I found the selection from Brighter to be interesting. Before I read this, I had never known how closely tied science is to politics. This connection was especially close during the period of World War II.
I had known that science had maintained the attitude that information should be shared. This is the only way in which science can maintain its advance. One man might make a remarkable discovery, but with two, the other might see an insight the first missed. That the scientists of the period were practically forced to censor themselves. They were forced to choose between spreading knowledge or keeping it to themselves. Kept to themselves, their knowledge would not advance science, but if spread, their knowledge might be used by Germans for their war effort.
I had not known how much communication existed between Ally and Axis countries. But more suprising was when I read that many scientists in Germany were actually in favor of keeping their knowledge of nuclear fission away from the military. Indeed, most of the scientists were interested in knowledge, not war applications of that knowledge.
The selection from Hoffmann’s Albert Einstein seemed out of place at this point in the course. Hoffmann goes into much more detail of Einstein’s personal life than Jungk does for any scientist. While Jungk’s book talks about the implications of sharing information between scientists in America and Germany at the time of WWII, the selection from Hoffmann tells about Einstein’s divorce.