A Quantum of Energy
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The Manhattan Project and Its Legacy
Transforming the Relationship between Science and Society: The Manhattan Project and Its Legacy Report on the workshop funded by the National Science Foundation held on February 14 and 15, 2013 in Washington, DC Table of Contents Executive Summary iii Introduction 1 The Workshop 2 Two Motifs 4 Core Session Discussions 6 Scientific Responsibility 6 The Culture of Secrecy and the National Security State 9 The Decision to Drop the Bomb 13 Aftermath 15 Next Steps 18 Conclusion 21 Appendix: Participant List and Biographies 22 Copyright © 2013 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this book, either text or illustration, may be reproduced or transmit- ted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, reporting, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written persmission from the publisher. Report prepared by Carla Borden. Design and layout by Alexandra Levy. Executive Summary The story of the Manhattan Project—the effort to develop and build the first atomic bomb—is epic, and it continues to unfold. The decision by the United States to use the bomb against Japan in August 1945 to end World War II is still being mythologized, argued, dissected, and researched. The moral responsibility of scientists, then and now, also has remained a live issue. Secrecy and security practices deemed necessary for the Manhattan Project have spread through the govern- ment, sometimes conflicting with notions of democracy. From the Manhattan Project, the scientific enterprise has grown enormously, to include research into the human genome, for example, and what became the Internet. Nuclear power plants provide needed electricity yet are controversial for many people. -
George De Hevesy in America
Journal of Nuclear Medicine, published on July 13, 2019 as doi:10.2967/jnumed.119.233254 George de Hevesy in America George de Hevesy was a Hungarian radiochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1943 for the discovery of the radiotracer principle (1). As the radiotracer principle is the foundation of all diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures, Hevesy is widely considered the father of nuclear medicine (1). Although it is well-known that he spent time at a number of European institutions, it is not widely known that he also spent six weeks at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, in the fall of 1930 as that year’s Baker Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry (2-6). “[T]he Baker Lecturer gave two formal presentations per week, to a large and diverse audience and provided an informal seminar weekly for students and faculty members interested in the subject. The lecturer had an office in Baker Laboratory and was available to faculty and students for further discussion.” (7) There is also evidence that, “…Hevesy visited Harvard [University, Cambridge, MA] as a Baker Lecturer at Cornell in 1930…” (8). Neither of the authors of this Note/Letter was aware of Hevesy’s association with Cornell University despite our longstanding ties to Cornell until one of us (WCK) noticed the association in Hevesy’s biographical page on the official Nobel website (6). WCK obtained both his undergraduate degree and medical degree from Cornell in Ithaca and New York City, respectively, and spent his career in nuclear medicine. JRO did his nuclear medicine training at Columbia University and has subsequently been a faculty member of Weill Cornell Medical College for the last eleven years (with a brief tenure at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (affiliated with Cornell)), and is now the program director of the Nuclear Medicine residency and Chief of the Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics Section. -
Warburg Effect(S)—A Biographical Sketch of Otto Warburg and His Impacts on Tumor Metabolism Angela M
