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Big Science

Page 54

by Michael Hiltzik


  “admiration and respect”: Ibid.

  “Every time I have found”: IMJRO, p. 802.

  “one of two men”: Ibid., p. 805.

  “I think the reason”: Ibid., p. 787.

  “because he expressed”: Ibid., p. 567.

  “I am quite sure”: Ibid., pp. 910–11.

  “I remember driving”: Ibid., p. 969.

  “I think there was”: Oppenheimer recollections, HCP.

  “a man so conceited”: Neylan recollections, HCP.

  “How does this”: Brady recollections, HCP.

  Chapter Twenty: The Return of Small Science

  “The work of”: “Statement by the Atomic Energy Commission,” June 29, 1954, p. 6, copy in EOLP.

  “It was not likely”: Hewlett and Holl, Atoms for Peace and War, p. 112.

  “not prepared”: For the libel suit and Lawrence’s role, see Kamen, Radiant Science, Dark Politics, pp. 278–89.

  “I knew that”: Neylan recollections, HCP.

  “an old wreck”: Childs, American Genius, p. 377.

  “The remodeling was”: Margaret (Lawrence) Casady to Herbert Childs, April 15, 1963, HCP.

  The very idea: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 165.

  “Ed and I”: Ibid., p. 166.

  “a place where”: Molly Lawrence recollections, HCP.

  “sense of urgency”: Don Gow recollections, HCP.

  On one occasion: Childs, American Genius, p. 450.

  Dr. John Sherrick: Casady to Childs.

  Soon after taking office: Hewlett and Holl, Atoms for Peace and War, pp. 261–62.

  Chapter Twenty-one: The “Clean Bomb”

  Ernest’s colitis recurred: Childs, American Genius, p. 501.

  “We’re still in business!”: Herken, p. 301.

  “Exactly what is”: Francis, “Warhead Politics.”

  fallout was detected: Hewlett and Holl, p. 290.

  “far below the levels”: Divine, Blowing on the Wind, p. 12.

  “Lewis, I wouldn’t”: Hagerty, Diary of James C. Hagerty, p. 36.

  “working philosophy”: York, Making Weapons, p. 75.

  “That certainly expresses”: Notes of Stassen-Eisenhower conference, March 22, 1955, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, vol. 20, p. 61. [Henceforth FRUS.]

  “experienced men”: Ibid., p. 60.

  of the Lawrence panel’s twelve: Herken, p. 305.

  “Edward was always”: York, Making Weapons, p. 82.

  “All that the man”: Appleby, Eisenhower and Arms Control, 1953–1961, p. 148.

  His estimate came: “Memorandum of Discussion at the 271st Meeting of the National Security Council, December 22, 1955,” FRUS, 1955–1957, Vol. 20, pp. 250–55.

  The proposal won him: Hewlett and Holl, p. 334.

  “mandatory to the defense”: Dunning, Gordon M., “Effects of Nuclear Weapons Testing,” The Scientific Monthly 81, no. 6 (December 1955): pp. 265–70.

  “It is possible”: See Libby, Willard F., “Radioactive Strontium Fallout,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 42, no. 6 (June 1956): pp. 365–90.

  “God in His almighty”: Hewlett and Holl, p. 337.

  “not to make a bigger”: Eisenhower press conference, April 25, 1956, at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=10787 [accessed August 14, 2013].

  “maximum effect”: Divine, Blowing on the Wind, p. 82.

  “Thus the current”: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September 1956, p. 263.

  “The superbomb can be”: Lapp, Ralph E., “The ‘Humanitarian’ H-Bomb,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September 1956.

  The study concluded: “The Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation,” National Academy of Sciences, 1956.

  “The concept of a safe rate”: Ibid., p. 16.

  “uncontrollable forces”: Divine, Blowing on the Wind, p. 104.

  “no sure method”: New York Times, November 6, 1956.

  “half of our”: Francis, “Warhead Politics,” p. 113.

  “a catastrophe”: Divine, Blowing on the Wind, p. 122.

  The conversation inevitably: Hewlett and Holl, Atoms for Peace and War, p. 398.

  “the gleam in the scientists’ ”: Ibid., p. 399.

  “If we know”: FRUS 1955–1957, vol. 20, p. 641.

  “to produce nuclear”: New York Times, June 25, 1957.

  “The irony of this”: Lilienthal, Road to Change, p. 204 (journal entry of June 25, 1957).

