Big Science
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military funding of, 434, 437
as model for scientific inquiry, 7–8
in postwar years, 360
public esteem and, 11
Rockefeller Foundation as big supporter of, 209
traditional academic structure revolutionized by, 434–35
as university-foundation-industry partnership, 210
Weinberg on, 433–34, 435–36
Bikini Atoll, 371, 405
biology, 139–40
biomedical research, 176, 177, 178, 307
Bird, Kai, 377
Birge, Raymond T., 41, 55, 56, 100, 106, 118, 141, 149–50, 162, 165, 197
EOL recruited by, 41, 42–43
and Harvard’s attempted recruitment of EOL, 145, 146
Birkhoff, George, 145
Birmingham, University of, 199, 222
bismuth, 128
Blair, Clay, Jr., 370
Bliven, Bruce, 6
Blumer, Elsie, 136
Blumer, George, 38
Blumer family, 72, 77, 136
Bohemian Club, 100
Bohemian Grove, 319
Bohr, Niels, 23–24, 37, 41, 42, 105, 109, 121, 137, 168, 171–72, 173, 181, 192, 205, 222
atomic model of, 24–25
EOL’s deuton results dismissed by, 113–14
on EOL’s Nobel Prize, 186
Oak Ridge visited by, 271–72
on uranium fission, 216
Borden, William, 341, 362
Born, Max, 21, 25, 91
boron, 123, 124
Boulder, Colo., lab proposal for, 362
Boyce, Joseph, 69, 125, 127, 129
Bradbury, Norris, 362, 363–64, 370, 372, 407
as Los Alamos director, 361
Teller’s accusations rebutted by, 370
test ban supported by, 421
Bradley, Omar, 344, 346
Brady, James, 48, 71, 72, 86, 90, 97, 101, 385–86
Bragg, William, 23
Bravo (Los Alamos device), 371
Briggs, Lyman J., 218, 223, 229, 235, 237, 245, 249, 255
EOL’s criticism of, 226
MAUD report ignored by, 230
secrecy as obsession of, 220–21, 249
Briggs committee, see Uranium Committee
Brobeck, Bill, 156–57, 179, 180, 181–82, 199, 305, 318–19, 321–22, 323, 356, 433
Brookhaven National Laboratory, 323, 324
Bevatron accelerator of, 321–22
as competition for Rad Lab, 321–24
Brown, Arthur, Jr., 201
Buckley, Oliver E., 347
Buffum, William W., 167–68
Bulge, Battle of the, 279
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 405, 436
Bundy, Harvey, 260
Bush, Vannevar, 208, 226–27, 229, 230, 247, 248, 259, 283, 284, 286, 287, 288, 293, 311, 317, 331, 416, 436
background of, 208
bomb project and, 253, 255
differential analyzer of, 208
EOL’s clash with, 226
as NDRC head, 223
Oppenheimer testimony of, 383–84
postwar atomic policy and, 283–84
postwar plans of, 282–83
practicality of atomic bomb impressed upon, 235
S-1 Committee created by, 234
value of fission research doubted by, 228, 229
business, Big Science funded by, 9–10, 440
Byrnes, James F., 284–85, 286, 288
continued research on H-bomb ordered by, 301, 302
California, University of, 357
loyalty oath controversy at, 332–37
California, University of, at Berkeley, 6, 38, 188, 269, 316
cyclotron disparaged by, 141
in efforts to boost academic reputation, 39–40
EOL offered associate professorship by, 43
EOL offered full professorship by, 54
EOL recruited by, 41, 42–43
Faculty Club at, 47, 92, 244
and Harvard’s attempted recruitment of EOL, 145
impact of Lawrence-Oppenheimer relationship on, 91, 101–2
Lick Observatory at, 39–40
Oppenheimer’s joint appointment to Caltech and, 91, 94
patent policy of, 59, 60
Rad Lab at, see Radiation Laboratory
Research Corporation and, 60–61
Sproul as president of, see Sproul, Robert G.
