The Last Man Who Knew Everything
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“with the greatest grace imaginable”: Ibid.
Laura, who maintained a stoicism: Toward the end, she warned Amaldi and Persico, who wanted to visit, that such a visit would not make sense—because he was under the influence of morphine and spent most of his time sleeping. Amaldi Archives.
his friends, Chandrasekhar and Ulam: Wali, Chandra, 269ff.; Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, 234ff.
“We thank Thee for him”: EFREG, 7:7.
“Actually, the Institute is his Institute”: Allison, “A Tribute to Enrico Fermi,” 9–10.
the archetypical Fermi moment: Ibid.
“He had had all the honors”: Segrè, “A Tribute to Enrico Fermi,” 12.
“To explore the mysteries of nature”: Anderson, “A Tribute to Enrico Fermi,” 13.
robust sense of his own capabilities: See Chandrasekhar, “The Pursuit of Science,” cited in Introduction.
condolence letter to Laura: LFREG, 2:8.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: FERMI’S LEGACY
Sam Allison stayed: Cronin, interview with author, October 20, 2014.
She even drafted an unpublished novel: Private communication with Olivia Fermi.
She eventually moved to an apartment: See Olivia Fermi’s essay on her grandmother’s life: http://fermieffect.com/laura-fermi/laura-fermis-life/.
Leona Libby recalls Laura’s involvement: Libby, Uranium People, 190. Libby was highly critical of Laura, noting that Laura supported civilian nuclear power when Enrico was alive. Laura explained that while Enrico was alive, she trusted his competence in these matters; now that he was gone, she had little faith in those responsible for the development of nuclear energy.
She wondered, in 1954: Laura Fermi, Atoms, 152–153.
She is buried in the cemetery: “Maria Fermi Sacchetti (age 60),” http://www.olgiateolona26giugno1959.org/10_lives/Sac_e.html. See also transcript of interview with Laura Fermi, TWOEF, 17.
raise two children, Alice and Paul: After her divorce, Alice changed her name to Olivia and adopted her grandparents’ family name, Fermi.
interview conducted for a CBS: I am indebted to Olivia Fermi for providing me with a copy of the unedited interview.
“Put your grandmother Laura”: “Laura Fermi’s Life,” The Fermi Effect, http://fermieffect.com/laura-fermi/laura-fermis-life/.
His health problems may have: Sarah Fermi, interview with author, June 1, 2016.
Richard Garwin recalls lecturing: Garwin, interview with author, May 22, 2014.
She has two blogs: The Fermi Effect (http://fermieffect.com/) and On the Neutron Trail (http://neutrontrail.com/).
Picturing the Bomb: Fermi and Samra, Picturing the Bomb.
“Fermi Award is a Presidential award”: “The Enrico Fermi Award,” US Department of Energy, http://science.energy.gov/fermi.
The Collected Papers: Purists may quibble about the editing. Some of the papers were slightly rearranged in order to make more sense within the context of the volume.
Steven Weinberg, a first step: Weinberg has written extensively and brilliantly for a general audience. See, particularly, his classic Dreams of a Final Theory. He recently published a provocative meditation on the flaws in quantum theory: “The Trouble with Quantum Mechanics,” New York Review of Books, January 19, 2017, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/01/19/trouble-with-quantum-mechanics/.
exploration of the strong force: See Brown, Dresden, and Hoddeson, Pions to Quarks, and Pickering, Constructing Quarks.
Subsequent advances: Group theory suggested that none of these “elementary” particles were actually elementary—that they were composed of truly elementary particles, called quarks.
Never a fan of group theory: He famously began a seminar on group theory by going through the concepts in alphabetical order. When pressed, he explained that group theory is just a series of definitions, and it made as much sense to go alphabetically through those definitions as it did to develop the field theorem by theorem. Lee, “Reminiscence of Chicago Days,” 198–199.
rules of mirror-image symmetry: Physicists believed that all interactions obeyed left-right symmetry. That is, viewing an image of a particle interaction, one would not be able to tell if it were the actual interaction or a mirror image of that interaction. This turns out not to be the case for weak interactions, where left-handed spin dominates. This asymmetry was first proposed by T. D. Lee and Chen Ning Yang during the summer of 1956 at Brookhaven Lab and confirmed experimentally by Chien-Shiung Wu at Columbia later that year. It won Lee and Yang the 1957 Nobel Prize.
