Dr Davidson you know for instance there are hundreds probably thousands now human beings unfortunate victims of cancer of the thyroid gland here in the neck no they were doomed to die but now with atomic energy we can make a new type of iodine which is radioactive doesn't exist in nature and it can be given in a radioactive cocktail form as we call it in a glass of water tasteless colorless the patient drinks it but the radioactive iodine concentrates in the in the thyroid gland and the Rays kill the tumor like x-rays do and as a result of this radioactive iodine as I say several hundred and probably several thousand human beings who would be dead are already alive the same way with other diseases of the blood like uh a disease uh in which the blood is too thick there are too many red blood cells there was no cure for it and now they make a radioactive form of phosphorus and with that also swallowed in a glass of water the the the thickening of the blood is stopped and the blood is thinned out and that is the only way to keep these unfortunate victims of this disease alive so it is already saving lives by the hundreds and in the long run it will save them by the thousands there are a good many people who have gotten the idea as I had uh until you men mentioned this that perhaps the greatest advance in medicine was in the field of these antibiotics like penicillin and so forth you feel that atomic energy can do even more than penic well let us put it this way penicillin and streptomycin and the other Wonder drugs socalled are uh good for the infectious diseases they destroy bacteria germs so and these germs generally attack people in the early years of life in the first half of life up to the age let's say of 21 or 25 so that they have their Ro and they will save millions of human beings but we know very little about the diseases that come past middle life the chronic diseases like cancer and hardening of the arteries heart disease and things like that atomic energy will help us find cures for these diseases for which the antibiotics like penicillin are no good at all in other words if we can get past the first 25 years the chances are that right energy side products will help us get through the rest of it that's right how long do you think we may hope to live under this new kind of medicine I think as long as really as the biblical lifespan of 120 years I would say that that is the allotted span for man in other words man is the only animal that doesn't live as long as his a lotted span he is he's allowed to spend according to uh Theory he's 120 125 years well that would be a remarkable World wouldn't it if we all live to be 125 and if the people kept on coming as fast as they've been coming in recent years when the world get overpopulated that would be the average some would live 150 what do we do about all the people that come in can we take care of them all in this yes yes no question at all right now today we have Ways and Means to produce food that would feed four times the population of the Earth and with atomic energy we will learn how to make food out of air out of the carbon dioxide in the air and water by enough to feed all the world's population and and more than the present world's population in fact if the world's population were to be quadruple we could still make enough forood the problem is not the the the question of who the problem is the proper distribution well if we have all this time say we retire when we're 65 and live to be 125 what are we going to do with all these extra 60 years on our lives thees science have anything to suggest for that life will just begin at 70 probably at 75 because then men man's man's mind man's spirit will have developed enough wisdom to know really what to do with life and by that time he will have really I mean made himself secure physically in the sense that he will be free to devote his time and his energies and his to his Spiritual Development he will then write books create music philosophies he will really live a very much richer life than than he did in the first 65 years a lot of the young people are now talking as if they were going to be space traveling maybe when they grew a little bit older do you think that that might be one way in which we'd spend our time well I hope not spend our time we have to we if we travel we have to have a place to get to you know if we want to get to the moon we will have Rockets to the moon in the next 25 years I think we will possibly be able to uh have space stations so-called like artificial satellites that will travel around the earth like the moon you know but it will all be done for a purpose for a purpose to learn more about the universe we live in and by such wisdom and knowledge to enrich our lives and to make ourselves really worthy of being human beings I saw a movie The Other Day called uh breaking through the sound barrier and it indicated that we are already getting up to to twice the speed of sound in our rockets and in our airplanes you feel then that that is a thing in the very near future there is no question about it Dr Davidson as we will be able already these Rockets can travel 4,000 M an hour there is no limit to the speed with which they could travel that could probably we could make rockets that will go 15 20,000 M an hour if we want to the question will merely be will the human system be able to spend it to stand those accelerations but uh recently we sent up mice in one of these V2 rockets and they lived so I think we will do you feel then as a final question that science is going to leave a world that our young people can actually work in and that there will be plenty of work for our young people to do something to live for in the future man has been on earth a million years Dr Davidson and life for him is just beginning he's just a youngster of a million the next million years are going to be much better and richer than they have done the first million there won't be any wars in the second million you think War can be eliminated sence I think so I think science is going to make it unnecessary science is going to stop it if you and I I think had a choice we should really make a wayte that we could be born again right now really because we will see wonders in the next 25 years that would stagger the human imagination Mr Lawrence that's been a thrilling experience for me and I think many of our listeners too will feel that this has revealed to them something tremendously exciting about the world of science Thank you very much for being with us on this program men and ideas the men Dr Carter Davidson president of Union College in SKC New York and Mr William L Lawrence Pitzer priz winner and noted science writer of the New York Times men and ideas made La jeene the world's most honored watch men with the courage to attempt to make the finest watch in all the world men with ideas and engineering and the watchmaking skill necessary to accomplish their purpose the progress of lene up the ladder toward Perfection can be read in the role of honors which long jeene watches have won over the years for instance at World's fairs and international expositions 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