A loss of humanity How scientists ignored ethics

The Plutonium Files America's Secret Medical Experiments in theCold War. By Eileen Welsome. Dial. $26.95. An acquaintance of minewho designed high-tech weapons of destruction was once asked how hedealt with the daily stress of creating new ways to kill people. Hedidn't consider his job in those terms, he said. He simply enjoyedthe engineering challenge and never really thought beyond it.

That stunning ability to compartmentalize must be what allowedscientists at Los Alamos to celebrate their devastating success inHiroshima like rowdy college boys after a football victory. Andperhaps it begins to explain how, in the name of science and nationalsecurity, they could launch …