In April 1950, the US federal government raided the offices of Scientific American Magazine to destroy every printed issue, burning three thousand copies. The reason? The banned magazine contained an article, titled “The Hydrogen Bomb: II” written by Professor Hans Bethe, one of the country’s most prominent nuclear scientists, which had been deemed a threat to national security.

A two-time FOIA lawsuit winner against the CIA and National Reconnaissance Office, Steven Aftergood directs the Project of Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. There he writes Secrecy News, the FAS blog, and advocates for public access to government information. For this week’s Requester’s Voice, Aftergood spoke with MuckRock about refining requests and the intersection of science and secrecy.