The Quiet Man of Physics Who Is the Only Physicist to Have Won Two Nobel Prizes?

book reviews The quiet man of physics Who is the only physicist to have won two Nobel prizes?

True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen by Lillian Hoddeson & Vicki Daitch Joseph Henry Press: 2002. 482 pp. $27.95

P. W. Anderson BETTMANN/CORBIS John Bardeen was an extremely quiet man. An anecdote in this book avers that when he was selling his house in Summit, New Jersey, the prospective buyer was so disconcerted by Bardeen’s silence that he raised his bid by many thousands of dollars while waiting for him to speak. As an old friend of Bardeen’s, I don’t find that at all implausible. Nonetheless, this quiet man led the way in two earth-shattering developments: with Walter Brattain he devised the first working semiconductor amplifier, jump-starting the information revolution; and with two young associates, he solved the 46-year-old puzzle of superconductivity, with repercussions not just in that field but in fundamental aspects of nuclear and elementary high-energy physics. He also helped to plan the research labora- Radio days: (left to right) John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain invented the transistor. tories of the giant Xerox Corporation, and was a friend and consultant to the founder of rose to head a group of 90 engineers and that had carried him so quickly to the transis- Sony. By the way, he is the only person ever scientists at the uncomfortable and crowded tor, Bardeen and David Pines soon formal- to have won two Nobel prizes in physics. Naval Ordinance Lab in Washington. ized the crucial interaction. By the end of Still, as Lillian Hoddeson and Vicki The drama in his life was largely com- 1956 (with a slight interruption to pick up Daitch bewail in this book, to most of the pressed into the next dozen years. A generous the Nobel Prize for the transistor), Bardeen, world he is “John who?”. They intend to start offer drew him to Bell Labs, where a group his student Bob Schrieffer and postdoc Leon remedying this situation. The second theme was being assembled under Bill Shockley Cooper had solved that problem as well. The of the book is also the source of the title: to attempt to create an amplifier based on resulting paper (Physics Review 108, 1175; they want to emphasize that it is possible to wartime advances in semiconductor science. 1957) deserves a place among the all-time be a “true genius” without being bohemian, The story of that achievement (by December classics of science. The intellectual ramifica- neurotic or particularly difficult to get along 1947) is told more fully in Hoddeson’s previ- tions of their central hypothesis — known as with — and that perhaps most geniuses do ous book Crystal Fire, written with Michael broken gauge symmetry — pervade all of not fit the popular stereotype. Riordan (Norton, 1997). But in True Genius, physics, and have underpinned at least four Of course, the biographer’s task is much Hoddeson and Daitch recount the full story other Nobel prizes to nine individuals. There harder if the subject is not eccentric in any of the personal conflict with Shockley that will doubtless be more to come. spectacular way. Even Bardeen’s precosity — ensued when the latter used his position to After that, the rest of Bardeen’s life may he entered college at 15 — did not seem to isolate and overwhelm the two original inven- seem like an anticlimax, even though it impair his ability to get on well with his peers. tors. Perhaps, it must be said, this had lasting included key roles in the creation of the A few years of indecision as to his natural benefits for later developments in semicon- Sony Corporation and the Xerox Palo Alto calling ended happily in 1933, at the age of ductors, because it drove Bardeen to work on Research Center laboratories, and high office 25, with admission to Princeton University’s advancing the science generally, while Shock- and influential advisory roles in the scientific graduate school, where he joined the fortu- ley pursued a line that eventually petered out. establishment. Two well-written and well- nate little band of extraordinary students of By 1951, Bardeen had been lured away researched chapters are devoted to scientific Eugene Wigner who founded the modern to the University of Illinois by old friend controversies in which Bardeen became quantitative theory of solids. and fellow Wigner student Fred Seitz. There embroiled in later life, in several of which it is From Princeton he went on to be admitted he not only fostered an independent semi- hard in retrospect to support his side of the into the élite Society of Fellows at Harvard, conductor-engineering group with Nick matter. He may have been quiet but he was which gave him time to attempt several of Holonyak, but built a theoretical-physics not self-effacing, and was quite capable of the toughest problems in his field. He finally group within the already thriving condensed- throwing his weight around in such contro- achieved a professorship at Minnesota matter physics enterprise. versies. But when the dust settled he could be University, and married Jane Maxwell after He was at last able to indulge his obses- quietly generous to his opponents, and was three years of courtship — he had the old- sion with the puzzle of superconductivity, instrumental in the later Nobel Prize awards fashioned determination to have a positive left over from his Harvard days and reacti- to Brian Josephson and probably to me. cashflow before marrying. Jane was attrac- vated in his final months at Bell. Using again To return to the genius thing. Is it possi- tive, universally beloved, patient and, happily, his obstinacy and the careful assembling and ble to be a genius when you are sometimes chatty. Soon called into war work, Bardeen critical interpretation of experimental data wrong? (Personal glamour seems to have

little to do with it one way or the other, in illuminating the boundary between our science as in the arts.) Actually, few scientific knowledge and our ignorance. In the geniuses are even close to infallible, and some process, she outlines some of the major out-

