Page "Hermann Joseph Muller" Paragraph 16

The Nobel Prize, in the wake of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, focused public attention on a subject Muller had been publicizing for two decades: the dangers of radiation.

In 1952, nuclear fallout became a public issue ; since Operation Crossroads, more and more evidence had been leaking out about radiation sickness and death caused by nuclear testing, and Muller was one of the foremost experts.

Muller — and many other scientists — pursued an array of political activities to defuse the threat of nuclear war.

With the Castle Bravo fallout controversy in 1954, the issue became even more urgent.

In 1955 Muller was one of eleven prominent intellectuals to sign the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, the upshot of which was the first Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs in 1957, which addressed the control of nuclear weapons.

He was a signatory ( with many other scientists ) of the 1958 petition to the United Nations, calling for an end to nuclear weapons testing, which was initiated by the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Linus Pauling.