Big Science
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Harvard move opposed by, 150
Harvard’s standing offer to, 145
H-bomb project opposed by, 342–43, 345, 346–47, 349–50, 375, 378, 382–83, 442
as head of Los Alamos laboratory, 94, 263, 320
impatience of, 92
insecurity of, 96
on Interim Committee scientific panel, 286
as Jew, 100
Journal Club and, 97
languages learned by, 92
leftist politics of, 99, 100–101, 233–34, 262, 378, 379, 385
Livermore skepticism of, 378
at May 1945 Interim Committee meeting, 288
May-Johnson bill and, 312–14
Millikan and, 99
on morality of atomic bomb, 299–300
neutron stars and black holes predicted by, 93
nuclear fission and, 93–94, 214, 216
personality and appearance of, 89–90, 94
platinum bombardment and, 171–72
positron prediction of, 92–93
postwar self-confidence of, 320
quantum mechanics knowledge of, 95–96
in refusal to resign from AEC consultancy, 377
in return to Rad Lab, 320
security clearance of, 262, 387–88
Strauss’s enmity toward, 349, 351, 375–76, 387, 415, 417
as theorist, 90, 262
Trinity test and, 293, 295, 477n
Truman’s meeting with, 303–4
wide-ranging intellectual pursuits of, 92, 99
womanizing by, 90
Oppenheimer, Katherine Harrison “Kitty,” 99, 101, 332, 379, 387
oscillators, 46, 47, 76, 124, 306, 311
oxygen, 183, 184
oxygen-15, 183
oxygen-17, 20
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 75
Palermo, University of, 167
Palo Alto Hospital, 426
Palomar, Mount, 209
Panofsky, Wolfgang K. H. “Pief,” 7, 8, 325, 334, 358, 435, 440
paradoxes, 23
Paramount Pictures, EOL’s color TV tube backed by, 392–93, 394
Paris, France, 42, 137
Parkins, Bill, 255, 270–71
Pasteur, Louis, 58
patents, 10–11, 57–58, 59
on artificial radioactivity, 132–35
for cyclotron, 63–64
for X-ray tube, 83
Patterson, Robert, 314
Pauling, Linus, 99
test ban petition circulated by, 408
Pauli, Wolfgang, 21
Paul Pigott (oil tanker), 395
Pearl Harbor, Japanese attack on, 236, 237
Peierls, Rudolf, 222, 223
Pentagon, construction of, 260
Perro Caliente, 89, 98
“phase stability” principle, 305, 321–22
Philadelphia Navy Yard, 276
Philosophical Magazine, 36
phosphorus, 161
radioactive isotope of, 123–24
photoelectric effect, 23
time lag in, 37
photons, 37
photosynthesis, 10
Physical Review, 49, 73, 85, 108, 115, 117, 118, 127, 131, 133, 169, 170, 172, 180, 196, 221, 305–6
physics:
gulf between theorists and experimentalists in, 96–97
“heroic” era of, 21
see also experimental physics; nuclear physics
physiology, 139–40
Pike, Sumner T., 315, 349
Pitzer, Kenneth, 341, 378
platinum, 108
disintegration of, 171–72
plum pudding model, 16, 17
plutonium (element 94), 228, 231, 236, 237, 238, 244, 245–46, 256, 355
EOL in search for, 244–45
half-life of, 246
production, 237, 264, 276, 292
unique properties of, 241
plutonium bomb, 8, 245, 247, 263–64, 278, 280, 297–98, 354
Trinity test of, 280, 292–96, 310
see also atomic bomb
Poillon, Howard, 60, 61, 62, 64, 83, 132, 142–43, 147, 154, 179, 210
artificial radioactivity patents and, 133–34
Poland, Nazi invasion of, 185, 218, 240
Polaris, 373, 419, 428–29
Pollard, Ernest, 114
polonium, 4, 16, 20, 123
Poseidon, 429
positrons, 123
Anderson’s discovery of, 206
Oppenheimer’s prediction of, 92–93
Potsdam conference, 295–96, 302
Powell, Fred, 360
POZ (German radio station), 32
preliminary reactor, budget for, 218–19
Presidential Medal for Merit, 304, 309
President’s Science Advisory Committee (PSAC), 416–17