California, University of, at Berkeley, Medical School, 82, 141
Donner Lab at, 146
John Lawrence rebuffed by, 145–46
California, University of, at Berkeley, Physics Department of, 73, 137, 145, 307
dearth of faculty positions in, 136, 137
LeConte Hall of, 40–41, 48, 166, 247–48
Medical Physics Division of, 307
theoretical physics as weakness of, 91
California, University of, at Los Angeles (UCLA), 337
Teller offered job at, 340
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 40, 92, 93, 109, 134, 176
artificial radioactivity patents and, 133–34
EOL’s deuton theory contradicted by, 116
million-volt transformer at, 26–27
Oppenheimer’s joint appointment to Berkeley and, 91, 94
California Research and Development Company, 357
californium (element 98), 429
calutrons, 252–55, 256–57, 260–61, 325, 330
evolving design of, 265–66, 272–73
vacuum chambers of, 252, 255, 258, 266, 273–74, 275
Calvin, Melvin, 329
Cambridge University, 15, 137, 252
Cavendish Laboratory at, see Cavendish Laboratory
Campbell, William Wallace, 39–40
Canada, 343
cancer, radiation treatments for, 10, 80, 131, 140, 143, 161–62, 177, 329
EOL’s enthusiasm for, 163
John Lawrence’s increasing disaffection with, 163
neutron irradiation in, 162, 163–64, 177
Canton, S.Dak., 28, 29, 72
capacitors, 311
carbon, 183
carbon-11, 183, 184
carbon-14, 250
half-life of, 187
search for, 184–85, 187–88
uses of, 187–88
Carnarvon, Lord, 192
Carnegie, Andrew, 34
Carnegie Foundation, 62
Carnegie Institute of Technology, 334
Carnegie Institution of Washington, 27, 34, 81, 116, 136, 199, 208
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at, 44
EOL’s deuton theory contradicted by, 116
Casals, Pablo, 42
Castle, Operation, 371–72
Cavendish, Henry, 192
Cavendish Laboratory (Cambridge University), 3, 15, 18–19, 69–70, 73, 77, 108, 121, 123, 165, 171, 186
budget of, 19–20
deuton beam experiments of, 110
EOL’s challenge to, 105
EOL’s deuton disintegration theory disputed by, 111, 116
on EOL’s deuton results, 113
neutron weight calculations of, 109, 111, 116
usefulness of cyclotron disputed by, 113
cavity magnetron, 224
centrifuges, 238, 256, 257–58
CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), 1, 2, 12, 432, 433, 440
EOL as consultant to, 323, 396
Chadwick, James, 4, 20, 21, 105, 114, 116, 119–20, 123, 199–200, 221, 222, 293
EOL’s deuton results dismissed by, 113
EOL’s relationship with, 114–15
first British cyclotron launched by, 114–15
neutrons discovered by, 82, 106, 206
neutron theory and, 25, 123
Nobel Prize awarded to, 120
Rad Lab disdained by, 114
chain reactions, 8, 93–94, 214, 216, 222, 223, 228–29, 231, 237, 245, 256, 264, 276
see also atomic pile
Chalk River, heavy-water reactor in, 343
Chemical Foundation, 63, 82, 136, 168, 175
cyclotron funding by, 62
Chernobyl disaster, 11
Chevalier, Haakon, 328, 379–80, 386, 387
Chicago, Ill., 263
Chicago, University of, 34, 213, 239, 263, 276, 281, 282, 308, 354
Met Lab at, see Metallurgial Laboratory
solitary-research culture of, 129
Chicago Tribune, 318, 389
Childs, Herbert, 87, 385, 427
Christmas Island, 408
Chromatic Television Laboratories, 392–94, 397, 399
Churchill, Winston, 283
FDR’s Quebec summit with, 283
at Yalta conference, 284
“clean bomb,” 404, 405, 411, 416, 417
as fantasy, 405
Clinton Engineer Works, see Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Coates, Wesley, 177
Cockcroft, John Douglas, 69–70, 71–72, 73, 80, 105, 108, 113, 116, 117, 132, 135, 159, 171, 173, 181, 186, 222, 224, 249
Cold War, 9, 376, 434
Cole, W. Sterling, 409
colitis, 395, 399, 421, 425
Colorado, 358
Columbia Broadcasting System, 180, 392
