The atomic bomb is the sort of scientific knowledge that many regret to have created - including the people who were in charge of their creation - Oppenheimer in the US and Sakharov in the USSR both spent their lives fighting for nuclear non-proliferation, after having seen the bomb in action.

A much wiser approach would have been to not create these weapons in the first place, but that's a long and complicated discussion.

Now we have books like "Unmaking the Bomb", which are interesting to read but are impossible to implement, because scientists are no longer in control of this knowledge.

And this is the point I was trying to make (probably in vain, I know), that it is wiser to not open some boxes, than to squeeze the monsters that come out of them back inside.

No, I got your point.

But if we want to limit the dissemination of potentially harmful knowledge we'd have to stop teaching basic physics, chemistry and biology. The fact that we do not have daily TATP explosions or Anthrax attacks or that there is a strong movement for nuclear non-proliferation shows us that we are not too bad in handling the responsibility that comes with knowledge.

And not all about the early nuclear research was bad - without it, we'd not be where we are in space exploration or medicine.

The box, once found, will be opened. It's only a matter of time.