Price, Don K., 436
Princeton University, 137
Príncipe island, 22, 40
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 143
protocyclotrons:
Edlefsen’s construction of, 50–51, 52–53
equivocal results of, 50–51
proton beams, 1, 2, 44, 180
protons, 4, 20, 46, 47, 106, 123, 165, 180, 306
emitted by deuton beam bombardments, 108–9
million-volt, 65, 68–69
Quaker Oats Company, 59
quantum dynamics, 102
quantum mechanics, 21, 24, 70, 91, 95–96
Quebec summit (September, 1944), 283
Rabi, Isadore Isaac “I. I.,” 316, 318, 321, 322, 323, 349, 417
as GAC chairman, 371–72
H-bomb opposed by, 348, 351, 383, 415–16, 442
H-bomb project and, 343–44
Livermore failures criticized by, 372
Oppenheimer hearing testimony of, 379, 381
test ban advocated by, 418
“racetracks,” 258, 266, 272
failure of, 273–74
magnets for, 266
radar, 7–8, 193, 222, 224, 306
radiation:
health hazards of, see radiation poisoning
Rutherford’s study of, 17–18
Radiation Laboratory (Rad Lab), 3, 7, 10, 62, 72, 114, 130, 149, 201, 206, 215, 238, 257, 260–61, 265–66, 272, 291, 297, 316, 323, 324, 326, 354, 394, 429, 433
annexation of Strawberry Canyon by, 201
anti-Oppenheimer sentiment at, 378, 381
bomb program and, 241
Brookhaven as competition for, 321–24
budgets of, 73–74, 148–49, 307
collaborative-research paradigm at, 81, 129–30, 133, 135, 161, 180, 186, 243
communist witch-hunt at, 326
Corps of Engineers funding for, 311
“cut and try” approach of, 65, 68
deuton beam experiments of, 107–8, 111, 113, 115, 116, 117, 121, 126, 128
diaspora of researchers from, 136–37, 156, 248
elements assigned to researchers at, 128
enhanced standard of living for researchers at, 240–41
exodus of loyalty oath dissenters from, 334–36, 337–38
expansion of, 247
exposure to neutrons at, 80–81
as failing to notice artificial radiation, 124–26
50th anniversary of, 442–43
foundation grants for key researchers at, 137
founding of, 442
Frank Oppenheimer at, 330
funding of, 305, 311, 319
graduate students and postdocs at, 50, 61, 74, 76, 138, 148, 156
gulf between Berkeley physics department and, 73
H-bomb project and, 344
improved safety measures at, 178
as independent unit, 148
interdisciplinary collaboration at, 74, 81–82, 141, 168, 176, 243, 432
John Lawrence’s safety regime for, 142, 153
lack of time for basic scientific experimentation at, 159–61
and long-term effects of radiatio
n, 81
Loomis at, 198–99
Loomis’s funding for, 197–98, 208
loyalty oath controversy at, 333–37, 381
medical applications of research at, 82–83
minimal precautions against radiation poisoning at, 80
need for secrecy at, 249
neutron pollution from, 141–42
neutron weight calculations of, 109, 111, 115–16
new willingness to admit error at, 171
Oppenheimer hearing and, 388
Oppenheimer in return to, 320
outside innovations incorporated by, 156
platinum disintegration experiment of, 171–72
political intrusion in, 337–38
postwar competition for, 307–8, 360
postwar expansion of, 304–5
radioisotope discoveries of, 165; see also specific isotopes
radioisotope production at, see radioisotope production, at Rad Lab
rising reputation of, 108
slapdash approach to safety at, 78–79, 133, 141, 143–44, 157–58, 177
staff dinners of, 78
team approach of, 77, 133, 161, 243
technology put before basic science at, 119, 126, 207–8
tedium at, 159
theorists added to staff of, 121
visiting physicists at, 148, 168
wartime government contracts at, 240–41, 249, 253
Weaver’s visit to, 177
