Big Science
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element 43, 167
element 93 (neptunium), 221, 225, 243, 246
element 94, see plutonium
element 97 (berkelium), 429
element 98 (californium), 429
element 103 (lawrencium), 429
Elephant Walk (film), 395
Elizabeth II, Queen of England, televised coronation of, 397
Eltenton, George, 379–80
Elugilab island, 369
Eniwetok Atoll, 369, 421
H-bomb tests at, 362, 396
“Mike” test at, 369
Enola Gay, 292, 297
European Organization for Nuclear Research, see CERN
Evans, Robley, 173–74
Eve, Arthur S., 22–23
experimental anomalies, 25
experimental physics, contamination in, 111, 115, 116, 117, 132, 172
Faraday, Michael, 58
“Fat Man” (atomic bomb), 278, 297
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), 377
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 392
Federal Telegraph Company, 55, 61, 62, 69, 75
Federation of American Scientists, 315
Fermi, Enrico, 8, 95, 128, 130, 132, 133, 217, 219, 318, 344
atomic-pile research of, 8, 215, 223, 237, 256, 258, 264, 276–77, 354
deuteron hypothesis of, 128
as GAC member, 322
H-bomb opposed by, 348, 383, 442
on Interim Committee scientific panel, 286
May-Johnson bill and, 313–14
Nobel Prize awarded to, 181
preliminary reactor research of, 218–19, 238, 239
Rad Lab heavy-water reactor vetoed by, 354
Fermilab, 433, 439
Feynman, Richard, 293
Fields, Kenneth, 364, 370, 372
Fifth International Congress of Radiology, 177–78
Finch, Peter, 395
Fischer, John, 438
Fisk, James B., 422, 425, 427–28
509th Composite Group, U.S. Army Air Forces, 292
Fleming, Arthur P. M., 120
Fletcher, Walter, 58
Flexner, Abraham, 57–58
Floberg, John F., 413
Follis, Gwin, 357, 395
Ford, Edsel, 204
Ford, Henry, II, 392
Ford Foundation, 60, 392
Fortune, 194, 195, 377
Fosdick, Raymond B., 10, 178, 201, 204, 254, 308, 432
Foster, J. Stuart, 183, 240
Fowler, Ralph Howard, 117
Franck, James, 91, 196, 281, 283, 287, 303, 388–89
Frankfurter, Felix, 283
Frisch, Otto, 221–22, 223
Fukushima disaster, 11
GAC, see General Advisory Committee
Gaither, H. Rowan, 314, 390, 392
EOL’s friendship with, 392
Galison, Peter, 9–10
gallium, 167
gamma rays, 80, 127, 131
Gamow, George, 70
Gardner, David P., 336
Garrison, Lloyd K., 384, 385
gaseous diffusion, 235–36, 237, 239, 257, 260, 272, 275, 325
Geiger, Hans, 17, 18
Geiger counters, 71, 124, 126
General Advisory Committee (GAC), 318–19, 321, 323, 343, 354, 368–69
Fermi as member of, 322
H-bomb opposed by, 347–48, 349, 375
heavy-water reactor approved by, 354
Livermore failures criticized by, 372
Oppenheimer as chairman of, 364
Oppenheimer at meeting of, 346
Rabi as chairman of, 371–72
second H-bomb supported by, 364
General Electric Company, 38, 83, 195, 392
Geneva test ban conference (1958), 403, 422–23, 427–28
Gerjuoy, Edward, 94, 96
Germany, Nazi:
anti-Semitic laws of, 222
atomic bomb program of, 214–15, 217, 231, 256, 277, 279
Norwegian heavy-water plant commandeered by, 256
Poland invaded by, 185, 218, 240
Ghiorso, Albert, 429
Gilman Hall, 141–42, 242, 246
Glashow, Sheldon, 439
gold, 108, 111
Goldhaber, Maurice, 5
Goodpaster, Andrew, 400–401
Göttingen, Germany, 42, 91
government, U.S.:
Big Science funding by, 9, 39, 76, 210, 240–41, 249, 253, 360, 434, 436, 437, 440
nuclear physics research and, 311–12
Gow, Don, 355–56
Chromatic Television Laboratories and, 393, 394, 397
Graham, John S., 413
grants, 9, 10, 136, 137, 175–76, 178, 208, 209
Great Artiste (B-29), 297
Great Britain, 252
atomic bomb research in, 222
