Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, former chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, described Israel tonight as “a nuclear power” of the kind more nations should strive to emulate. Dr. Seaborg was one of seven Nobel Laureates and other distinguished scientists among the 1,000 guests attending the annual dinner for the Weizmann Institute of Science. Dr. Albert Sabin, president of the Weizmann Institute, announced the establishment of a new cancer research center at the Institute combining various scientific disciplines and also disclosed new research into the treatment of drug addiction and multiple sclerosis.
In remarks prepared for delivery at the dinner, Dr. Seaborg said, “During my tenure as Chairman of the AEC, I was asked on numerous occasions whether I thought Israel was a nuclear power–or less euphemistically, did she have the bomb? My usual reply was that she was among those nations that had the knowledge to build one if she wanted to, and I speculated no further. Now, in retrospect. I often wished I had said, ‘Yes, she is a nuclear power, the kind that knows of, and makes use of, the atom’s power for peace.”
Continuing. Dr. Seaborg stated: “She is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, her nuclear laboratories do advanced research in most nuclear fields–nuclear physics, solid state physics, reactor physics, radiation chemistry, inorganic chemistry, nuclear chemistry. She uses radioisotopes in medicine, in agriculture and food preservation, in industry and in other areas of research. Her professors in nuclear sciences and engineering are excellent and their students enthusiastic and enlightened. Of course, Israel is a nuclear power–the kind that more nations should strive to be. I recommend these or similar words now should such a question be asked.”
ISRAEL BUILT, SURVIVES ON KNOWLEDGE
Dr. Seaborg extoled the quality and application of knowledge in Israel. He said it was “a living example of a country built and surviving on knowledge—in a sense a ‘State of knowledge’ where learning, scientific and cultural, is held in the highest esteem–but more than that, where it is applied to the business of living and growing. Knowledge is Israel’s greatest capital, a major asset for its future development and an important item of export.”
Dr. Sabin said the new cancer research center “will be based on work already in progress in four of the Weizmann Institute’s departments, but scaled up and designed to determine its relevance for the early diagnosis and treatment of human cancer.” He said the work would be “closely coordinated with the larger Conquest of Cancer Program currently being developed in the USA.” Dr. Sabin disclosed that in addition to cancer research, the Weizmann Institute was currently studying the “growth of plants that yield substances needed for synthesizing drugs for the treatment of drug addiction; exploration of potential approaches to the treatment of multiple sclerosis; the physiology of reproduction as a basis for finding better family planning methods, the chemical basis for learning and behavior, the natural water cycle and new methods for desalination and control of pollution of rivers by industrial operations.”
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