“in the stone age”: Henry Frisch, interview with author, January 9, 2017.
DiMaggio’s fifty-six game hitting streak: Samuel Arbesman and Stephen H. Strogatz, “A Monte Carlo Approach to Joe DiMaggio and Streaks in Baseball,” https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0807/0807.5082.pdf.
The Italian Physics Society presents: “Enrico Fermi Prize,” Wikipedia, last updated November 26, 2016, accessed September 12, 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi_Prize.
contaminated by the radioactive residue: This residue has had some unintended consequences for biological studies. One of the by-products of these tests is increased carbon-14 in the air; to the extent that it has since been ingested by all life-forms, this has resulted in complications with carbon-14 dating of modern life-forms.
Some 450 electric power reactors: These and other figures here are taken from “The Database on Nuclear Power Reactors,” International Atomic Energy Agency, https://www.iaea.org/pris/ (accessed September 29, 2016).
Reactors have purposes other than: “Radioisotopes in Medicine,” World Nuclear Association, last updated December 28, 2016, accessed February 2, 2017, http://world-nuclear.org/information-library/non-power-nuclear-applications/radioisotopes-research/radioisotopes-in-medicine.aspx. Amaldi’s son, Ugo, has worked extensively in this area and has written of the importance of the slow-neutron work for medical physics. See Ugo Amaldi, “Slow Neutrons at Via Panisperna,” 145–168.
The Fermi Paradox: Robert Gray correctly points out that the “paradox” was not actually about the existence of extraterrestrial life but about the possibility of intergalactic space travel. Fermi’s quip—“Where are they?”—indicated that if such travel were possible, aliens would certainly have visited us by now. Of course, if extraterrestrial life does not exist, that would also be an explanation. Gray, “The Fermi Paradox.”
“the last man who knew everything”: Geoffrey Chew, interview with author, May 6, 2014; Ugo Amaldi, interview with author, June 7, 2016.
INDEX
Abdus-Salaam, Mohammad, 357–358
Abelson, Philip, 152
Accademia dei Lincei (Academy of Lynxes), 33, 55, 91–92, 119, 334, 357
Accademia d’Italia, 92–94, 144
accidents, 191
actinide chemistry, 151
activism, Laura Fermi’s, 352
African Americans, 306–307
Agnew, Harold, 194–195, 211(fig.), 325
Alchemy of Our Time (Fermi and Amaldi), 74
Alfvèn, Hannes, 278, 282
Allison, Samuel, 194, 210–211, 211(fig.), 221, 256–257, 260, 331, 341, 346–347, 350
alpha particle bombardment, 106, 113
alpha rays, 102
Alvarez, Luis, 77, 220–221, 242, 307, 328
Amaldi, Edoardo, 54, 115(fig.)
Castelnuovo salons, 64
continuing slow-neutron research, 127
Fermi’s classified work, 333–334
Fermi’s declining health, 338
Fermi’s legacy, 360–361
Fisica revisions, 73
neutron bombardment research, 115–116
nuclear physics research, 109–110
paraffin block experiment, 120–125
patent controversy, 318, 321
Rome School, 83–84, 86–87
textbook revision, 318
war years, 264
Amaldi, Ginestra Giovene, 64, 66, 74, 84–85, 122–
123, 133, 140–142, 352
Amaldi, Ugo, 64, 318, 338
Amaldi, Ugo (son), 122(fn)
American Physical Society (APS), 174, 305–307, 310–311, 323, 344
Amidei, Adolfo, 3, 13–19
Anderson, Carl, 113
Anderson, Herbert, 199, 211(fig.)