Otto Cancer & Metabolism (2016) 4:5 DOI 10.1186/s40170-016-0145-9 REVIEW Open Access Warburg effect(s)—a biographical sketch of Otto Warburg and his impacts on tumor metabolism Angela M. Otto Abstract Virtually everyone working in cancer research is familiar with the “Warburg effect”, i.e., anaerobic glycolysis in the presence of oxygen in tumor cells. However, few people nowadays are aware of what lead Otto Warburg to the discovery of this observation and how his other scientific contributions are seminal to our present knowledge of metabolic and energetic processes in cells. Since science is a human endeavor, and a scientist is imbedded in a network of social and academic contacts, it is worth taking a glimpse into the biography of Otto Warburg to illustrate some of these influences and the historical landmarks in his life. His creative and innovative thinking and his experimental virtuosity set the framework for his scientific achievements, which were pioneering not only for cancer research. Here, I shall allude to the prestigious family background in imperial Germany; his relationships to Einstein, Meyerhof, Krebs, and other Nobel and notable scientists; his innovative technical developments and their applications in the advancement of biomedical sciences, including the manometer, tissue slicing, and cell cultivation. The latter were experimental prerequisites for the first metabolic measurements with tumor cells in the 1920s. In the 1930s–1940s, he improved spectrophotometry for chemical analysis and developed the optical tests for measuring activities of glycolytic enzymes. Warburg’s reputation brought him invitations to the USA and contacts with the Rockefeller Foundation; he received the Nobel Prize in 1931. -
Wolfgang Pauli Niels Bohr Paul Dirac Max Planck Richard Feynman
Wolfgang Pauli Niels Bohr Paul Dirac Max Planck Richard Feynman Louis de Broglie Norman Ramsey Willis Lamb Otto Stern Werner Heisenberg Walther Gerlach Ernest Rutherford Satyendranath Bose Max Born Erwin Schrödinger Eugene Wigner Arnold Sommerfeld Julian Schwinger David Bohm Enrico Fermi Albert Einstein Where discovery meets practice Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology IQ ST in Baden-Württemberg . Introduction “But I do not wish to be forced into abandoning strict These two quotes by Albert Einstein not only express his well more securely, develop new types of computer or construct highly causality without having defended it quite differently known aversion to quantum theory, they also come from two quite accurate measuring equipment. than I have so far. The idea that an electron exposed to a different periods of his life. The first is from a letter dated 19 April Thus quantum theory extends beyond the field of physics into other 1924 to Max Born regarding the latter’s statistical interpretation of areas, e.g. mathematics, engineering, chemistry, and even biology. beam freely chooses the moment and direction in which quantum mechanics. The second is from Einstein’s last lecture as Let us look at a few examples which illustrate this. The field of crypt it wants to move is unbearable to me. If that is the case, part of a series of classes by the American physicist John Archibald ography uses number theory, which constitutes a subdiscipline of then I would rather be a cobbler or a casino employee Wheeler in 1954 at Princeton. pure mathematics. Producing a quantum computer with new types than a physicist.” The realization that, in the quantum world, objects only exist when of gates on the basis of the superposition principle from quantum they are measured – and this is what is behind the moon/mouse mechanics requires the involvement of engineering. -
The Optical Thin-Film Model: Part 2
qM qMqM Previous Page | Contents |Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page qMqM Qmags THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND® The Optical Thin-Film Model: Part 2 Angus Macleod Thin Film Center, Inc., Tucson, AZ Contributed Original Article n part 1 of this account [1] we covered the early attempts to topics but for our present account it is his assembly of electricity Iunderstand the phenomenon of light but heavily weighted and magnetism into a coherent connected theory culminating in towards the optics of thin ilms. Acceptance of the wave theory the prediction of a wave combining electric and magnetic ields and followed the great contributions of Young and Fresnel. We found traveling at the speed of light that most interests us. an almost completely modern account of the fundamentals of Maxwell’s ideas of electromagnetism were much inluenced by optics in Airy’s Mathematical Tracts but omitting any ideas of Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Faraday was born in the south of absorption loss. hus, by the 1830’s multiple beam interference in England to a family with few resources and was essentially self single ilms was well organized with expressions that could be used educated. His apprenticeship with a local bookbinder allowed for accurate calculation in dielectrics. Lacking in all this, however, him access to books and he read voraciously and developed an was an appreciation of the real nature of the light wave. At this interest in science, nourished by his attendance at lectures in the stage the models were mechanical with Fresnel’s ideas of an array Royal Institution of Great Britain. -