Columbia University, 238, 239, 282
Institute of Cancer Research at, 82
X-ray lab at, 177
Committee on Medical Research, 464n
Commonwealth & Southern Corporation, 194
communism, 377
EOL’s fears of, 326
Communist China, 364
Communist Party, Frank Oppenheimer’s membership in, 100, 329, 331, 480n
competitive element, 8
complementarity, 24
Comptes Rendus, 124
Compton, Arthur Holly, 41, 175, 204, 206, 208, 220, 226, 227, 229, 235, 237, 251, 255, 256, 261, 262, 263, 264, 276, 277, 281, 282, 287, 288, 296, 307, 317, 354, 389, 464n
in appraising military usefulness of atomic energy, 213
bomb design team headed by, 236, 261
bomb project and, 253
Chicago meeting at home of, 213, 230–31
EOL’s confrontation with, 239–40
on Interim Committee scientific panel, 286
May-Johnson bill and, 313–14
U-235 and plutonium research supervised by, 232, 235, 238, 247
Compton, Karl, 8, 135, 196, 204, 208, 286, 288, 311, 317, 416
Compton, Wilson, 298
Comstock Prize, 168, 170
Conant, James B., 208, 225, 230, 235, 236, 237, 247, 273, 275, 277, 283, 284, 286, 287, 293, 317, 318, 331, 347, 359
in attempt to lure EOL to Harvard, 144–45, 151
Chicago meeting of, 213, 230–31
and decision to push ahead with bomb project, 255–56
EOL’s relationship with, 257
H-bomb opposed by, 345
Oppenheimer and, 342–43
postwar atomic policy and, 283–84
postwar plans of, 282–83
in Roosevelt administration, 213
Condon, Edward U., 408
Congress, U.S., 175, 440
Joint Atomic Energy Committee of, 341, 348, 358, 362, 399, 404, 408–9, 413
SSC killed by, 12
see also House of Representatives, U.S.
contamination, 116, 172
in experiments, 111, 115, 117, 132
control rods, 276
Cooksey, Charlton, 36
Cooksey, Donald, 36, 64, 71, 72, 74, 76, 79, 87, 121, 126, 138, 148, 152, 155, 157, 159, 173, 174, 180, 209, 241, 251, 319, 426
EOL’s relationship with, 36
Livingston’s contributions slighted by, 87–88
in move to Rad Lab, 126–27, 130
vacuum chamber improvements of, 130
Cooksey can, 155–56
Coolidge, W. D., 168, 170
Copenhagen, University of:
cyclotron at, 137–38, 181
Institute for Theoretical Physics at, 42
Cork, James, 171, 172
Cornell University, 87, 130, 137, 169, 456n
Cornog, Robert, 183, 201
cosmic rays, 99, 199–200, 205–7
cosmotron, 324
Cottrell, Frederick Gardner, 57, 59–60, 61, 62, 359
Research Corporation established by, 6
Council on Foreign Relations, 376
Cowie, Dean, 81
Cranston, Alan, 441
Crocker, Charles Frederick, 39
Crocker, William H., 82–83, 149, 175, 359
Crocker Cracker, see cyclotron, sixty-inch
Crocker Laboratory, 174–75, 199, 246
biomedical research as priority of, 174, 178
health and safety at, 245–46
medical treatment room in, 179
see also cyclotron, sixty-inch
Curie, Marie, 4, 16, 22, 42, 49, 105, 124, 206
neutron theory of, 123
neutron weight calculations of, 114
Curie, Pierre, 16
Cushing, Harvey Williams, 140, 141
Cushing’s disease, 140
cyclotron, eleven-inch, 69, 72–73, 423
vacuum chamber of, 64–65, 67, 68
cyclotron, 184-inch (“he-man”), 189, 201–3, 230, 248, 307, 308, 323, 353, 432
budget for, 200, 201–2, 209–10
converted into mass spectrograph, 253
Corps of Engineers funding for, 311
EOL’s plans for, 199–200
fund-raising for, 201–2, 204–5, 209, 309, 311
magnet for, 253, 266
postwar redesign of, 306
see also synchrocyclotron (184-inch)
cyclotron, sixty-inch, 148, 150, 153–54, 156, 159, 163, 170, 171, 174, 183, 184, 199, 203, 216, 241
“beam hunting” of, 180
biomedical research as priority of, 177, 178
budget of, 175, 177
deuteron beam of, 180
fund-raising for, 175–76, 177, 178–79
initial breakdowns of, 181–82
magnet of, 179
outside researchers’ designs incorporated into, 180