H-bomb test of, 408
Great Depression, 131, 157, 194, 196
academic budgets and, 137
Great Ormond Street Hospital (London), 397
Greenhouse, Project, 362, 367
Gregg, Alan, 58
Griggs, Helen, 252, 264
Groves, Leslie R., 260, 265, 269, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 281, 282, 284, 286, 289, 292, 293, 304, 315, 433
atomic bomb project headed by, 249, 260
and destruction of Japanese cyclotrons, 311
EOL’s relationship with, 260–61, 267, 309–10, 312
evolving calutron design and, 265–66
Oppenheimer’s first encounter with, 261–62
Pentagon construction commanded by, 260
Guggenheim family, 210
Hahn, Otto, 93, 206
nuclear fission discovery of, 214, 221
Hahn, Paul F., 182
Hale, George Ellery, 40
Hale telescope, 200-inch, 209
half-life, 17, 187, 243–44, 246
Hall, Elmer, 43, 73, 85
Hamilton, Joseph, 307
Hanford, Wash., plutonium plant at, 277–78, 281, 292, 318, 355, 408–9
Harding, Warren, 22
Hardtack, Operation, 419–20, 421, 422
Harper’s Monthly, 59
Harrison, George, 295, 301
Harvard Medical School, 139, 140
Harvard University, 89, 144
in attempted recruitment of EOL, 144–51
Oppenheimer’s standing offer from, 145
Hearst, William Randolph, 151
heavy neutron flux, 354
heavy water, 106–7, 256
see also deuterium; deuton
heavy-water reactors, 340, 342, 345, 346
in Chalk River, 343
GAC approval of, 354
Oppenheimer’s support for, 343
veto of Rad Lab as site for, 354
Heisenberg, Werner, 23–24, 91, 102, 105, 192
EOL’s deuton results dismissed by, 113
helium, 17, 25
isotope of, 117
helium-3, 117
Henderson, Malcolm, 77, 78, 79, 85, 117, 124, 126, 132
in move to Princeton University, 137
Herter, Christian, 407
hex (uranium hexafluoride), 237, 257, 260, 272
Hickenlooper, Bourke, 331, 389
Higgs, Peter, 1
Higgs boson, 1, 3, 440
high-energy beams, 5, 20, 25–26, 38, 44
Higinbotham, William A., 313
Hiroshima, Japan, 436
atomic bombing of, 258, 276, 297, 303
Hitler, Adolf, 214–15, 217, 225, 279
Hockenblamer, August F., 75
Hoffmann, Frederic de, 363
Holloway, Marshall G., 363
Hoover, Gilbert C., 218
Hoover, J. Edgar, 376–77
Hoover Dam, 26
“hot lab,” 307, 316
House of Representatives, U.S.
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of, 327, 331
see also Congress, U.S.
Hughes, Arthur L., 173, 174
Hul
l, Albert W., 38
hydrogen, 183
heavy, see deuterium; deuton
isotopes of, 117; see also deuterium; tritium
nucleus of, 20
hydrogen bomb, 4, 287, 301, 337, 339–51, 356, 361, 362, 394
fears of Soviet development of, 341, 343, 348, 361, 386
morality issues surrounding, 342–43, 347–48, 388, 404, 405, 412
radioactive fallout issue and, 399, 403, 405–6
Strauss on capabilities of, 399–400
as weapon of mass destruction, 347, 404
Hydrogen Bomb, The: The Men, The Menace, The Mechanism (Shepley and Blair), 370
hydrogen bomb program, 400–401, 404–5
EOL’s campaign for, 339–40, 348–49, 388
GAC opposition to, 347–48, 349, 375
Oppenheimer’s opposition to, 342–43, 345, 346–47, 349–50, 375, 378, 382–83, 442
second lab proposals in, 362–63, 364–66, 378
test ban movement and, 400, 403–4, 406–7, 408, 422
hydrogen bomb testing, 362, 369, 396, 413, 419–20
national debate over, 396, 408–9, 418
one-year moratorium on, 428
Soviet’s proposed moratorium on, 401
by Soviet Union, 419–20, 428
hydrogen nuclei (protons), 20
ICBM project, 441
Institute for Advanced Study, 320
Oppenheimer appointed director of, 320–21
Institute for Physical and Chemical Research (Tokyo), 174, 291
Institute for Theoretical Physics (University of Copenhagen), 42
Institute of Cancer Research (Columbia University), 82
