_NA_ru_R_Ev_o_L._319_9_JA_Nu_A_RY_1_9s6____ CQRRESPQNDENCE------93 within the accuracy of the Babylonian observations. Sakharov's scientific legacy C. Leroy Ellenberger, no longer a con­ S1R-Erast B. Gliner is right to say that When asked about Sakharov's fate, vinced Velikovskian, has pointed out to Sakharov's contribution to science' should some Soviet officials (including Anatoly me that I might nevertheless have even be emphasized in the campaign to end his Alexandrov, president of the Academy of better cited the uniformity of Greenland exile and to save his life. However, Glin­ Sciences of the USSR) normally answer ice core Dye 3 as a way in which science er's statement that Sakharov "is not consi­ that Sakharov is restricted to Gorky be­ could actually demonstrate that Velikovs­ dered as a head of some scientific school cause he is in the possession of important ky's scenario did not happen. This 2,000- inside of the Soviet Union or abroad" is military secrets and that this exile is made metre sample is continuous and datable not entirely correct. Sakharov's pioneer­ in strict observance of Soviet laws. Neith­ for the past 10,000 years and shows no ing work on the problem of a controlled er reason is correct. Sakharov was exiled dust or acid layers that would signal the thermonuclear reaction, which began the to Gorky on the basis of an "individual" sort of universal catastrophe predicted by well known tokamak project, was the decree signed by the late President Leonid Velikovsky. main reason for his election as a full mem­ Brezhnev in 1980 as a reprisal for Sakhar­ OwEN GINGERICH ber of the Academy of Sciences of the ov's protest over the Soviet invasion of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for USSR in 1953, together with his co-author Afghanistan. There are no provisions in Astrophysics, Igor Tamm. More than 20 years later, Soviet law for such a form of punishment, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02/83, USA Sakharov was elected as a member of the and the exile was imposed without any US National Academy of Sciences for trial or decision of the court. Sakharov similar reasons. In a brief autobiography' had had no access to classified information Metric system published in 1974, Sakharov made a spe­ since 1968. Sm-While endorsing all the comments cial point about two projects that he consi­ Now, when the new leadership clearly made by your correspondent Alex Bere­ dered the most important of his contribu­ considers many aspects of Brezhnev's in­ zin (Nature 317, 762; 1985), I hope that a tions to nuclear physics: ternal policy in a very unfavourable light, mixture of different systems of units, in­ his legal actions may also be re-examined cluding some nonmetric ones, will be re­ In the summer of 1950, almost simultaneous­ ly with the beginning of work on the thermo­ more carefully and critically. Gorbachev's tained, at least in the field of aviation. It is nuclear weapon, I.E. Tamm and I began work intention to accelerate scientific and tech­ a major contribution to safety for a pilot to on the problem of a controlled thermonuclear nological cooperation between East and know that data quoted by radio in feet reaction; i.e., on the utilization of the nuclear West could not be served better than by refer to altitude, while data quoted in energy of light elements for purposes of indust­ restoration of full freedom to Sakharov. metres refer to visibility, and that nautical rial power. In 1950 we formulated the idea of ZHORES A. MEDVEDEV miles are used to refer to distance along a the magnetic thermo-isolation of high­ National Institute for Medical Research, route, from a radio beacon or airport, etc. temperature plasma, and completed estimates Mill Hill, London NW7 JAA, UK This system is standard throughout the on the parameters for thermonuclear synthesis world, the only exception being, charac­ installations. This research, which became 1. Gliner, E.B. Nature 318. 513 (1985). known abroad through a paper read by I. V. 2. Sakharov. A.O. Sakharov Speaks, 30-31 (Knopf, teristically, the United States, where sta­ Kurchatov at Harwell in 1956 and through the New York, 1974). tute miles are thrown in for measuring materials of the First Geneva Conference on 3. Astashenkov, P. Kurchatov, 173 (Moldaya Gvardi­ both visibility and distances, runways are the Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy, was recog­ ja, Moscow, 1967). measured in feet instead of metres and air nized as pioneering. In 1961 I proposed, for the 4. Golovin I.N. Kurchatov (Atomizdat, Moscow, 1967). pressure is quoted in inches ( of mercury) same purposes, the heating of deuterium with a 5. Parry. A. The Russian Scientist. 172-173 (Collier instead of hectopascals. beam from a pulse laser. I mention these things Macmillan. London, 1973). If one overlooks this idiosyncrasy, the here by way of explaining that my contributions system works most satisfactorily and is were not limited to military problems. very well suited to be used throughout In the Soviet Union, acknowledgment Velikovsky international airspace, a space which is of Sakharov's work has been made only in S1R-In his letter (Nature 10 October, non-Euclidean, anisotropic and subject to publications from before 1968. Even p.470) criticizing the discussion of the changes of scaling factors (wind, air­ though the tokamak project for which I. Babylonian Venus observations in my re­ pressure and so on) at any time. Tamm and A. Sakharov laid the founda­ view of Bauer's Beyond Velikovsky, Lynn ROBERT BYWATER tions is continuing in the Soviet Union E. Rose claims that he and Vaughan have Department of Cell Research, (the tenth, eleventh and twelfth tokamaks worked to vindicate these data whereas Wallenberg Laboratory, are now operating for research purposes), Huber has rejected two-thirds of them. University of Uppsala, Sakharov's name has been omitted from The Babylonian texts in question were Uppsala, Sweden the history of this field. Sakharov's role copied a millennium after the observa­ was last acknowledged in two official biog­ tions; there are so many variants between raphies of Igor Kurchatov published in the copies as well as self-contradictions Nuclear weapons 19671A. I. Golovin, a close colleague of within individual tablets that at least 20 Sm-Edward Teller's letter (Nature 318, Kurchatov (the head of the Soviet atomic per cent of the data is suspect from the 99; 1985) is accompanied by two graphs, project), recorded Kurchatov's reaction outset. As one of the most enthusiastic one of relative numbers and the other of to Sakharov's theory in a very clear way: Velikovskians, Rose wishes to use these relative yields of US nuclear weapons. In "Kurchatov was sitting in his study on questionable data to prove that the both cases, the data presented end in New Year's Eve 1950 when he turned [to Earth's orbit has changed dramatically in 1980, before President Reagan's acceler­ Golovin] and said: 'Sakharov has boosted the past three millennia. Huber, as a sci­ ated weapons programme, with which Dr us to tackle the second atomic problem of entist inclined to believe in the stability of Teller was closely associated and of which the twentieth century which is no less mag­ the Earth's orbit, wishes instead to show he should be in a position to present the nificent (than fission]- obtaining bound­ that this corpus of material is statistically consequences, both for numbers and less energy by burning the waters of the consistent with modern parameters, and yield. What are the figures for the past two ocean' "'. In some Western histories of even after throwing out the demonstrably years? A. J. McEvoY Soviet science, the role of Sakharov in the bad sections of the text, over half of the 49 1015 Ecublens, tokamak project is fully acknowledged'. observations agree with modern values Lausanne, Switzerland

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