berylliosis, 191–192
collaboration with Fermi, 158–159, 163
Columbia chain reaction, 181–183
construction of the pile, 205–206
criticality, 207–213
Fermi’s illness and death, 341, 350
military control of national laboratories, 189
natural uranium chain reaction, 172–174
on Fermi’s graduate students, 293–294
strong force research, 292–293
test shot, 259
the Chicago team, 193–194, 200, 205
antineutrino, 104
anti-nuclear activism, 361–362
anti-Semitic laws, 77
Argonne Forest/Argonne National Laboratory, 69, 201, 217–218, 220–221, 280–281
Army Corps of Engineers, 228
Astin, Allen, 306
astrophysics, 365–366
Atkinson, Robert, 192
Atomic Energy Act (1946), 297, 320
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), 289–290, 297–299, 307, 309, 311, 320–322
Atoms in the Family (Fermi), 342, 344–345, 352
Austria, German annexation of, 152
awards and honors, 356–357
Bacher, Robert, 248–249, 275(fig.), 297
background checks, 297–298
Bainbridge, Kenneth, 256–257
balloon for the pile, 205–207
Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico, 244–245
Bartky, Walter, 268, 274–275
Basel conference (1949), 333–334
Baudino, John, 202–203, 218, 256, 259
bébé Peugeot, 67–68, 69(fig.)
Bernard, Lawrence, 320
Bernardini, Gilberto, 88
berylliosis, 191–192, 293–294
beryllium as reactor moderator, 194
beta radiation and beta decay, 101–105, 108–109, 112, 123, 197, 285, 327–328
Bethe, Hans, 135, 192, 289(fig.), 341, 349
APS vice presidency and presidency, 305, 310–311
Fermi’s QED paper, 100
hydrogen bomb research, 303
quantum states in a gas, 54–55
Rome School, 88
von Neumann and, 243
Washington Conference, 159
birthplace, Fermi’s, 5–6
black hole, 282
Blair, Clay, 309, 328, 343
Bloch, Emanuel, 304–305
Bloch, Felix, 88, 129–130
Bohr, Aage, 248–249
Bohr, Niels
arrival in New York, 156
beta radiation, 103
code name, 202
Como conference, 89–90
early quantum model, 45–47
Fermi’s Nobel Prize, 137–139
initiator mechanism, 248–249
NAS conference, 287
nuclear fission, 158
Poconos conference, 287
quantum model, 48
research topics, 45
Rome conference, 111(fig.), 112(fig.)
University of Göttingen, 35
uranium fission, 152–154
Washington Conference, 159–160
Borden, William, 309
Born, Max, 34–36, 46, 49–50, 56–57, 89
Bose-Einstein statistics, 55–56
Boskey, Bennett, 320–321
bosons, 36, 55–56, 101, 357–359
bounty hunters, 76
Bradbury, Norris, 224, 290, 309
Bragg, Walter, 89
Brode, Bernice, 246
Brode, Robert, 246
Buck, Pearl S., 143, 143(fig.)
Bush, George W., 328
Bush, Vannevar, 185–187, 320
by-products, reactor “poisoning” by, 231–233
cadmium as reactor moderator, 191, 200–201, 222–223, 228
Cambridge group, 109, 111–112, 114, 118, 151–152, 156
Capon, Anna, 65, 67–68
Capon, Augusto, 38–39, 69, 70(fig.), 135–136
Capon, Cornelia, 67–68
Capon, Laura. See Fermi, Laura Capon
Caraffa, Andrea, 11–12
Carrara, Nello, 23–24, 25(fig.), 27
Castelnuovo, Guido, 30, 38–39, 64–65, 334–335
CERN, 334, 360
Chadwick, James, 103, 109, 112, 114, 151–152
chain reaction
bringing the Chicago pile to criticality, 207–212
concerns over Hitler’s access to fission, 162
Fermi’s meeting with the US Navy, 169–170
graphite moderator, 177
increasing urgency in the research, 180–181
Szilard’s ideas on, 154–155
uranium as basis for, 161, 163–165
using natural uranium, 172–173
See also nuclear reactors
Chamberlain, Owen, 84, 329, 331–332
Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan, 282–284, 294, 341–342, 345, 365–366
Chandrasekhar limit, 282
chaos theory, 291
Chevalier, Haakon, 308
Chew, Geoffrey, 244, 246, 307, 327
Chicago, Illinois, 189–190, 194–195, 198, 271–272. See also University of Chicago
Chwolson, Orest, 16, 19
classical mechanics, 15
classified work, 333–334
code names, scientists’, 202–203, 229, 234
cognitive dissonance, 158
The Collected Papers (Fermi), 263, 357
Columbia University, 190
Anderson-Fermi collaboration, 158–161
Bethe’s APS presidency, 310–311
chain reaction experiments with Anderson and Szilard, 172–174
FBI suspicion of Fermi’s ties, 189
Fermi’s lecture on the fission work, 323–324
Fermi’s offer of a faculty position, 135
Fermi’s working exponential pile, 184–186
graphite diffusion experiments, 182–183
pile modifications, 190–192
Rabi and Fermi, 171–172
Steinberger’s move to, 307
summer lectures, 129
Szilard’s presence at, 154–155
the Fermis’ arrival, 150
Yang and Lee, 326
Como conference (1927), 82, 89–91, 187–188, 334
Compton, Arthur, 111(fig.), 112(fig.)