interdisciplinary research, 74, 82, 141, 168, 176, 243, 432
Interim Committee, 286, 295, 299
May 31, 1945 meeting of, 286–90
Oppenheimer’s reports to, 300–301
recommendations for Truman by, 290
scientific panel of, 286, 290–91
Internet, 437
ions, ionization, 46, 48, 53
Ishpeming, Mich., 242
isotope chart, 157
isotopes, 117, 241
coining of term, 17
nonradioactive, 183
therapeutic, 307
see also radioisotopes; specific isotopes
Ivanov, Peter, 380
J-16, 359
Jackson, Henry, 408–9
Japan, 279
atomic bombings of, 245, 258, 276, 278, 286–87, 291, 297–98, 303
Corps of Engineers destruction of cyclotrons in, 310–11, 314
Jewett, Frank, 226, 228, 235
Joe, Operation, 343
John R. and Mary Markle Foundation, 178
Johns Hopkins University, 44, 195
Johnson, Edwin C., 312
Johnson, Hiram, 151
Johnson, Louis, 350
Johnson, Tom, 47, 63
Joint Chiefs of Staff, 344
Joliot-Curie, Frederic, 4–5, 22, 105, 114, 132, 160, 168, 179, 205, 206
artificial radioactivity discovered by, 126, 127, 133, 138, 206
and discovery of fission neutrons, 217
neutron weight calculated by, 123
Nobel Prize awarded to, 138
Joliot-Curie, Irène, 4–5, 22, 105, 114, 132, 160, 168, 179
artificial radioactivity discovered by, 126, 127, 133, 138, 206
neutron weight calculated by, 123
Nobel Prize awarded to, 138
Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, 131, 136
Journal Club, 74–75, 243
Oppenheimer and, 97
Joyce, Kenyon, 327
K-25 (Oak Ridge Laboratory), 272, 275
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics, 215
Kamen, Martin, 48, 96, 128–29, 143–44, 160, 161, 162, 163, 172, 182, 233–34, 241, 247, 250, 270
chemistry skills of, 182
ejected from Rad Lab, 251
EOL’s split with, 188
leftist social circle of, 250–51
libel lawsuit of, 389
in search for carbon-14, 184–85, 187–88
seen as security risk, 250–51, 326
Kapitza, Peter, 121
Kast, Ludwig, 131, 179
K-capture, 166–67
Kefauver, Estes, 404
Kennedy, John F., and resumption of nuclear tests, 428
Kennedy, Joseph, 244, 245, 265
Kerr, Clark, 426
EOL eulogized by, 431–32
Kheifetz, Gregory, 251
Khrushchev, Nikita, 420
test ban negotiations and, 422, 428
Killian, James R., 422
appointed PSAC chair, 416–17
test ban debate and, 418
Knight, Arthur, 63, 64, 83, 132–33, 134
Korean War, 9, 364, 434
Kruger, Gerald, 183
Kurchatov, Igor, 181
Kurie, Franz, 71, 72, 121, 157
Rad Lab’s slipshod methods criticized by, 126–27
Langevin, Paul, 102
Lansdale, John, 249–50
Lapp, Ralph, 405
Large Hadron Collider, 1, 12, 396, 440
scale of, 2, 3
Laslett, Jackson, 129, 137, 181
and Copenhagen cyclotron, 138
Latimer, Wendell, 327, 328, 378
Lattes, Cesare M. G., and discovery of artificial mesons, 323–24
Laurence, William L., 109–10
Lauritsen, Charles Christian “C. C.,” 115, 118, 127, 133, 134
Lawrence, Carl, 29, 30, 72, 162, 219
Lawrence, Ernest Orlando, 10, 12, 28, 29–44, 57, 74, 89, 117, 120, 124, 127, 138, 177, 192, 219, 235, 237, 238, 255, 260, 288, 289, 291, 317, 365, 371, 384–85, 401, 411, 419, 422, 433, 436, 439
AEC security board and, 327–29
anti-Communism of, 326
appearance of, 89–90
artificial radioactivity patent claims by, 132–35
athletic enthusiasms of, 31, 89
balancing of engineering and hard science by, 208
Balboa Island vacation home of, 390–91, 422–23
Briggs committee criticized by, 225–26
Bush and, 208–9
Bush’s clash with, 226
calutron developed by, 252–53
and carbon-14 hunt, 184
as CERN consultant, 396, 423
Chadwick’s relationship with, 114–15
character and personality of, 5–6, 77, 89–90, 260, 268
