The Last Man Who Knew Everything

by David N. Schwartz

  “the development of these weapons”: Rigden, Rabi, 205.

  “by example some limitations”: Ibid.

  Rabi and Fermi offered a far more: Ibid., 206–207. The written record of these deliberations is clear, but Lilienthal, who chaired the meeting, records a slightly different recollection. His record: “Fermi, his careful enunciation, dark eyes, thinks one must explore it and do it and that doesn’t foreclose the question: should it be made use of?” Lilienthal, Journals of David E. Lilienthal, 2:581. But it is clear that in the end, Fermi signed on to Rabi’s statement.

  “The fact that no limits exist”: Rigden, Rabi.

  he responded with a volcanic outburst: Libby, Uranium People, 15. This is one of the very few recorded incidents of Fermi losing his temper with colleagues.

  Fermi and Ulam decided on a good-natured: Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, 218; Wheeler, Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam, 209; Ford, Building the H Bomb, 104–105.

  someone would find a new fatal flaw: It was this flawed concept of the hydrogen bomb that Teller sold to President Truman when the president overrode the GAC in January 1950. Ford, Building the H Bomb, 105.

  flash of insight by Ulam: Called the Teller-Ulam invention, it was far more complicated than this simple description suggests. The concept was for many years highly classified, and aspects of it remain classified to this day. Ulam and Teller rarely spoke to each other after this most unusual collaboration. There was a long-standing dispute, never definitively resolved, over who deserved the lion’s share of the credit.

  the Ivy Mike test: The device detonated was the size of a very large house and was designed by Garwin, under the direction of Teller and Ulam. It released some ten megatons of energy, a thousand times greater than the bombs that fell on Japan. Large parts of the atoll of Eniwetok were vaporized in the test. Eniwetok hosted many subsequent tests. The cleanup of the islands in the late 1970s exposed soldiers to dangerous levels of radioactivity. See Dave Philipps, “Troops Who Cleaned Up Radioactive Islands Can’t Get Medical Care,” New York Times, January 28, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/us/troops-radioactive-islands-medical-care.html.

  Fermi and Garwin worked extensively: Richard Garwin, interview with author, May 22, 2014.

  who invented the hydrogen bomb: The classic account, which unfortunately misses the key role of Garwin in the design of the Ivy Mike hydrogen bomb test in November 1952, is Rhodes, Dark Sun. A more recent account, which covers the technical issues in some detail, is Ford, Building the H Bomb. An idiosyncratic but colorful account of some of the Fermi-Garwin work is contained in Mayer, “An Indecisive Meeting,” Los Alamos Historical Archives M203–62–1-96. See also Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, 209ff., and Wheeler, Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam, 104ff.

  When Fermi’s four-year term: Oppenheimer, “Scientific World Pays Homage to Fermi,” 8.

  Fermi clearly wanted nothing to do: See EFREG, 9:16. In 2012 Manhattan Project historian Alex Wellerstein discovered the unredacted transcripts of the Oppenheimer hearings of 1954, in which Leslie Groves admits that the sensitivity of the material the Rosenbergs shared with the Soviet Union was not particularly damaging to the United States. Nevertheless, he was in favor of their execution. Wellerstein, “Oppenheimer, Unredacted: Part II.”

  “dared to hope that you”: EFREG, 14:22. Darrow to Fermi, May 8, 1951.

  the APS, under Fermi’s leadership: The files on this issue in the Fermi Archives in Chicago reflect the systematic way in which Fermi canvassed colleagues and duly recorded the views of each person on the executive committee. See EFREG, 16:18, for example.

  very few African American members: There were not many African American members of the APS, but James Van Allen, the University of Iowa astrophysicist who discovered the radiation belts surrounding the earth that now bear his name, had an African American graduate student, Robert Ellis. He faced down the US Navy to bring Ellis onto a segregated Navy vessel that year and may well have wanted to bring Ellis to the APS meeting at Duke. My thanks to Greg Good at the American Institute of Physics for bringing this to my attention.

  the executive committee prevailed: EFREG, 15:3.

  an anti-communist “loyalty oath”: “The Loyalty Oath Controversy, University of California, 1949–1951: Resolution Adopted by the Regents of the University of California, April 21, 1950,” University of California History, http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/uchistory/archives_exhibits/loyaltyoath/regent_resolution.html.

  few comments we have from Fermi: EFREG, 9:19.

