Pushing for the acknowledgement of the dangers of radiation as a scientist-activist is one of his most important achievements. He was opposed every step of the way. Physicians had been reluctant to acknowledge the harms of radiation and grew increasingly defensive, as Muller became increasingly accusatory. The federal government and the armed forces represented even more of an entrenched interest on the matter. Things came to a boiling point at the 1955 United Nations International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy.
This letter from the geneticist Earl Green fills in some of the behind the scene details about the conference. Elof Carlson, Muller's biographer, pieced together the full story decades later.
This broadsheet includes the editorial “Dr. Muller and the AEC” in the lower right corner, and was appended to the letter by Earl Green.
Muller recounts the events of the conference in this letter to the geneticist Mogens Westergaard. The Lilly Library collection has extensive documentation on the conference and the associated brouhaha.
As the foremost expert in radiation genetics, Muller had originally been selected by the United States Atomic Energy Commission to give a paper on the genetic dangers of radiation. However, his paper was unexpectedly withdrawn. When he communicated with the Atomic Energy Commission, they lied and told him the UN had withdrawn his paper. In fact, it was a commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission, the physical chemist Willard Libby, who was suspicious of Muller’s political past.
In this letter to the physicist Lauriston Taylor, Muller expresses his concerns over undue government interference at the National Council of Radiation Protection and Measurement.
Whatever Libby’s rationale, the AEC’s suppression of Muller’s paper and the scapegoating of the UN back-fired. The controversy appeared on the front page of the Washington Post, and led to additional attention to the conference, the Atomic Energy Commission, and radiation by both scientists and the public. Muller would continuously advocate for responsible guidelines for radiation exposure for the rest of his life.