at Chicago meeting, 213, 230–31
childhood and adolescence of, 29–32
“clean bomb” concept endorsed by, 404
colitis of, 395, 399, 421, 425
collaborative-research paradigm invented by, 81, 129–30, 133, 135, 161, 180, 186, 243
on Compton panel to review Briggs committee, 227–28
Compton’s confrontation with, 239–40
Conant’s relationship with, 257
confession of error by, 121
conservative social circle of, 99–100
as creator of Big Science, 2–3, 8, 432
cyclotron invented by, 45, 186, 432
death of, 426
on decision to drop atomic bomb, 298–99
deuton beam experiments of, 107–8, 113, 115, 126
deuton disintegration theory of, 107–8, 111, 113, 116, 117, 121, 128
Diablo workshop of, 393–94
diaspora of Rad Lab researchers encouraged by, 136–37, 156
ebullience of, 47–48, 68, 202, 272, 309, 344, 345, 356, 369
egalitarian approach to lab management by, 157, 432–33
Eisenhower’s meeting with, 409–10, 411
electromagnetic separation technique of, see electromagnetic separation
“established” facts disparaged by, 34
experimental equipment fashioned by, 35
as experimentalist, 90, 366
extravagant predictions of, 154–55
Frank Oppenheimer and, 330�
�31
frugality of, 75–76
fund-raising by, 5–6, 10, 54, 55–56, 57, 74, 75–76, 82–83, 90, 130–31, 135, 136, 153, 175, 176, 178–79, 187, 197, 203–4, 240, 307–8, 312, 319, 357
Gaither’s friendship with, 392
graduate-student labor employed by, 50, 61, 74, 76, 138, 148, 156
Groves’s relationship with, 260–61, 267, 309–10, 312
Harvard’s attempted recruitment of, 144–51
H-bomb program pushed by, 339–40, 348–49, 388, 408–9
inexhaustible energy of, 37–38
influence of, 3
interdisciplinary approach of, 74, 82, 141, 168, 176, 243, 432
on Interim Committee scientific panel, 286
as intuitive theorist, 51, 67
John H. Lawrence’s relationship with, 139
Journal Club of, 74–75, 97, 243
light experiments of Beams and, 36–37
Livermore site picked by, 353
Livingston’s relationship with, 84
Loomis’s relationship with, see Lawrence-Loomis relationship
loyalty oath controversy and, 333–37
MAUD report and, 230
May-Johnson bill and, 313–14
memorial service for, 431–32
military projects as continuing interest of, 325
MIT Rad Lab created by, 224–25
NDRC and, 224
as New Deal Democrat, 100
Neylan’s friendship with, 333, 337, 389
1927 European trip of, 41–42
1935 lecture tour of, 135–36
1936 lecture tour of, 144
Nobel Prize acceptance speech of, 45–46
Nobel Prize awarded to, 6, 78, 185–87, 188–89, 200
occasional self-doubt of, 53–54
Oppenheimer on achievements of, 97–98
Oppenheimer security hearing and, 378, 380–81, 388
Oppenheimer’s relationship with, see Lawrence-Oppenheimer relationship
optimism of, 202, 392, 421
patent process and, 62–64, 132
in plutonium hunt, 244–45
politics disliked by, 281, 314–15, 335, 389
and postwar expansion of Rad Lab, 304–5
Presidential Medal for Merit awarded to, 304, 309
on public committees and boards, 390
radio experiments of, 31–32
recurring illnesses and physical ailments of, 274–75, 314, 382, 390, 395, 399, 421–22, 425–26
research credit shared by, 85
right-wing politics of, 337, 385
Rockefeller Foundation as preeminent sponsor of, 176
round-the-world voyage of, 395–96
Rutherford’s disagreement with, on usefulness of atomic energy, 112–13
safety regime and, 249–50
at St. Olaf College, 32
second H-bomb lab proposal of, 364–65
self-confidence of, 51, 52, 96, 111–12, 248, 256–57, 268
at Solvay Conference, 102, 105–6, 112–14, 123
Sproul’s relationship with, 146, 147
Strauss and, 382
stutter of, 30–31