  APS came to Condon’s defense: Wang, “Edward Condon and the Cold War.” See also Alice K. Smith, Peril and a Hope, passim.

  case against Oppenheimer: The classic account of the Oppenheimer case can be found in Bird and Sherwin, American Prometheus, 487ff. See also Polenberg, In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

  “Statements of this kind are bound”: A Teller-inspired 1954 book by journalists James Shepley and Clay Blair, The Hydrogen Bomb was a thinly veiled attack on Los Alamos and its role in the development of the hydrogen bomb. Fermi’s graduate student Arthur Rosenfeld read the book and called Fermi’s attention to it. Fermi was reportedly outraged and allowed Rosenfeld to draft a press release under Fermi’s name rejecting the book’s implications and praising the work of his Los Alamos collaborators. In an interview with the author in May 2014, Rosenfeld remembered the press conference taking place before Fermi went to Varenna, but the book was released in late September–early October 1954, and the document is dated October 4, 1954. Rosenfeld, “Reminiscences of Fermi,” 204–205. EFREG, 16:2.

  A letter in November 1953: Fermi had had interactions with Borden in November 1952, when Borden wrote a letter to Fermi asking how long it might take for the Soviet Union to develop a hydrogen bomb. Fermi stressed that it was virtually impossible to provide anything but a “wild guess,” but if pressed he would estimate two to five years. EFREG, 9:17.

  “What a pity that they took him”: Telegdi, “Enrico Fermi, 1901–1954,” 126–127.

  He agreed to serve: EFREG, 17:1.

  redacted version was released: Wellerstein, “Oppenheimer, Unredacted: Part I” and “Oppenheimer, Unredacted: Part II.”

  “what more do you want, mermaids?”: US Atomic Energy Agency, In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, 468.

  When pressed, Teller said: Ibid., 710.

  “My opinion at that time”: Ibid., 395.

  “I would not know”: Ibid., 397.

  “I think I might possibly”: Ibid., 398.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: A PATENT FIGHT

  state of his bank account: EFREG, 50:5.

  He also recorded in detail: The pocket diaries in EFREG are filled with such notations.

  Giulio recalls his father as somewhat stingy: TWOEF, notes of Giulio Fermi interview.

  Fermi approached Macmillan Publishers: EFREG, 13:2. The correspondence is lengthy and makes for depressing reading.

  decision to replace the term velocity: Velocity is a vector—it has magnitude and direction. Speed is a scalar, having magnitude only. The difference to a physicist is major.

  The next letter in the file: Schluter suggests that it was sent in late 1952, but this author could not find the final letter as sent. Schluter, “Three Reminiscences of Enrico Fermi,” 206.

  “I am sincerely sorry that the plan”: Robertson to Fermi, November 10, 1952. EFREG, 13:2.

  contains a seven-digit entry for July 3: EFREG, 2:2.

  Thus began a thirteen-year saga: The most comprehensive treatment of this subject is Turchetti, “‘For Slow Neutrons, Slow Pay.’” D’Agostino and Trabacchi were part of the Italian patent application, but not part of the US application. The US patent itself makes for interesting reading. In it Fermi reviews the results of neutron bombardment on each of the ninety-two elements in the then-current periodic table. When discussing uranium, he speculates he may have created transuranic elements, though by the time the patent was granted he knew he—and the rest of the world
—had been mistaken. See also EFREG, 19:2–7.

  compensation for its use by the US: Lanouette, Genius in the Shadows, 254. Fermi and Szilard were not the only Manhattan Project scientists who filed patents for war-related intellectual property. The team responsible for creating and studying the first samples of plutonium, led by Seaborg at Berkeley, also filed patents, as did Lawrence, Oppenheimer, and others who were involved in the invention of the “calutron” method of isotope separation.

  Fermi and Segrè made several ineffective: Turchetti, “‘For Slow Neutrons, Slow Pay,’” 11.

  Irritated, Fermi contemplated resigning: Turchetti reports Maltese’s suggestion that this incident was critical in Fermi’s decision not to renew his GAC contract in January 1951. Turchetti, “‘For Slow Neutrons, Slow Pay,’” 19n. To be clear, however, the debate that raged over the hydrogen bomb probably served as the main impetus for Fermi’s decision not to renew his contract. Also, as previously noted, the Chicago cyclotron was expected to come online and Fermi did not wish to be distracted from an experimental agenda he had waited four years to implement.