  “Madison Avenue–type”: Ibid., p. 239 (journal entry of May 5, 1958).

  “an unequivocal yes”: Eisenhower press conference, June 26, 1957, at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=10822 [accessed August 16, 2013].

  “very lucky breaks”: Starbird to Strauss, July 11, 1957, cited in Hansen, Swords of Armageddon, vol. 4, p. 293.

  “What an ‘absolutely clean’ ”: Newsweek, July 8, 1957, cited in Divine, Blowing on the Wind, p. 151.

  “Everything has worked”: Hansen, Swords of Armageddon, vol. 4, p. 287.

  “You may detect”: Ibid.

  “I mark off”: Pfau, No Sacrifice Too Great, p. 204.

  Chapter Twenty-two: Element 103

  “a silly bauble”: Divine, Blowing on the Wind, p. 170.

  “a matter of self interest”: Diary entry by the president, October 29, 1957, FRUS, 1955–1957, vol. 20, pp. 754–55. See also Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 316.

  “my ‘wizard’ ”: Eisenhower, White House Years, p. 224.

  The last hurrah: Minutes of the NSC meeting of January 6, 1958, are at FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. III, pp. 533–45.

  “weigh very carefully”: Memorandum of Conference with President Eisenhower, January 22, 1958, FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. 3, p. 553.

  at a White House meeting: Memorandum of Conference with President Eisenhower, March 24, 1958, FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. 3, pp. 567–72.

  “an extremely difficult position”: Ibid.

  “Mankind insists”: Divine, Blowing on the Wind, p. 202.

  “There is far more”: Hansen, Swords of Armageddon, vol. 4, p. 340.

  “The blunt fact”: Bradbury to Starbird, January 8, 1958, in Hansen, Swords of Armageddon, vol. 4, pp. 335–37.

  “fit as a fiddle”: Childs, American Genius, p. 518.

  “would be greatly”: Report by the President’s Science Advisory Committee, April 11, 1958, FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. 3, p. 598.

  “had never been”: Memorandum of Conference with President Eisenhower, April 17, 1958, FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. 3, p. 604.

  “We helped start”: Childs, American Genius, p. 523.

  “practically lived together”: Bacher recollections, HCP.

  “a purely technical scientific”: Divine, Blowing on the Wind, p. 216.

  It did not help: Ibid., p. 217.

  “We were going”: Bacher recollections, HCP.

  a “shaggy man”: Hewlett and Holl, Atoms in Peace and War, p. 540.

  “I wish I’d taken”: Molly Lawrence recollections, HCP.

  “Molly, I’m ready”: Ibid.

  “A man of Ernest’s”: Cooksey to Lauriston Marshall, September 25, 1958, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory archives.

  “the one touch”: Lilienthal, Road to Change, p. 307 (journal entry of January 31, 1959).

  “satisfactory progress”: Divine, Blowing on the Wind, p. 229. See also Hewlett and Holl, p. 546.

  Since Hiroshima: Divine, Blowing on the Wind, p. 238.

  “the only person”: Seaborg, Adventures in the Atomic Age, p. 144.

  Epilogue: The Twilight of Big Science?

  “Manlike creatures”: Clark Kerr, “Tribute to Professor Ernest O. Lawrence,” August 30, 1958, copy in HCP.

  “a mighty symbol”: “President’s Review,” The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report 1940.

  “He will always”: Alvarez, Luis W., “Ernest Orlando Lawrence, 1901–1958, A Biographical Memoir,” National Academy of Sciences, 1970.

  “where physicists”: Adams, John B., address, Proceeding
s of the Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, October 1981, LBNL.

  “tended to shun”: Galison, Peter, “The Many Faces of Big Science,” in Galison and Hevly, Big Science.

  “We simply do not”: Panofsky in Galison and Hevly, Big Science, p. 7.

  “A 20-year honeymoon”: Abelson, “National Science Policy,” Science, January 28, 1966.

  “basic science was worth”: Price, Don K., “Federal money and University Research,” Science, January 21, 1966.

  “The President’s Science Advisor”: Sanders, Ralph, “The Autumn of Power: The Scientist in the Political Establishment,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, October 1966.

  federal government spending: Ibid.

  Mansfield Amendment: See Kevles, The Physicists, p. 414.

  “a generation of people”: Klaw, Spencer, “Letter from MIT,” Harper’s, May 1972

  “or heart disease, or stroke”: Fischer, John, “The Editor’s Easy Chair,” Harpers, September 1966.