Transparent Conductive Oxides – Fundamentals and Applications Agenda
BuildMoNa Symposium 2019 Transparent Conductive Oxides – Fundamentals and Applications Monday, 23 September to Friday, 27 September 2019 Universität Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Linnéstr. 5, Lecture Hall for Theoretical Physics Agenda Monday, 23 September 2019 13:00 Prof. Dr. Marius Grundmann Universität Leipzig, Germany Opening 13:05 Dr. Debdeep Jena* Cornell University, USA Paul Drude Lecture I: The Drude Model Lives On: Its Simplicity and Hidden Powers 13:50 Prof. Vanya Darakchieva* Linköping University, Sweden Paul Drude Lecture II: Optical properties of the electron gas 14:35 Dr. Robert Karsthof University of Oslo, Norway Revisiting the electronic transport in doped nickel oxide *Invited talk 1 14:50 Dr. Petr Novák University of West Bohemia, Plzeň, Czech Republic Important factors influencing the electrical properties of sputtered AZO thin films 15:05 Coffee break (Aula) 15:35 Dr. Andriy Zakutayev* National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA Wide Band Gap Chalcogenide Semiconductors 16:20 Alexander Koch Universität Jena, Germany Ion Beam Doped Transparent Conductive Oxides for Metasurfaces 16:35 Prof. Chris van de Walle* UC Santa Barbara, USA Fundamental limits on transparency of transparent conducting oxides *Invited talk 2 Tuesday, 24 September 2019 08:15 Excursion BMW Group Plant Leipzig Departure by bus from Leipzig, Linnéstr. 5 09:15 Start Excursion BMW Visitor Center 12:15 Departure by bus from BMW Visitor Center 12:45 Lunch (Aula) 14:30 Prof. Dr. Pedro Barquinha* Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal Towards autonomous flexible electronic systems with zinc-tin oxide thin films and nanostructures 15:15 Dr. Saud Bin Anooz Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth, Berlin, Germany Optimization of β-Ga2O3 film growth on miscut (100) β-Ga2O3 substrates by MOVPE 15:30 Dr. -
I. I. Rabi Papers [Finding Aid]. Library of Congress. [PDF Rendered Tue Apr
I. I. Rabi Papers A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 1992 Revised 2010 March Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact Additional search options available at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms998009 LC Online Catalog record: http://lccn.loc.gov/mm89076467 Prepared by Joseph Sullivan with the assistance of Kathleen A. Kelly and John R. Monagle Collection Summary Title: I. I. Rabi Papers Span Dates: 1899-1989 Bulk Dates: (bulk 1945-1968) ID No.: MSS76467 Creator: Rabi, I. I. (Isador Isaac), 1898- Extent: 41,500 items ; 105 cartons plus 1 oversize plus 4 classified ; 42 linear feet Language: Collection material in English Location: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Summary: Physicist and educator. The collection documents Rabi's research in physics, particularly in the fields of radar and nuclear energy, leading to the development of lasers, atomic clocks, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to his 1944 Nobel Prize in physics; his work as a consultant to the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and as an advisor on science policy to the United States government, the United Nations, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during and after World War II; and his studies, research, and professorships in physics chiefly at Columbia University and also at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Selected Search Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein. -
Date: To: September 22, 1 997 Mr Ian Johnston©
