Science: Can Civilization Survive?

There is a fascination in fear. There is a vortex that surrounds the concept of doom . . . No terror is greater than the unknown except the terror of the half-seen.

So Vannevar Bush, boss of all U.S. scientists who worked for the Government in World War II, summarizes the feelings of the layman toward the newest weapons in the world's arsenals. In a book to be published next week—Modern Arms and Free Men (Simon & Schuster; $3.50)— he devotes himself to the job of illuminating some of the dim corners of science's...