  “The great ideas”: Ibid.

  “the loss will not”: Sheldon L. Glashow, and Leon M. Lederman, “The SSC: A Machine for the Nineties,” Physics Today, March 1985. See also Kevles, The Physicists, p. xix.

  “expensive irrelevance”: New York Times, July 16, 1967, cited in Kevles, The Physicists, p. xi.

  “He said that he”: Weinberg, Steven, “The Crisis of Big Science,” New York Review of Books, May 10, 2012.

  In the first decades: Science Resources Statistics Info Brief, National Science Foundation, January 2010.

  “I heard that”: East Bay Express, March 23, 1984.

  Index

  * * *

  A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

  Abelson, Philip, 182, 221, 276, 436

  Aberdeen Chronograph, 193–94

  Aberdeen Proving Grounds, 193, 195, 219

  academia:

  anti-Semitism in, 100

  traditional structure of, 59, 434–35

  accelerators:

  skepticism about need for more powerful, 435–36

  see also cyclotrons; Large Hadron Collider; linear accelerators

  Acheson, Dean, 304, 350

  Adams, John Bertram, 432, 434

  Adamson, Keith, 218

  Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), 437

  Aebersold, Paul, 130, 163, 185–86

  AEC Oppenheimer hearing, 377–78, 379–86, 387, 390

  criticism of, 388

  transcript of Rolander’s interview with EOL inserted into, 384–85

  Air Force, U.S., 428

  Akeley, Carl, 33

  Akeley, Lewis Ellsworth, 33, 299

  Alamogordo, N.Mex., 280, 292

  Allen, Alexander, 173, 214, 250

  Allies, 4

  Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, 267–68, 274, 275

  Alpha II, 275

  alpha particles, 20, 49, 70, 107, 124, 183, 323

  alpha radiation (helium nuclei), 17

  alpha rays, 80, 123, 165

  Alsop, Joseph, 349

  Alsop, Stewart, 349

  aluminum, 123

  Alvarez, Luis, 86, 93–94, 107, 121, 129, 145, 157, 161, 165, 166, 180, 183, 210, 214, 274, 305, 306, 311, 325, 334, 337, 344, 347, 354, 360, 378, 381, 390, 432