  Intelligence services quickly discovered: Reuters, “British Atomic Scientist Believed Gone to Russia,” 3. See also Reuters, “Atomic Scientist, Family Disappear,” 34. His next appearance in public, however, came in a Moscow press conference in 1955, where he denied passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

  $30,000 was a significant sum: Ulam recalled that Fermi hoped that the inventors would receive “tens of millions.” Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, 233.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: BRILLIANT TEACHER, BELOVED MENTOR

  One of the very few Fermi lectures: The recording is in the Niels Bohr Library and Archives at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland. File AV_7_54_1.mp3.

  “On the contrary,” Telegdi writes: Telegdi, “Enrico Fermi, 1901–1954,” 123. Telegdi was a brilliant but highly volatile Hungarian physicist. He was the first Enrico Fermi Professor of Physics at Chicago, where he taught for some twenty-five years. He then returned to his alma mater, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, where Einstein taught prior to coming to the United States.

  The only period in which he chose: This corresponds with the period of his torn retina.

  Harold Agnew later recalled: Agnew, “Scientific World Pays Homage to Fermi,” 8.

  One of the most interesting graduate: Libby, Uranium People, 238. Also Yang, “Reminiscences of Fermi,” 241ff. Lee explained in later years that the university would accept graduate students who demonstrated a solid knowledge of the “great books” of Western civilization, irrespective of whether they had an undergraduate degree. Fermi and his colleagues apparently persuaded the admissions office that Lee knew the Chinese “classics”—Lao-Tzu, Mencius, Confucius, etc.—and he was admitted. Lee, “Reminiscences of Chicago Days,” 198.

  “He had both feet on the ground”: Yang, “Reminiscences of Fermi,” 242.

  would only take on experimental students: Chew, “Personal Recollections,” 188.

  decided to take on two theory students: Perhaps also because he had no classroom teaching obligations during this period.

  Chew is particularly vivid: Chew, interview with author, May 6, 2014.

  “I am completely indebted to Fermi”: Jack Steinberger, interview with author, May 5, 2014.

  Arthur Rosenfeld was notable: Arthur Rosenfeld, interview with author, May 6, 2014.

  Alvarez pressed Fermi to tell him: Ibid. See also Rosenfeld, “Reminiscences of Fermi,” 203–205.

  Rosenfeld went on to a notable: He passed away January 27, 2017. See Julie Chao, “Art Rosenfeld, California’s Godfather of Energy Efficiency, Dies at 90,” Berkeley Lab, January 27, 2017, https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/01/27/art-rosenfeld-californias-godfather-energy-efficiency-90/?utm_source=Art+Rosenfeld+Dies+at+90&utm_campaign=Rosenfeld-obit&utm_medium=email.

  He took extensive notes: Orear, “Notes on Statistics for Physicists,” University of California Radiation Laboratory, August 13, 1958, UCRL 8417, https://cds.cern.ch/record/104881/files/SCAN-9709037.pdf.

  He has written with unusual affection: Orear, Enrico Fermi.

  he would later share a Nobel Prize: The award of the Nobel Prize to Segrè and Chamberlain in 1958 became the subject of some controversy in the 1970s, because another Fermi student, Oreste Piccioni, sued the Berkeley physicists, claiming they had used a crucial idea of his for the experiment and had not added him as a coauthor on the resulting paper. The suit made its way to the US Supreme Court, which decided not to hear the case on the basis of lapsed statute of limitations.

  “I knew exactly what a Nobel Prize”: Chamberlain, “Brief Reminiscence of Enrico Fermi,” 187.

  “I am very grateful”: EFREG, 9:19.

  Fermi waved hello to Friedman: Friedman, interview with author, January 28, 2015.

  The list reads like a who’s who: The full list includes, in chronological order, George Farwell, Geoffrey Chew, Marvin Goldberger, Lincoln Wolfenstein, Jack Steinberger, Owen Chamberlain, Richard Garwin, Tsung-Dao Lee, Uri Haber-Schaim, Jay Orear, John Rayner, Robert Schluter, Arthur Rosenfeld, Horace Taft, and Jerome Friedman. See Telegdi, “Enrico Fermi, 1901–1954,” 125.

  “the only true genius”: He almost certainly would have said the same thing about Majorana.

  usually reticent Fermi sent a letter: Fermi to Doty, April 11, 1949. EFREG, 14:13.