radiation poisoning, 80, 177–78, 182, 245–46
genetic consequences of, 405–6
radiation shielding, 179
radioactive decay, 17, 187, 243–44, 246
radioactive tracers, 307
radioactivity:
artificial, see artificial radioactivity
discovery of, 16
radioisotope production, at Rad Lab, 131, 154, 182, 241, 242, 250
as priority, 159–60, 161–62, 175
synthetic, 147–49
radioisotopes, 123–24, 160, 165
in cancer treatments, 10, 80, 131, 140, 143, 161–62, 163, 177, 329
cyclotron’s creation of, 127–28
half-life of, 17, 187, 243–44, 246
separation and purification of, 242
synthetic, 10, 147–49
see also specific isotopes
radiological warfare, EOL’s interest in, 325
radio-sodium, 138, 162
radio transmission, 31–32
radium, 4, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 49, 131
Radium Institute, 42
RAND Corporation, 392, 401
Rasetti, Franco, 130
Raytheon Company, 63
RCA, 392
Redwing, Operation, 404–5
Reichstag building, 215
relativity, theory of, 21, 33, 39, 68, 169
cyclotron power limit and, 169–70, 305
Republican National Convention, 407
Research Corporation, 63, 83, 115, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, 145, 168, 176, 204, 238, 307
Cottrell’s establishment of, 1, 60
cyclotron funding by, 62
UC Berkeley and, 60–61
resonance, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 68, 169, 180
Richtmeyer, Floyd K., 456n
Rickover, Hyman, 325
Robb, Roger, 377–78
robotic probes, 2
Rockefeller Foundation, 10, 37, 58, 60, 74, 136, 176, 307, 323, 432
bomb project and, 254
184-inch cyclotron and, 201–3, 209–10, 316
peacetime funding of 184-inch cyclotron by, 309
Rad Lab grants of, 178
unhappiness with atomic bomb funding by, 308–9
Roentgen, Wilhelm, 16
Rolander, C. Arthur, 378, 384–85
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 420
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 194, 280, 283, 284, 318
atomic bomb and, 218, 232, 253
Churchill’s Quebec summit with, 283
death of, 285
Einstein’s atomic bomb letter to, 217–18
at Yalta conference, 284
Roosevelt administration, 213
Rose, M. E., 169, 170
Rowe, Hartley W., 318, 347
Royal Astronomical Society, 21
Royal Society, 21
Ruben, Sam, 184–85, 187–88
Russell, A. S., 15
ruthenium, 167
Rutherford, Ernest, 3, 4–5, 25, 28, 46, 70–71, 84, 105, 106, 110
atomic model of, 24
background of, 15
“complicated equipment” disliked by, 120
cyclotron installation resisted by, 114, 119–20
death of, 168
in disagreement with EOL on usefulness of atomic energy, 112–13
EOL defended by, 114
EOL’s deuton results dismissed by, 113
handmade equipment of, 15
Loomis’s meeting with, 195–96
on need for high-energy beams, 20, 25–26
neutron concept of, 25–26
new hydrogen and helium isotopes recognized by, 116–17
nucleus discovered by, 18
radiation studied by, 17–18
in search for artificial radioactivity, 125
S-1 Committee, 235, 237, 238, 247, 257, 259, 274
Compton as head of, 235
Sachs, Alexander, 217–18
Sagane, Ryokichi, 291, 297–98, 310
Saint Louis University, 71
St. Olaf College, 32
Sanders, Ralph, 436
Saxon, David, 333, 338
Schenectady, N.Y., 38
Schrödinger, Erwin, 105
Schweitzer, Albert, test ban advocated by, 408, 420
Science, 51, 118, 133, 370, 438
Science Magazine, 436
Scientific American, 112
Scientific Monthly, 403
scientific research, 132
competition in, 135
funding for, 8–10, 39, 58–59, 360, 434, 436–37, 440
profiting from, 57–59
see also Big Science
scientists:
as celebrities, 21–22
in setting national priorities, 436
SCR-268s, 306