background and work, 187–188
Bartky replacing, 274–275
consequences of the chain reaction experiment, 213
criticality, 209
DuPont negotiations, 207, 212
Fermi’s Nobel nomination, 138
Hanford reactor, 232–233
Interim Committee decision, 250–252
pile facility construction, 201, 204
the Chicago team, 186–187, 196
watch behavior at altitude, 221
X-10 plutonium reactor, 223
computational physics, 290–291, 359–360
computers
advances in simulation technology, 359–360
human, 241, 243, 302
postwar work on programmable machines, 290–291
Conant, James Bryant, 212, 300, 312
concorso (academic competition), 57–59, 83
Condon, Edward, 307–308
conservation laws, 102–103
controlled fission reactions, 120–125, 127, 207–208
Conversi, Marcello, 264–265, 276
Corbino, Orso Mario, 41, 70(fig.), 81(fig.), 126
bringing Italian physics to international prominence, 108
career path, 32–33
commitment to Fermi’s success, 30, 32
Como conference, 88–89
death of, 132
discovery of transuranic elements, 119
fascist regime and, 33–34
Fermi’s position in Florence, 43
Fermi’s teaching position at University of Rome, 38
Fermi’s wedding to Laura, 69
heading the university physics department, 18–19
importance of Fermi’s slow-neutron process, 363
Italy’s annexation by Germany, 129
Lo Surdo’s friction with Fermi and, 92
paraffin block experiment, 123–124
patent controversy, 318–319
Rome conference, 111(fig.)
Rome School, 80, 82, 87
supporting Fermi’s professional ambitions, 57–59, 63
Cordova, Tina, 261
cosmic-ray physics, 181, 276, 281–286, 334
coup d’état (Italy), 31–34
CP-1/CP-2/CP-3, 217–218, 265–266, 280–281
critical mass problem, 239–241
criticality, 207–212, 214–216, 229–233
crocodile spectrograph, 109(fig.)
Cronin, James, 330–332
Curie, Marie, 35–37, 111(fig.), 113, 202
cyclotron, 220
Columbia University, 159
Frascatti, Italy, 108, 360
pion-neutron scattering, 278
plutonium creation, 197–198
proton accelerator for mesotron production, 276, 279
D’Agostino, Oscar, 115–116, 115(fig.), 124, 126, 157, 318–319, 321
daily routine, Fermi’s, 72–73, 78–79, 243–247
Darrow, Karl, 305
Davis, Warren, 316–318
death
Admiral Capon, 136
Alberto Fermi, 67
Corbino, Rutherford, and Marconi, 127, 132–133
Giulio Fermi, 9–10
Ida Fermi, 10, 41
Maria Fermi, 353–354
death, Fermi’s, 117(fn), 336–337, 340–346, 348–352, 354, 356–357, 360–361, 364–365
Debye, Peter, 110, 112(fig.)
degeneracy, 55–56
delta plus plus particle, 293
deuterium, 171
Dirac, Paul, 44
background, 50–52
electron spin, 49
Fermi’s quantization of perfect gases, 55–56
NAS conference, 287
Nobel Prize, 138
quantum electrodynamics, 96–98, 103–105
Solvay conference, 88–89
documentary of Fermi, 357
Dragstedt, Lester, 340–341
Dunning, John, 159, 172, 298
DuPont Corporation, 207, 212, 223, 225, 228