Word: leet
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Leet, professor of Geology chose the May 9th meeting of the American Academy of Sciences to outline his plan for seismic detection of underground nuclear tests. At the meeting in Brookline, Leet showed slides to the assembled scientists illustrating his contention that earthquake and blast waves are visibly different when recorded from a sufficient distance...
...distance at which graphic differences become apparent, Leet feels, has been overlooked by scientists who are engaged in detection research for the U.S. government. Because these scientists, who worked on the Berkner Panel and the Air Force's Project Vela Uniform, reasoned that moving their stations closer to the suspicious seismic events would enhance chances of detection, Leet feels "they have missed the forest for the trees...
Disturbances in the earth's crust generate primary and Secondary (P and S) waves which pass through the crust, as well as Long (L) waves, which travel around the surface of the earth. If these waves are generated by an earthquake, Leet tried to show through his slides, the P waves die first. But if they are generated by a blast, stations located sufficiently far from the event will record P waves long after the others have faded...
Where can Leet expect to find an objective audience, let alone support? McGeorge Bundy and Jerome Weisner both owe his charges some careful consideration; they are well-documented and substantial, if not yet substantiated. The University itself should weigh its obligation to support research which the military dismisses as extraneous...
...When Leet was asked if he thought a peace research institute at Harvard or M.I.T. would be a good idea, he replied almost indignantly, "Why no, Science can't prove peace just as it can't prove war. Science shouldn't set out to prove anything." His objection, however, was just to the name. He went on to say that the military establishment has failed to keep things intellectually straight, and that only in a sufficiently endowed academic community could scientists study problems related to the arms race without feeling pressure for preconceived results...