proton beam of, 180
radiation shielding of, 179
reliability of, 182–83, 199
and search for plutonium, 245
unveiling of, 174–75
vacuum chamber of, 179, 187
cyclotron, thirty-seven-inch, 156, 163, 169, 170, 184, 235
preventive maintenance for, 158–59
separation of U-235 in, 236
vacuum chamber of, 155, 238
cyclotron, twenty-seven-inch, 64, 69, 72, 78, 128–29, 149
deuteron beam of, 130
as prone to breakdowns, 154
vacuum chamber of, 62, 78, 84, 107, 130, 153, 167
cyclotron effect, 52
“cyclotron principle,” 46–48
Cyclotron Republic, 87, 135
cyclotrons, 3, 4, 5, 10, 61, 80, 114–15
coining of term, 459n
collaborative research demanded by, 129–30
constant need for greater power in, 12
Corps of Engineers destruction of Japanese, 310–11, 314
cost of, 61, 135
EOL’s invention of, 45, 186, 432
EOL’s patent on, 63–64, 135
first British installation of, 114–15, 120–21
first versions of, see protocyclotrons
first working model of, 53–54
funding for, 54, 55, 62, 175–76, 309
as fund-raising tool, 130–31, 311
improved reputation and reliability of, 173, 182–83, 199
international spread of, 137–38, 156, 180–81, 199, 466n
neutron-producing (J-16), 359
new radioisotopes created by, 127–28
preventive maintenance for, 158–59
relativistic limits on, 169–70, 305
second working model of, 56
; as symbol of scientific spirit, 10
as technologically complex, 7
Urey’s disparagement of, 183
see also specific cyclotrons
Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Japanese fishing boat), 371
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), 437
Darrow, Karl, 173, 289, 299
EOL’s correspondence with, 299
Dartmouth College, 51
Darwin, Charles, 192
Dean, Gordon, 349, 366, 368, 376
as AEC chairman, 362–63
dees, 53, 64–65, 67, 68, 85, 169, 170
Defense Department, U.S., 341, 407–8
ARPA of, 437
H-bomb project and, 346
Livermore and, 407–8
deuterium (heavy hydrogen), 53, 102, 106, 340
nucleus of, see deuton (deuteron)
Urey’s discovery of, 106
deuton (deuteron), 106, 124, 126, 130, 132, 165, 177, 180, 355
EOL’s disintegration theory of, 107–8, 111, 113, 116, 117, 121, 128
usefulness of, 127
Dewar flasks, 255
Diablo workshop, 393–94
DiBiasi’s restaurant, 78
Nobel Prize celebration at, 185–86
disarmament, 376
decoupling of test bans from, 417, 418
Donner, William H., 146
DuBridge, Lee, 170, 224–25, 318, 347, 386
Dulles, John Foster, 402, 407, 417, 419, 422, 424
test ban advocated by, 420
Dumbarton Oaks conference (1944), 283
DuMont Laboratories, 397
“Dump Nixon” movement, 407
Dunning, Gordon, 403
Dunning, John, 272
DuPont, 277
Durant Hall, 248
Eddington, Arthur, 21–22, 40
Eden, Anthony, 403
Edlefsen, Niels, 50, 168, 423, 439, 443
protocyclotrons assembled by, 50–51, 52–53
Ehrenfest, Paul, 91, 94
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, 57
Einstein, Albert, 6, 19, 105, 192, 280
atomic bomb letter of, 217–18
photolectric effect and, 23
relativity theory of, see relativity, theory of
Eisenhower, Dwight, 9, 396, 400, 411, 413, 415, 419, 422
EOL’s meeting with, 409–10, 411
H-bomb program and, 400–401, 404–5, 407
one-year moratorium on testing announced by, 428
Oppenheimer’s security clearance suspended by, 377
Stassen appointed to disarmament task force by, 401–2
Strauss appointed AEC chairman by, 375
test ban negotiations and, 428
elections, U.S., of 1956, 404, 406–7
Electrical Experimenter, 31
electricity, atomic energy as generator of, 10–11
electromagnetic separation, 237–38, 248, 252, 257, 260, 261, 268, 269, 272, 310, 433
electromagnetism:
Maxwell’s concept of, 19
unipolar effect in, 35–36
electrons, 23
discovery of, 16