  atomic bombing of Japan witnessed by, 297–98

  Berkeley faculty position obtained by, 137

  EOL-Compton confrontation witnessed by, 239–40

  and EOL’s color TV tube, 391–92

  and EOL’s refusal to testify at Oppenheimer hearing, 381–82

  H-bomb program pushed by, 339–40, 349

  K-capture experiments of, 166–67

  on lack of time for basic scientific research, 160–61

  linear accelerator of, 307, 316

  Livermore site picked by, 353

  Loomis and, 192, 193, 198

  on Loomis’s friendship with EOL, 197

  at MIT Rad Lab, 225

  as MTA’s chief designer, 357

  Oppenheimer testimony of, 382–84

  as Rad Lab postdoc, 152–53

  on Rad Lab’s collaborative-research paradigm, 130

  in refusal to testify, 381–82

  and search for fission neutrons, 216–17

  sixty-inch cyclotron magnet designed by, 153–54

  on Soviet bomb, 339

  Alvarez, Walter, 129

  “amateur,” use of term, 192

  American Association of Scientific Workers (AASW), 233, 234

  American Physical Society, 38, 98, 312

  1933 meeting of, 109–10

  1934 meeting of, 118

  American Radium Society, Janeway Lecture of, 163

  Anderson, Carl, 93, 94–95, 206

  Anderson, Herbert, 313

  antiprotons, 433

  anti-Semitism, 100, 188, 222

  Aquadag, 185, 187

  Archiv für Elektrotechnik, Wideröe’s paper in, 45–46, 47, 63

  Argonne National Laboratory, 282, 318

  arms race, 287, 376, 442

  Oppenheimer on, 376

  Army Corps of Engineers, US, 259

  Japanese cyclotrons destroyed by, 310–11, 314

  Manhattan Engineer District of, 259–60, 305, 311, 312, 315, 321

  Arneson, Gordon, 350

  ARPANET, 437

  artificial radioactivity, 124–26, 128

  Joliets’ discovery of, 126, 127, 133, 138, 206

  patent claims on, 132–35

  Associated Universities, 321

  Association of Los Alamos Scientists, 313

  Aston, Francis, 110

  Athenia, 240

  sinking of, 219–20

  atomic bomb, 2, 4, 181, 193, 287

  in attack on Japan, 7–8, 11, 245, 268, 276, 278, 279, 286–87, 291, 297–98, 303

  creation of, 209

  deployment vs. demonstration debate on, 283–84, 291–92

  Einstein’s letter to FDR on threat of, 217–18

  EOL on decision to drop, 298–99

  FDR and, 218, 232

  humanitarian concerns about, 279–80, 286, 298–300, 326

  MAUD Committee and, 222–23, 229–30

  mortality estimates for, 289

  postwar policy and, 283–84, 286

  of Soviet Union, 181, 282–83, 287, 339

  as transformative weapon, 299

  see also hydrogen bomb

  atomic bomb project, 213–15, 222, 230–31, 235–36, 241, 255–56, 263

  competing separation processes in, 256–57

  Groves as head of, 249, 260

  in Nazi Germany, 214–15, 217, 231, 256, 277, 279

  secrecy in, 215, 220, 232, 235, 249

  separation of policy and scientific elements in, 232

  Truman briefed on, 285–86

  atomic energy:

  Compton in appraising military usefulness of, 213

  electricity generated by, 10–11

  Rutherford’s disagreement with EOL on usefulness of, 112–13

  Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), 315, 317, 325, 331, 356, 362–63, 368, 375–76, 387

  accelerator budget of, 322

  Atoms for Peace program of, 396, 423

  expanded research budget of, 345–46

  General Advisory Committee (GAC) of, see General Advisory Committee

  growing unhappiness with MTA of, 359–60

  H-bomb project and, 340–41

  Lilenthal as chairman of, 317–18

  Livermore commitment of, 372–73

  Manhattan District’s atomic labs acquired by, 315, 321

  mission statement of, 367

  Oppenheimer security clearance hearing of, see AEC Oppenheimer hearing

 
; Oppenheimer’s security clearance revoked by, 387–88, 417

  Personnel Security Boards of, 326–29, 379–80

  scientists’ break with, 388

  secrecy policy at, 370

  Serber investigated by, 328–29

  Strauss’s departure from, 418

  atomic pile, 8, 215, 223, 237, 239, 256, 258, 264, 276–77, 354

  see also chain reactions

  atoms, 49

  Bohr’s model of, 24–25

  nucleus of, see nucleus

  plum pudding model of, 16, 17

  Rutherford’s model of, 24

  splitting of, see nuclear fission

  Atoms for Peace program, 396, 423

  Augustana Academy, 29

  Austin, Lord, 121

  Bacher, Robert, 87, 166, 315, 422, 423, 424, 427

  Baer, Maxie, 353

  Bainbridge, Kenneth, 173

  Balboa Island, 390–91, 422–23

  Bard, Ralph, 290

  Bartol Research Institute, 43, 173

  Barton, Henry, 111–12

  “beam hunting,” 180

  Beams, Jesse, 43, 129, 257–58

  on EOL’s inexhaustible energy, 37–38

  light experiment of EOL and, 36–37

  1927 European trip of, 41–42

  Becquerel, Henri, 16, 17

  Bell Laboratories, 173

  Berkeley, Calif., 2

  berkelium (element 97), 429

  Berlin, Germany, 42

  Berlin, University of, 26

  beryllium, 107, 108, 111, 128

  Beta calutrons, 275

  beta decay, 166

  beta rays (electrons), 17, 27

  Bethe, Hans, 87, 199, 305, 417

  “bible” of, 166

  H-bomb opposed by, 416

  H-bomb project doubts of, 344–45

  limits on cyclotron power theorized by, 169–70

  Bevatron accelerator, 321–22, 324, 356, 394, 433

  Bhagavad Gita, 295, 477n

  Big Science, 2, 9, 54, 69, 210, 242, 288, 316, 429

  business funding of, 9–10, 210, 440

  coining of term, 7, 433

  collaborative-research paradigm in, 81, 84, 129–30, 133, 135, 161, 180, 186, 243

  cost effectiveness of, 119

  cost of, 135, 360

  as double-edged sword, 388

  doubts about, 11–12, 439

  EOL as creator of, 2–3, 8, 432

  EOL’s Nobel Prize as validation of, 186–87, 200

  government funding of, 9, 39, 76, 210, 240–41, 249, 253, 360, 434, 436, 437, 440

 

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