100 YEARS AGO

Scientific critics in Berlin are now much exercised with regard to the remarkable performances of “Clever Hans,” the thinking horse. According to the daily Press, a representative committee... witnessed these performances with the view of ascertaining whether they were the result of a trick, or whether they were due to the mental powers of the animal. Their verdict, it is reported, was unanimous in favour of the latter view. It is stated that when told that the day was Tuesday, and asked which day of the week this represented, the horse would give the correct answer by taps. Similarly he will tell not only the hour, but the minutes indicated by a watch.

From Nature 22 September 1904.

50 YEARS AGO

The decision of the Atomic Energy Commission... that Dr. J. R. Oppenheimer should be denied access to restricted data because, on the record before the Commission, he was not entitled to the continued confidence of the Government and of the Commission “because of the proof of fundamental defects in his ‘character’” is, of course, a matter of domestic policy within the United States. Even had, however, Great Britain and the United States not been somewhat “mixed up” (Sir Winston Churchill's phrase) in the early development of the atom bomb, the termination in this manner of the Government career of one who had rendered such outstanding services in this field could not but be a matter of profound interest, if not concern, to scientific circles in Britain... Apart from the question whether even the most richly endowed nation can afford to divert an unlimited amount of its man-power to security investigations, the contrast between the ambiguous answers produced after so much voluminous inquiry and the swiftness and perspicacity with which Sir John Woods's committee investigating the Crichel Down episode in Britain reported on issues touching the public interest no less vitally is startling. Almost inevitably it suggests that there may be substance in what some American scientists are saying, and that Dr. Oppenheimer has been dismissed because his opinions were unpalatable to the authorities... who have chosen this retrograde manner of removing an adviser so as to minimize the possibility that others may avail themselves of his advice or services.

From Nature 25 September 1954.