Seaborg, Glenn, 86, 129, 241, 243–46, 269, 276, 277, 281, 306–7, 316, 318, 321, 429
background of, 241–42
chemistry studies of, 242
full professorship of, 316
Griggs’s marriage to, 252, 264
“hot lab” of, 307, 316
loyalty oath controversy and, 336–37
McMillan’s relationship with, 244
plutonium bomb project and, 247, 263–64
plutonium discovered by, 228, 236, 244
recruiting efforts of, 263–64
self-confidence of, 247
Seaborg, Helen Griggs, 252, 264
Seaborg, Selma, 242
Seaborg, Theodore, 242
Section C-1, 263–64
Segrè, Emilio, 95, 135, 167, 181, 277, 334, 363
loyalty oath controversy and, 336
in search for plutonium, 245–46
Serber, Charlotte, 328
Serber, Mrs., 99
Serber, Robert, 93, 94, 99, 100, 261, 293, 297–98, 346, 354
AEC investigation of, 328–29
and Trinity test, 294–95
Shane, Donald, 47, 48
Shepley, James, 370
Sherrick, John, 395
Sherwin, Martin, 377
Sherwood, Project, 396
shims, 68
Siegbahn, K. M. G., 186
silver, Oak Ridge Lab’s use of, 267
Slater, John, 63
Sloan, David, 49, 61, 168, 306
linear accelerator of, 69
X-ray tube of, 61, 75, 78, 79, 80, 82, 140, 149, 162
Sloane Physics Laboratory (Yale), 34
Smith, Cyril, 318, 347
Smyth, Henry DeWolf, 359, 381
Oppenheimer supported b
y, 387–88
Snell, Albert, 426
Snell, Art, 186
“snouting,” 155
Snow, C. P., 15
Soddy, Frederick, 17
sodium-24, 138
Rad Lab discovery of, 131–32
sodium isotopes, 129
Solvay, Ernest, 105
Solvay Conference, 111
EOL at, 102, 105–6, 112–14, 123
Somervell, Brehon, 259
Sony, 397
South Dakota, University of, 33
Southern California Edison Co., 26
Soviet Union, 121
in arms race, 287, 376, 442
atomic bomb of, 181, 282–83, 287, 339
cyclotron project in, 181
fears of H-bomb development by, 341, 343, 348, 361, 386
H-bomb testing by, 419–20
nuclear tests resumed by, 428
Sputnik and, 413, 415
suspension of nuclear bomb tests by, 420
in test ban negotiations with U.S., 401–3, 422–23, 427, 428
test moratorium proposed by, 401
as World War II ally, 282
Sproul, Robert G., 54, 55, 60, 62, 100, 178, 189, 198, 248, 304, 337, 359, 431, 443
EOL’s relationship with, 146, 147
and Harvard’s attempted recruitment of EOL, 146
loyalty oath controversy and, 332–33
184-inch cyclotron and, 201–3, 209
political skills of, 146–47
Sputnik, 413, 415, 436
Sputnik 2, 415
Stalin, Joseph, 282, 339
Truman and, 296
at Yalta conference, 284
Standard Oil of California, 357, 395
Research and Development subsidiary of, 360
Stanford University, 8, 335, 435
Starbird, Alfred D., 411, 421
Stassen, Harold, 402–3
as special assistant for disarmament task force, 401–2
test ban supported by, 407, 417, 418
waning influence of, 417
Steenbock, Harry, 59
Steinberger, Jack, 335–36
Stern, Isaac, 251
Stern, Otto, 49, 63
Stettinius, Ed, 210
Stevenson, Adlai, II, 407
in call for test ban, 404, 406
Stimson, Henry, 192, 232, 259, 284–85, 287, 295–96, 301
on May 1945 Interim Committee meeting, 290
Truman briefed on atomic bomb project by, 285–86
stock market crash of 1929, 194
Stone, Robert, 162, 163–64, 168–69
Strassmann, Fritz, 93
nuclear fission discovery of, 214
Strauss, Lewis L., 315, 320, 341, 342, 345–46, 371, 388, 400, 403, 412, 413, 417
Alvarez and, 382
anti-Oppenheimer campaign of, 349, 351, 375–76, 387, 415
appointed AEC chairman, 375
in departure from AEC, 418
EOL and, 382
fading influence of, 413, 417
GAC H-bomb report and, 349
H-bomb pushed by, 349, 351, 362, 396
on H-bomb’s capabilities, 399–400
Hoover and, 376–77
as rabid anti-Communist, 377