Scientists and public issues.

The article discusses the dilemma faced by scientists if they devote themselves intensively to public affairs, with special focus on how young U.S. scientists reacted in the months following Hiroshima's bombardment. Led by scientists Leo Szilard and Harold Urey, Manhattan Project scientists opposed a War Department bill that placed domestic atomic energy programs in the hands of a part-time commission which could include military representatives. By January 1946 the coalition of Manhattan Project site groups expanded into the Federation of American Scientists, an organization that brings its members' knowledge and experience to bear on national critical decisions.