  Garwin has won numerous: Joel N. Shurkin, True Genius: The Life and Work of Richard Garwin, the Most Influential Scientist You’ve Never Heard Of (2017), is an account of his amazing life and career.

  One day, Fermi approached Yodh: Yodh, “This Account Is Not According to the Mahabharata!” 251–253. It is perhaps telling that Fermi chose to make lighthearted fun of the book in which Oppenheimer found his famous Trinity test quote, “I am become Death, destroyer of worlds,” taken from the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the two main sections of the Mahabharata.

  Cronin recalled with humor: Cronin, interview with author, October 20, 2014.

  Harriett Zuckerman, a sociologist: Zuckerman, Scientific Elites, 100. It is, of course, a narrow point of view to judge the success of any particular mentor simply by Nobel laureates mentored. Fermi’s non-Nobelist students include a president of Caltech and extremely prominent theorists and experimentalists on both sides of the Atlantic.

  When one looks at a “family tree”: “Physics Tree,” Academic Family Tree, http://academictree.org/physics/tree.php?pid=34756.

  It is an astonishing record: Zuckerman makes this point, as does Telegdi in Cronin, Fermi Remembered, 125. Telegdi notes, however, that Sommerfeld trained only theorists and Rutherford, only experimentalists, while Fermi’s students were relatively evenly divided, reflecting Fermi’s own universal interests.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: TRAVELS ABROAD

  A more interesting possibility: I am indebted to Giovanni Battimelli for this suggestion.

  a host of Italians attended: Attendee list provided by University of Basel.

  Fermi was not one of the: Summary graciously provided by University of Basel.

  Fermi also swam a mile: Laura Fermi, Atoms, 256.

  Fifty-odd papers were presented: See Il Nuovo Cimento 6, no. 3, Suppl. (January 1949).

  Giorgio, who went on to become: He still lives in the old family home, with his wife, Teresa.

  Ulam asked Fermi what he thought: Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, 234–235.

  he participated in strenuous outdoor activities: See Glauber, “An Excursion with Enrico Fermi,” 44–46. The topics Fermi chose to lecture on were quite varied, reflecting the breadth of his interests and expertise: “Schein showers”—cosmic photon showers; polarization of fast protons; cosmic radiation in spiral galactic arms; pion production in cyclotrons; and stellar structure. See EFREG, 50:4.

  Glauber chose the sturdiest: Glauber, “An Excursion with Enrico Fermi,” 46.

  Fermi delivered his talks: The villa was restored in 2003 to
its original splendor when the De Marchi family lived there, with the artwork and the antique furniture they bequeathed with the villa.

  attendees could take walks: A delightful two-minute short film on the summer school, showing Fermi and other attendees, can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGs1lM1KvKA—the narration is in Italian, but some snippets of the talks, including Fermi’s, are in English. Fermi shows no outward sign of the pain he must have been experiencing.

  Several of the younger attendees: His former student and Manhattan Project colleague Bernard Feld edited the notes and tape recordings into a coherent paper, published as the final paper in Collected Papers. CPF II, 1004ff.

  new computers in machine language: Machine language is the most primitive of all computer programming languages, the only language that early computers understood.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: HOME TO DIE

  the first doctor who saw Fermi: Wali, Chandra, 269–270.

  Leona Libby writes: Libby, Uranium People, 20.

  “It was of course very difficult”: Wali, Chandra, 269.

  “Do we have to discuss this here?”: Ibid., 270.

  Yang wrote later of the visit: Yang, CPF II, 674

  imminent demise with “Socratic serenity”: Segrè, Mind Always in Motion, 251–252.

  “At the end of the afternoon”: Ibid., 253.

  Teller arrived a few days later: Blumberg and Owens, Energy and Conflict, 374–375.

  Knowing of Fermi’s unhappiness: EFREG, 16:2.

  Teller seemed to think the promise: Blumberg and Owens, Energy and Conflict, 375.

  Fermi’s death had a double impact: Ibid., 375.

  Shortly after Fermi’s death: Teller, “Scientific World Pays Tribute to Fermi,” 8.

  “He spoke of his approaching death”: Libby, Uranium People, 21.

  “so composed by death’s approach”: Wigner, Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner, 278.

  Ulam was moved to tears: Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, 237–238.

  Fermi was more proud of the publication: Dash, Life of One’s Own, 333. Maria Mayer recalls the incident slightly differently, with Enrico saying he was prouder of Laura’s book than he was of anything he had accomplished.