|
Swords to ploughshares (or swords to plowshares) is a concept in which military weapons or technologies are converted for peaceful civilian applications. The phrase originates from the Book of Isaiah: The ''ploughshare'' is often used to symbolize creative tools that benefit humankind, as opposed to destructive tools of war, symbolized by the ''sword'', a similar sharp metal tool with an arguably opposite use. In addition to the original Biblical Messianic intent, the expression "beat swords into ploughshares" has been used by disparate social and political groups. An ongoing example as of 2013, is the dismantling of nuclear weapons and the use of their contents as fuel in civilian electric power stations, the Megatons to Megawatts Program. Nuclear fission development, originally accelerated for World War II weapons needs, has been applied to many civilian purposes since its use at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including electricity and radiopharmaceutical production. The later use of nuclear fusion in weapons designs, supplied the ability to create new elements, such as einsteinium, which was key to demonstrating the r-process in nucleosynthesis. Electricity generation from fusion power will require further research before it can become as practical as nuclear fission power stations. One approach to this end is inertial confinement fusion, which follows the same mechanism to achieving a fusion power station, radiation implosion, as that which was originally developed for weapons use, the Teller-Ulam design. ==Biblical references== This analogy is used several times in the Old Testament or Tanakh, in both directions, such as in the following verses: An expression of this concept can be seen a bronze statue in the United Nations garden called ''Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares'', a gift from the Soviet Union sculpted by Evgeniy Vuchetich, representing the figure of a man hammering a sword into the shape of a plowshare. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Swords to ploughshares」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|