A Glimpse of the Future

Against the somber background of international crisis, economic recession and strident politics, the world got a breathtaking glimpse of a bright and shining future. Reported a joint announcement by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and Britain's Atomic Energy Authority: scientists in both countries have come close to achieving in the laboratory the energy-releasing atomic fusion that produces the radiance of the sun--the same fusion that, man-made but uncontrolled, provides the vast destructive might of H-bombs (see SCIENCE). Wrapped up in the scientific terminology was the prospect that mankind will one day be able to live in a world where power, the basic ingredient of an industrial civilization, will be unlimited.

Underlining nuclear power's international promise, AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss stressed that U.S. and British scientists have been working in ''close cooperation" on controlled thermonuclear reactions, and will continue to do so. Added President Eisenhower next day, in a statement aimed toward Russia: "All Americans sincerely hope that other scientists in other countries will be encouraged by their governments to do similar research. As these and other experiments continue, the adoption of a worldwide atoms-for-peace program becomes more inevitable to permit all scientists to devote their skills and energies to the betterment of mankind--not its destruction."

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