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magazine articles about science can help to put across new developments, but even

the most successful popular book is read by only a small proportion of the population.
Only television can reach a truly mass audience. There are some very good science

programmes on television, but others present scientific wonders simply as magic,
without explaining them, or showing how they fit into the framework of scientific

ideas. Producers of television science programmes should realise that they have a
responsibility to educate the public, not just entertain it.

What are the science-related issues that the public will have to make decisions on

in the near future? By far, the most urgent is that of nuclear weapons. Other global
problems, such as food supply or the greenhouse effect, are relatively slow-acting, but

a nuclear war could mean the end of all human life on Earth within days.

The relaxation of East-West tensions brought about by the ending of the Cold War
has meant that the fear of nuclear war has receded from the public mind. But the
danger is still there as long as there are enough weapons to kill the entire population of

the world many times over. In former Soviet states and in America, nuclear weapons are

still poised to strike all the major cities in the Northern Hemisphere. It would only take
a computer error or a mutiny
by some of those manning the

weapons, to trigger a global

war. It is even more worrying
that even minor powers
are now acquiring nuclear

weapons.

The major powers have
behaved in a reasonably

responsible way so far, but one
cannot have such confidence in

minor powers like Libya or Iraq,
Pakistan or even Azerbaijan.

The danger is not so much in
the actual nuclear weapons

that such powers may soon
possess, which would be fairly

rudimentary, though they

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