P. SAKUMA/AP P. can be wrongheaded indeed — look at Linus standing problems in the field and provides Pauling and vitamin C, or Julian Schwinger a balanced and insightful view of them from and cold fusion. Bardeen cracked a problem several sides. Time and again as I read this that dozens of the greatest minds of physics book I thought to myself that she had advo- had failed at — isn’t that enough? cated a particular position too strongly, only There are, almost inevitably, glitches in to find on the following page that she would the details in this book, but the authors’ offer an equally strong counterargument. admiration and affection for their subject Hough, who has experience of both earth- illuminates the biography. At the same time, quake research and public outreach, has they bring readers with varied levels of written a book that is accessible to readers expertise to a real understanding of the com- in other disciplines and to a non-technical plex workings of science as they are actually audience, but provides enough thoughtful experienced by those of us who do it. Will the commentary and perspectives to hold the Shock result: earthquakes do enormous damage book appeal to the mass market and thus attention of specialists. but are extremely difficult to predict. make a dent in the “John who?” problem? An important part of any general book I’m not convinced, but perhaps it should. ■ on earthquakes is how it treats short-term well as parallel efforts being contemplated in P. W. Anderson is in the Department of Physics, earthquake prediction — a topic that is cen- the United States, have led to the discovery of Princeton University, Princeton, tral to seismology and foremost in the minds new phenomena. In the past year, discoveries New Jersey 08544-0708, USA. of non-seismologists. In this book there is of large aseismic transients and what appears not a great deal of material on earthquake to be an entirely new type of seismic event prediction, which might disappoint readers deep under Japan are changing our views of outside the field. This de-emphasis is not fundamental earthquake processes. It is my surprising, though, given the lack of success strong expectation that the author will have Keeping your feet to date. Instead, the discussion focuses on a lot of new material to incorporate into the whether or not earthquakes are predictable second edition. ■ in a moving field even in theory (see Nature web debate; Gregory C. Beroza is in the Department of Earthshaking Science: What We http://www.nature.com/nature/debates). As Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, Know (and Don’t Know) about elsewhere, Hough delivers an even-handed California 94305-2215, USA. Earthquakes and up-to-date treatment of both sides of by Susan Elizabeth Hough the issue. More on earthquakes Princeton University Press: 2002. 272 pp. The book excels in its treatment of the The Mechanics of Earthquakes and $24.95, £17.95 prediction of potentially damaging strong Faulting, 2nd edn Gregory C. Beroza ground motion in the near field of an earth- by Christopher H. Scholz quake. The ability to predict strong ground Cambridge University Press, $130, £90 (hbk); Seismologists have been grouped, unfavour- motion is arguably more important than the $48, £32.95 (pbk) ably, with economists in that they are both ability to predict earthquakes. Seismologists great at telling you why an event happens use ground-motion prediction in the form after it has happened. This sentiment reflects of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis frustration with our limited knowledge of (PSHA) to characterize earthquake risk. earthquake behaviour. Why don’t we under- PSHA, as used in building codes, for Fertile ground stand earthquakes better? And why can’t we example, is an estimate of the distribution predict them? of ground motion with a 10% probability of for politics Large earthquakes occur infrequently, being exceeded over a 50-year time interval. Autarkie und Ostexpansion: and the processes that are the key to under- A lot goes into this estimate, and this book Pflanzenzucht und Agrarforschung standing them are removed from our sight explains it clearly. To my knowledge there is im Nationalsozialismus by miles of opaque material. Moreover, the no other accessible treatment of this topic. edited by Susanne Heim sudden rupture of a fault in an earthquake The test that precariously balanced rocks offer Wallstein Verlag: 2002. 312 pp. E20 is a nonlinear process that occurs within of the validity of PSHA is a nice example of Wissenschaften und materials that vary strongly in their proper- the currency of the material in this book. Wissenschaftspolitik: ties and appear to be complex at all spatial Earthshaking Science is not a textbook or Bestandsaufnahmen zu scales. Given these challenges, perhaps it is a coffee-table book. But it is a readable tour Formationen, Brüchen und not surprising that we lack a comprehensive of many key aspects of earthquake science. Kontinuitäten im Deutschland des understanding of earthquake behaviour. The author focuses on California but also 20. Jahrhunderts A more optimistic view of our limited covers the poorly understood earthquakes in edited by Rüdiger vom Bruch & understanding is that the science of earth- the central and eastern United States. What’s Brigitte Kaderas quakes is not mature. Almost every new missing is a thorough treatment of the many Franz Steiner Verlag: 2002. 476 pp. E96 well-recorded earthquake seems to have at earthquakes in other tectonic environments. Marco Finetti least some surprising aspect. We are still on One can hardly fault the author for this, the steep part of the learning curve. because it would require a considerably larger Germany’s major scientific organizations are Earthshaking Sciencetakes on the difficult book. Moreover, much of the research knowl- finally examining their past during national task of reviewing the state of earthquake edge needed to write such a book at the same socialism. For years the involvement of the science at a time when the field is evolving level does not yet exist. But it soon will. sciences, and in particular of the research rapidly. Its author, Susan Hough, has done Recently deployed modern seismic and organizations, in the Third Reich was pur- an admirable job of clearly and accurately geodetic monitoring networks in Japan, as sued only by undaunted PhD students or