22-SEP-1997 16:36 NOBELSTIFTELSEN 4& 8 6603847 SID 01 NOBELSTIFTELSEN The Nobel Foundation TELEFAX Date: September 22, 1 997 To: Mr Ian Johnston© Company: Executive Office of the Secretary-General Fax no: 0091-2129633511 From: The Nobel Foundation Total number of pages: olO MESSAGE DearMrJohnstone, With reference to your fax and to our telephone conversation, I am enclosing the address list of all Nobel Prize laureates. Yours sincerely, Ingr BergstrSm Mailing address: Bos StU S-102 45 Stockholm. Sweden Strat itddrtSMi Suircfatan 14 Teleptelrtts: (-MB S) 663 » 20 Fsuc (*-«>!) «W Jg 47 22-SEP-1997 16:36 NOBELSTIFTELSEN 46 B S603847 SID 02 22-SEP-1997 16:35 NOBELSTIFTELSEN 46 8 6603847 SID 03 Professor Willis E, Lamb Jr Prof. Aleksandre M. Prokhorov Dr. Leo EsaJki 848 North Norris Avenue Russian Academy of Sciences University of Tsukuba TUCSON, AZ 857 19 Leninskii Prospect 14 Tsukuba USA MSOCOWV71 Ibaraki Ru s s I a 305 Japan 59* c>io Dr. Tsung Dao Lee Professor Hans A. Bethe Professor Antony Hewlsh Department of Physics Cornell University Cavendish Laboratory Columbia University ITHACA, NY 14853 University of Cambridge 538 West I20th Street USA CAMBRIDGE CB3 OHE NEW YORK, NY 10027 England USA S96 014 S ' Dr. Chen Ning Yang Professor Murray Gell-Mann ^ Professor Aage Bohr The Institute for Department of Physics Niels Bohr Institutet Theoretical Physics California Institute of Technology Blegdamsvej 17 State University of New York PASADENA, CA91125 DK-2100 KOPENHAMN 0 STONY BROOK, NY 11794 USA D anni ark USA 595 600 613 Professor Owen Chamberlain Professor Louis Neel ' Professor Ben Mottelson 6068 Margarldo Drive Membre de rinstitute Nordita OAKLAND, CA 946 IS 15 Rue Marcel-Allegot Blegdamsvej 17 USA F-92190 MEUDON-BELLEVUE DK-2100 KOPENHAMN 0 Frankrike D an m ar k 599 615 Professor Donald A. -
4. Marie Curie, Ethics and Research
CATHERINE MILNE 4. MARIE CURIE, ETHICS AND RESEARCH INTRODUCTION Recently Chemistry and Engineering News (Bard, Prestwich, Wight, Heller, & Zimmerman, 2010) carried a series of commentaries on the culture of academic research in chemistry with a focus on the role of funding in research. Initially, Alan Bard decried how decisions about tenure seem more and more to focus on grant getting rather than consideration of the applicant’s accomplishments generated because of access to this funding. Bard argued further that often this funding was based, not on the quality of the proposed research but on a researcher’s ability to “hype their research” and damming truth in the process (Bard et al., 2010, p. 27). According to him, there was a disturbing trend in universities for researchers to be encouraged, almost expected, to generate patents and from there, even to be involved in initiating “start up” companies. Other researchers responded. Glen Prestwich and Charles Wight (Bard et al., 2010) argue that if researchers were able to present a clear connection between “taxpayer dollars” and funded research, the public would realize the value that science delivers. Prestwich and Wight argue further that a new cadre of researchers is involved in identifying real world problems, translating basic research into applications, and creating products as well as publications. Moving from basic research to applications that address real world problems is called translational research, and Prestwich and Wight see this research as a positive development in chemistry. Adam Heller (Bard et al., 2010) weighs in claiming that the pursuit of “patent-protected, people-serving products” was not “a sad sign of our times but a reawakening of the proud history of academic chemistry and chemical engineering” (p. -
Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production. by Vaclav Smil. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004
Book Reviews / 383 nessing water power to produce scythes for farmers, spindles for textile mills, and cotton thread. Small emphasizes that these were not the activities of ab- sentee investors but of local men and women who mixed manufacturing with agriculture. Beauty and Convenience focuses on a farming community that has received scant attention from historians, but Small makes a convincing case that the way in which the farmers of Sutton fashioned and re-fashioned their houses and landscape reveals their full participation in the historic transformations of their era. Kenneth Hafertepe Baylor University Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production. By Vaclav Smil. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004. 360 pp., $19.95, paperback, ISBN 0-262-69313-5. What is the most important technological invention in the twentieth century? Vaclav Smil makes the cogent argument that it is the discovery and industrial- ization of ammonia synthesis by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch. Without indus- trial N-fixation, as much as two-fifths of the world’s population would starve for want of available protein in their diet, and major advances in high-pressure industrial processes would have been delayed. Likewise, the Haber-Bosch process facilitated world munitions production; encouraged agricultural ex- pansion onto marginal lands, leading to greater greenhouse emissions and soil degradation; and (because of inherent inefficiencies in nitrogen recovery by plants) has led to an unbalanced enrichment of natural ecosystems by nitrogen. It is an odd book given the title. History and society would be unalterably different without Haber and Bosch, but these protagonists do not appear un- til chapters four and five, respectively; then their lives are described in the most perfunctory manner. -
Jewish Scientists, Jewish Ethics and the Making of the Atomic Bomb
8 Jewish Scientists, Jewish Ethics and the Making of the Atomic Bomb MERON MEDZINI n his book The Jews and the Japanese: The Successful Outsiders, Ben-Ami IShillony devoted a chapter to the Jewish scientists who played a central role in the development of nuclear physics and later in the construction and testing of the fi rst atomic bomb. He correctly traced the well-known facts that among the leading nuclear physics scientists, there was an inordinately large number of Jews (Shillony 1992: 190–3). Many of them were German, Hungarian, Polish, Austrian and even Italian Jews. Due to the rise of virulent anti-Semitism in Germany, especially after the Nazi takeover of that country in 1933, most of the German-Jewish scientists found themselves unemployed, with no laboratory facilities or even citi- zenship, and had to seek refuge in other European countries. Eventually, many of them settled in the United States. A similar fate awaited Jewish scientists in other central European countries that came under German occupation, such as Austria, or German infl uence as in the case of Hungary. Within a short time, many of these scientists who found refuge in America were highly instrumental in the exceedingly elabo- rate and complex research and work that eventually culminated in the construction of the atomic bomb at various research centres and, since 1943, at the Los Alamos site. In this facility there were a large number of Jews occupying the highest positions. Of the heads of sections in charge of the Manhattan Project, at least eight were Jewish, led by the man in charge of the operation, J. -
Chronological List of Correspondence, 1895–1920
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF CORRESPONDENCE, 1895–1920 In this chronological list of correspondence, the volume and document numbers follow each name. Documents abstracted in the calendars are listed in the Alphabetical List of Texts in this volume. 1895 13 or 20 Mar To Mileva Maric;;, 1, 45 29 Apr To Rosa Winteler, 1, 46 Summer To Caesar Koch, 1, 6 18 May To Rosa Winteler, 1, 47 28 Jul To Julia Niggli, 1, 48 Aug To Rosa Winteler, 5: Vol. 1, 48a 1896 early Aug To Mileva Maric;;, 1, 50 6? Aug To Julia Niggli, 1, 51 21 Apr To Marie Winteler, with a 10? Aug To Mileva Maric;;, 1, 52 postscript by Pauline Einstein, after 10 Aug–before 10 Sep 1,18 From Mileva Maric;;, 1, 53 7 Sep To the Department of Education, 10 Sep To Mileva Maric;;, 1, 54 Canton of Aargau, 1, 20 11 Sep To Julia Niggli, 1, 55 4–25 Nov From Marie Winteler, 1, 29 11 Sep To Pauline Winteler, 1, 56 30 Nov From Marie Winteler, 1, 30 28? Sep To Mileva Maric;;, 1, 57 10 Oct To Mileva Maric;;, 1, 58 1897 19 Oct To the Swiss Federal Council, 1, 60 May? To Pauline Winteler, 1, 34 1900 21 May To Pauline Winteler, 5: Vol. 1, 34a 7 Jun To Pauline Winteler, 1, 35 ? From Mileva Maric;;, 1, 61 after 20 Oct From Mileva Maric;;, 1, 36 28 Feb To the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, 1, 62 1898 26 Jun To the Zurich City Council, 1, 65 29? Jul To Mileva Maric;;, 1, 68 ? To Maja Einstein, 1, 38 1 Aug To Mileva Maric;;, 1, 69 2 Jan To Mileva Maric;; [envelope only], 1 6 Aug To Mileva Maric;;, 1, 70 13 Jan To Maja Einstein, 8: Vol.