Josef Rotblat e as Conferências Pugwash

Abstract

In times when the specter of a nuclear war reappears in a new military conflict on European soil, it is convenient to resume the discussion on science and war. It is worth remembering Josef Rotblat (1908-2005), a scientist of Jewish origin, born in Warsaw and living in England. With a doctorate in physics (1938) in Poland, Rotblat worked on research into artificial radioactivity and gained a reputation as a competent experimentalist. He moved to Liverpool in 1939 to work with physicist James Chadwick (1891-1974) as Europe approached World War II. Soon England began atomic research and Rotblat and other British scientists joined the Americans in Los Álamos in January 1944, in the “Manhattan Project”.

During the course of the project, it is alleged that Rotblat perceived signs that the main objective would be to threaten the USSR, already in the preamble of the Cold War, which, added to personal aspects and the American distrust that he could pass on information to the Russians , would have influenced his request for resignation and return to Liverpool in January 1945, where he dedicated himself to nuclear medicine, aiming to apply his work to the benefit of humanity, which saw bombs falling on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rotblat was one of the signatories of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto (1955), against nuclear weapons, along with other scientists and joined Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) in the creation of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, a pacifist initiative in the search for the banning of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, gaining worldwide recognition with the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize.