HistoryN E W S L E T T E R of Physics A F O R U M O F T H E A M E R I C A N P H Y S I C A L S O C I E T Y • V O L U M E I X N O . 6 • S P R I N G 2 0 0 6

Report From The Chair Does Physics History Matter? by Robert H. Romer, Amherst College, Forum Chair

Perhaps the title got your attention, so let me promptly explain leading experimental results. It might just help them to understand what I mean. Is it important that serious history of physics be that the fact that Darwinian or neo-Darwinian evolution does not included in the professional education of physicists? I think that explain every last detail of every living organism does not mean for many of us who belong to and support the APS history forum, that some other idea, untested or untestable, has an equal claim to even — or perhaps especially — for those like me who are not time in the science classroom, that the fact that none of us were professional historians of physics, it is almost an article of faith present at the big bang does not mean that the big bang is “just a that the answer to my question is an unqualified “yes.” I said as theory” with no successful explanations to its credit, that someone much myself several years ago, in my election statement when I else’s creation myth is just as deserving of our attention. Labora- was a candidate for the forum position I now occupy. But I won- tory experience, too, is important for those who are not en route der whether this is really true. My own formal education included to scientific careers. In their high school science labs they are not many of the usual tidbits of history (“Newton was born in the year going to “discover the law of conservation of momentum” (what that Galileo died.” “Einstein was – or was not – influenced by the a ridiculous idea!), but they will learn that real experiments deal Michelson-Morley experiment.”). But would I have been a better with real objects in the real world, that many experiments do not physicist if I had had a course or two in the history of physics? work, that equipment is often broken or dropped and that resistors Did Feynman’s time at MIT and Princeton expose him in a seri- burn out. So-called “simulated experiments” are not only oxymo- ous way to the fascinating history of our subject? Was he familiar rons but also, as I have written elsewhere, creations of the devil. with the “Bohr model”, with the trials and tribulations of the “Old When I was editor of the American Journal of Physics, I once Quantum Theory,” and if so, did it help (or perhaps hinder) him used that term in a letter to a would-be author, rejecting a paper on the way to his formulation of QED? because, I added, his simulation had nothing to do with physics. Now there is a very large group of people, those who will That letter did not make me a new friend. (Few rejection letters not become professional scientists, who definitely should be ex- do, and making friends is not part of an editor’s responsibility posed to enough of the history of science — preferably in their anyhow.) high school or introductory college courses — so that they will Those who go on to careers in science will learn all too soon understand that neither physics nor any other science is a finished that many if not most theoretical adventures are unsuccessful, that product, that there are numerous false starts, dead-ends, and mis- continued on page 2

INSIDE

Report from the Chair 1

Forum Affairs 8

Candidate Bios and Statements 3

FHP Bylaws 7

Book Reviews 11

Other Items of Interest 15

Feynman and Schwinger — See page 19. Report from Associate Editor

HistorN E W S L E T T E R y of Physics For the past three years, Ben Bederson impressive book that I was pleased to be The Forum on History of Physics of has done an exemplary job as Editor of the a part of. Ben has a soft but firm approach the American Physical Society pub- History of Physics Newsletter, the principal to editing, encouraging his authors along lishes this Newsletter semiannually. voice of our Forum, after assuming this but setting clear deadlines and making sure Nonmembers who wish to receive the extremely important post from our long- they respect them. Newsletter should make a donation to standing (and long-suffering?) Editor Bill His administrative skills really came the Forum of $5 per year (+ $3 addi- Evenson. All Forum members owe Ben through during the years he chaired the tional for airmail). Each 3-year volume a debt of gratitude for his service — not Forum’s Award Committee. We had diffi- consists of six issues. only in this role but also as Forum Chair cult goals to achieve and issues to resolve, Editor and also Chair of the committee that estab- and often disagreed on specifics, but Ben’s Benjamin Bederson lished the Pais Prize. I have been fortunate gentle guiding hand on the gavel kept us New York University to work with him as Associate Editor and working together well and focused on our Physics Department to serve as a member of that committee. objectives. We almost always reached a 4 Washington Place A few of Ben’s fine attributes are his consensus that all of us could enthusiasti- New York , NY 10003 organizational skills, his ability to keep cally support. The fact that we surpassed [email protected] projects or publications moving forward on our original goals and were able to estab- (212) 998 7695 schedule, and his talent for working well lish an APS Prize rather than an Award Associate Editor with a wide variety of often headstrong can be attributed in part to Ben’s steadying Michael Riordan scientists. No doubt he developed some leadership. Institute of Particle Physics of these attributes while serving as APS Forum Chair Robert Romer has asked University of California Editor in Chief, Editor of Physical Review me to step in and try to fill Ben’s shoes as Santa Cruz, CA 95064 [email protected] A and as Department Chair and Dean of Editor for the next three years, and — sub- (831) 459 5687 Graduate Studies at New York University. ject to approval of the Forum Executive The Forum has been the immediate ben- Committee when it meets in Dallas — I ERRATA eficiary of his editorial and administrative look forward to this opportunity. As Editor The book review “Obsessive Genius: The experience. and then Contributing Editor of the SLAC Inner World of Marie Curie” which appeared in the last Newsletter inadvertently reversed I first encountered Ben’s editorial side quarterly journal Beam Line, I have good the author and the reviewer. The author is when contributing an article to the volume experience working with physicist authors Barbara Goldsmith. The reviewer is Noemie More Things on Heaven and Earth: A and on articles about physics history. After Benczer Koller. We apologize to both reviewer Celebration of Physics at the Millennium, serving an apprenticeship with Ben as the and author for this error. There was an error in the book review “Ernest Rutherford: Father of a collection of articles on the history of Associate Editor of the Newsletter, I feel Nuclear Science.” The reviewer of the book was physics that he edited in 1999. Published ready to take on this responsibility. ■ the son of Catherine Westfall, not the author by the APS and Springer Verlag, it is an Naomi Pasachoff. by Michael Riordan

Report from the Chair continued from page 1 data are almost always contaminated with field. And exposure to the subject will physicists who are successful but not so noise and experimental uncertainties, that enrich anyone’s life, as will exposure to much in the limelight and to ascertain not experiments fail as often as they succeed. Caravaggio and Shakespeare. so much the recollections they have in They do not need to take a course to learn But still I wonder whether history of their old age but to talk to them in mid- those lessons. physics is important in the professional career or earlier. Now, of course history of physics education of physicists, as physicists. There Several years ago, I would have is important and the question mark on may well be a literature on this topic that thought the question raised in my first the title of this brief essay should not be I am unaware of. The few studies I have paragraph had a simple answer. But the taken as implying anything else. It is an seen of the professional education of phys- privilege of serving as an officer of this important field of scholarship that should icists consisted largely of interviews with forum led me to wonder about this issue be pursued and supported, like so many quite distinguished scientists, generally late — though in no way has it diminished my others, from medieval history to biology in their careers when their memories of view of the importance of this group and and physics itself. Those of us who are the factors that influenced them are often of its activities. ■ physicists but who make no claim to be becoming unreliable with the passage of historians of physics are in a particularly time. It would be more interesting, I think, fortunate position to lend support to the to look at the educational backgrounds of

2 Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 • History of Physics Newsletter History Sessions at March & April Meetings

Report by Robert H. Romer

The FHP Program Committee, chaired at 11:45 A.M., will include talks by Dennis Physics, with talks by Katherine Haramun- by Virginia Trimble, has arranged a number Danielson (on prerelativistic cosmology), danis (on Cecilia Payne, who showed that of interesting sessions at the March meet- Elizabeth Barton (on the current status the stars are made mostly of hydrogen and ing (Baltimore, March 13-17) and the April of observational astronomy), and John helium), Jean Turner (on Henrietta Leavitt, meeting (Dallas, April 22-25). Carlstrom (on future observations of the who established the period-luminosity rela- At Baltimore, where all FHP sessions cosmic microwave background radiation tion for Cepheid variables – the “Dorrit will be held on Thursday, March 16, there and other topics in observational cosmol- Hoffleit Lecture”), and Jill Tarter (Director will be a session of invited papers at 8:00 ogy). At 1:30 P.M. on the same day, there of the SETI Institute, on “leading teams”). A.M. on the history of low temperature will be a second cosmology session, with This will be followed at 3:15 by the second laboratories, organized by George Zim- talks by Helge Kragh (on the establishment session on Parity Nonconservation, cospon- merman. Talks by Robert Wheeler, Russell of the standard hot big bang paradigm), sored by the Division of Nuclear Physics, Donnelly, Horst Meyer, and David Lee David Spergel (on the current situation in with talks by C. N. Yang, L. Lederman, will be followed by a panel discussion theoretical cosmology), and Sean Carroll and J. Conrad. with John Reppy, Robert Romer, Gerhard (on the future of theoretical cosmology). On Monday afternoon, April 24, at 3:30 Salinger, and George Yntema. This will be Professor Kragh’s talk is the “J. Robert P.M., we will have a joint prize session, at followed by a series of contributed papers Oppenheimer Lecture”, sponsored by which our second Pais Prize winner, John at 11:15 A.M., and then at 2:30 P.M. a se- Philip Morrison and Robert Christy. Then Heilbron, will deliver the Pais Lecture, ries of invited talks on the history of criti- at 3:30 P.M. on Saturday, we will have the and where the winner of the Forum on cal phenomena by Michael Fisher, Guenter first of two sessions on Parity Noncon- Physics and Society’s Szilard Prize will Ahlers, Leo Kadanoff, Johanna Levelt servation (the fiftieth anniversary of the deliver the Szilard Lecture. Following this Sengers, and Alexander Voronel. (Professor discovery), cosponsored by the Division prize session there will be held the annual Voronel’s talk is the “Richard T. Cox Lec- of Particles and Fields, with talks by T. D. business meeting of the history forum, to ture,” sponsored by Robert Resnick.) Lee, R.H. Hudson, and V. Yuan. which all members of the FHP are of At Dallas, Saturday, April 22 will On Sunday afternoon, April 23, at 1:15 course invited. feature two sessions on Cosmology: Past P.M., there will be a session on Pioneer- There will also be one or more sessions Present and Future, cosponsored by the ing Women in Astronomy, cosponsored by of contributed papers during the April Divsion of Astrophysics. The first session, the Committee on the Status of Women in meeting. ■

Elections: Candidate Bios and Statements

The FHP Nominating Committee has found at http://www.aps.org/units/fhp/elec- joined Syracuse University. At Syracuse, chosen a slate of candidates for the ‘06 tions/candidates05.cfm he received a Chancellor’s Citation for election. You will be asked to vote for Exceptional Academic Excellence and was Vice-Chair and three At-Large Members of named J. Dorman Steele Professor before VICE-CHAIR the Executive Committee. The person cho- his retirement in 1998. He is currently a sen to be Vice-Chair becomes Chair-Elect (one to be selected) Distinguished Research Professor. in 2007 and Chair in 2008. If you have an Kamesh was a member of United States email address registered with APS, you Kameshwar C. Wali and Vietnam Research Collaboration and will receive a message inviting you to vote Department of Physics visited Hanoi in 1979 and 1989 to lecture Syracuse University electronically. If not, you should have re- and establish research contacts. He was Syracuse, NY 13244-1130 ceived a paper ballot by mail. If you want Telephone: (315) 443-9113 a Senior Fulbright Scholar in 1995 at the a paper ballot but have not yet received email: [email protected] University of Melbourne, Australia. He is one, please either email your request to a Fellow of the American Physical Society, [email protected] or contact Larry Biographical Information: Kamesh Wali was one of the founding members of the Josbeno , 539 W. Franklin St., Horseheads did his undergraduate and graduate work FHP and has served on its Executive Com- NY 14845 (phone 607-739-2292) The clos- for M.Sc (physics) and MA (mathemat- mittee. He is the author of CHANDRA: A ing date of the election for online voting is ics) in India. He received his Ph.D from Biography of S. Chandrasekhar, editor of MARCH 18. The closing date for receipt University of Wisconsin in 1959. After two A Quest for Perspectives; Selected Works of paper ballots is MARCH 23. years of Post-Doctoral work at the Johns of S. Chandrasekhar and S. Chandrasekhar: Biographical information and state- Hopkins University, he was at Argonne Na- the Man Behind the Legend. In this year ments by the candidates appear below. tional Laboratory in the High Energy Phys- of physics, celebrating Einstein’s “Annus Duplicate copies of this material can be ics Division from 1962 to 1969. In 1969 he continued on page 4

History of Physics Newsletter • Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 3 Mirabilis,” he gave invited talks at the APS sertation on Heisenberg and quantum Biographical Information: Peter Pesic meeting in Tampa, Florida and Lincoln, mechanics with the advice of Daniel M. received a bachelor’s degree in phys- Nebraska on “Bose and Einstein; the Dis- Siegel. He then held postdoctoral posi- ics from Harvard and a doctorate from covery of Bose-Einstein Statistics.” tions with J. L. Heilbron in the Office for Stanford, where he worked in the SLAC Statement: History of Physics has been an History of Science and Technology at UC theory group and his advisor was Sidney integral part of my research and teaching Berkeley; and as a Humboldt Fellow with Drell. He was a lecturer at Stanford from career. I have done my best to incorporate Armin Hermann at the University of Stutt- 1976-80 but has spent most of his career at it in all my undergraduate and graduate gart, Germany. He was assistant professor St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM, where courses.. However, this is not generally the in history of science at the University of he has devoted much attention to shaping case. There is a woeful disregard on the Regensburg, Germany. During that time, the study of physics from a historical and part of students as well as teachers for the he also served as an editor and consultant philosophical point of view within a “great historical background of great discoveries for the Bohr Papers in the Bohr Institute in books” curriculum. A concert pianist, he is and the men and women responsible for Copenhagen; the Heisenberg Papers in the also the Musician-in-Residence there. them. If elected, besides doing my best MPI für Physik in Munich, and the Pauli He has edited a series of classic works to promote the scholarly activities of the Letter Collection at CERN, Geneva. Cas- in physics and mathematics for Dover forum in APS meetings and special confer- sidy returned to the US as associate editor Publications, providing introductions and ences, I would also like to work on how of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, detailed notes for reissues of Max Planck’s best the forum can help to make history vols. 1-2, in Princeton and Boston. He has Lectures in Theoretical Physics, James as an important part of physics education been at Hofstra University since 1990. Clerk Maxwell’s Theory of Heat and An (providing encouragement and support Cassidy is the author of Uncertainty: Elementary Treatise on Electricity, and for a new genre of books on histories and The Life and Science of Werner Heisen- Carl Friedrich Gauss’s Investigations on biographies suitable at high school and berg; Understanding Physics, with Gerald Curved Surfaces. His work in physics has undergraduate college levels). Holton and James Rutherford (an updated mainly concerned the significance of indis- History of physics and physicists’ his- sequel to Project Physics for non-science tinguishability in the foundations of quan- tory can provide a strong bridge between undergraduates and future teachers); Ein- tum theory. He is a member of the History the two cultures, culture of humanities and stein and Our World; and J. Robert Op- of Science Society and has published two culture of sciences (C.P.Snow). I would penheimer and the American Century ; in papers in its journal¸ Isis.Overall, he has like to build on the success of the play like addition to numerous research and popular published over forty papers, many of COPENHAGEN to extend the boundaries articles in the history of physical science, them devoted to issues in the history and of physics to humanities by extending the from meteorology in the 18th century to philosophy of science. These have led to activities of the forum beyond the confines particle physics, US science policy in Al- his own four books, all published by MIT of APS to public at large. lied occupied Germany, and computing Press: Labyrinth: A Search for the Hidden history in the 20th century. Meaning of Science (2000), Seeing Double: David Cassidy He is the recipient of the AIP Science Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy, Natural Science Program Writing Award, the History of Science and Literature (2002, named as one of Hofstra University Society’s Pfizer Prize, and an honorary Choice Magazines Outstanding Academic Hempstead, NY 11549 doctorate awarded by Purdue University. Books for that year), Abel’s Proof: An email: [email protected] Statement:The Forum on History of Phys- Essay on the Sources and Meaning of Biographical Information: David C. ics is a unique organization for bringing Mathematical Unsolvability (2003), and Cassidy is Professor of Natural Sciences together physicists and historians of phys- Sky in a Bottle (2005). His books have been at Hofstra University, where he teaches ics in the common pursuit of scholarly and translated into German, Italian, Japanese, and physics for non-science majors, utilizing educational goals, as well as in promoting Norwegian. He is also a contributing editor the historical approach, and writes and re- public awareness and appreciation of phys- of Daedalus, the journal of the American searches in the history of modern physics. ics. I would be delighted to contribute to Academy of Arts and Sciences, for which he Cassidy is an APS Fellow and long- this effort as Vice-Chair of the Forum. has recently written essays concerning the time member of FHP. He served as Sec- nature of modern science and mathematics. retary-Treasurer of the Forum,1994 -1998, TWO-YEAR E/C Statement: My training as a physicist led and previously chaired the nominating me to a deep interest in the history and phi- MEMBER-AT-LARGE committee. He has also served as a member losophy of physics as I tried to grasp more and chair of the Section for History and (two to be selected) deeply the essence and implications of its Philosophy of Science of the New York most novel insights. I think that presenting Academy of Sciences, and on prize com- Peter Pesic physics in this historical and philosophical mittees of the History of Science Society. St. John’s College light is the royal road to sharing our ex- 1160 Camino de la Cruz Blanca Cassidy received the BA and MS citement with the broadest possible public degrees in physics from Rutgers Univer- Santa Fe, NM 87505 USA Telephone: home: (505) 983-3168 because the study of its history emphasizes sity, and the PhD in physics from Purdue work: (505) 984-6467 the truly striking and surprising aspects of University in1976 in conjunction with the fax: (505) 984-6026 physics as it emerges, tests itself, and takes Dept. of History of Science at University e-mail: [email protected] new forms. I would like to help the execu- of Wisconsin, Madison. He wrote his dis- tive committee find new ways to reach out

4 Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 • History of Physics Newsletter to the public in this way. I have had much in the fall of 2000, trying to fill the large Difference Equations and Applications. His experience doing this at St. John’s College shoes of Roger Stuewer. He is a regular professional memberships include AAAS, and also in my books, which try to be both visitor at the Max Planck Institute for His- the American Mathematical Society, the serious and engaging, both historical and tory of Science in Berlin. His research so American Physical Society (for which physical. far has focused on the development of the he is an elected Fellow), the Society for I also feel that the study of the his- theories of relativity, but he has recently Mathematical Biology, and the History of tory of physics can have a deep interest started to branch out to the development Science Society. for physicists themselves doing their own of quantum mechanics. He won the 2005 Professor Mickens has organized sym- current work. Many physicists are curi- George W. Taylor Career Development posia and special sessions of invited ous about how theories, experiments, or Award of the Institute of Technology of lectures at regional and national meet- insights really came about, both regarding the University of Minnesota “for making ings of the American Association for the the human stories and the interplay of the history of modern physics accessible Advancement of Science, the American fundamental ideas. For instance, the study and exciting to a broad range of students”. Physical Society and various other research of the history of quantum theory can lead For more information, see: www.tc.umn. workshops and conferences in the areas to many surprising insights into what its edu/~janss011/ of theoretical physics, history of phys- founders thought they were doing as well Statement: I would like to get actively ics, mathematics applied to vibrational as raising important questions about the involved in the FHP of the APS because engineering, nonlinear dynamics, and the fundamental presuppositions of that theory, I have found the American physics com- mathematical biosciences. Mickens’ pub- questions that remain of enduring concern. munity to be very hospitable to the kind lications in the history of science include Most of all, study of history as living re- of research and teaching I do, focusing on biographic essays that have appeared or ality can help us think more clearly and the nuts and bolts of the science rather than will appear in more penetratingly in our own research on its cultural embedding (without unduly • African American Lives as we contemplate those moments when neglecting the latter). I see the community • American National Biography physicists before us struggled with great of physicists as an important audience for • Encyclopedia of African American Cul- puzzles. These crucial dilemmas often my work in history and philosophy of sci- ture and History fascinate students and young physicists in ence and I would be happy to do my bit in • New Dictionary of Scientific Biography particular, who implicitly hope that they promoting and fostering this kind of work His edited volume might learn from them something that within the APS. • R. E. Mickens (editor), Mathematics would help them to make the transition and Science (World Scientific, Singapore, from being textbook problem-solvers to Ronald E. Mickens 1990); ISBN 981-02-0233-4 (342 pps) ex- original thinkers capable of finding new Distinguished Fuller E. Callaway plores the many varied relations between and powerful insights. I am very interested Professor of Physics mathematics and both the physical and in helping the executive committee find Clark Atlanta University social sciences. new ways of using the history of physics 2853 Chaucer Dr. SW Atlanta GA 30311 Statement: A deep, fundamental under- that will engage our colleagues as well as Phone: 404-696-0739 standing of physics requires an appreciation the larger public. Fax: 404-880-6258 and knowledge of its history and sociology. Email: [email protected] The history of physics can be used to find Michel Janssen out in particular fields why certain concepts 2631 Buchanan St. NE Biographical Information:Ronald E. arose, their subsequent evolution, and who Minneapolis MN 55418 Mickens is the Distinguished Fuller E. Cal- Phone: 612-624-5880 laway Professor of Physics at Clark Atlanta were the main players in the development [email protected] University. He received his Ph.D. in theo- of the important issues related to the field. The teaching of the history of physics is an Biographical Information: Michel Janssen retical physics from Vanderbilt University excellent vehicle to introduce students to is Associate Professor in the Program in and has held postdoctoral positions at the science and how its methods and purposes History of Science and Technology and the Center for Theoretical Physics-MIT, The differ from other areas of knowledge. This Department of Physics at the University of Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophys- history can also be used as a mechanism Minnesota. He received his “kandidaats” ics, and Vanderbilt University. His current to initiate neophytes into our community (roughly the equivalent of a B.S.) in both research interests include nonlinear oscilla- by making them aware of its traditions and philosophy and physics as well as his “doc- tions, difference equations, and numerical the realization that they can both belong toraal” (two a’s, the Dutch equivalent of an integration of differential equations using to and participate in its ongoing processes M.S.) in theoretical physics from the Uni- nonstandard finite difference schemes, and institutions. My goals with regard to versity of Amsterdam, and his Ph.D. from mathematical modeling of periodic dis- the Forum on the History of Physics would the Department of History and Philosophy eases, and the history/sociology of African be to make known to the wider physics of Science of the University of Pittsburgh. Americans in science. He has published community the significant contributions of He worked for ten years at the Einstein more that 250 research papers, authored non-traditional scientists and to create new Papers Project, then located at Boston 240 abstracts, written six books, and ed- ideas as to how the history of physics can University, and was Assistant Professor in ited eight volumes. Professor Mickens be effectively used to enhance interest in the Department of Philosophy at Boston serves on the editorial boards of several science at the precollege level. University before coming to Minnesota research journals, including the Journal of continued on page 6 History of Physics Newsletter • Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 5 Paul Harold Halpern consulting work for the Raab Collection from 1953 to 1957. During that period I Department of Math, Physics and (of manuscripts and letters) to archival re- spent several months (December 1955- Computer Science search in Copenhagen, Goettingen, Leiden April 1956)in Moscow, where I worked as University of the Sciences in and elsewhere. His current historical inter- translator for a news digest put out by the Philadelphia 600 South 43rd St. ests center on European theoretical physics English-speaking embassies and also for Philadelphia, Pa. 19104 in the 1920s and 1930s. The New York Times. From 1958-1960 I phone: (215) 596-8913 Statement: The overwhelmingly posi- was Moscow correspondent of the North email: [email protected] tive reaction to the programs and events American Newspaper Alliance, and in1962 I returned to the USSR to write three cover Biographical Information: Paul Halpern is of the World Year of Physics signal a a theoretical physicist, specializing in gen- growing public interest in the lives and stories for The Reporter magazine on the eral relativity, complex systems and related accomplishments of great physicists. I Stalin question and Soviet intellectuals. areas. He received his B.A. in Physics and believe that the coming years represent an My first book, published by MIT in 1965, Mathematics, with honors, from Temple opportunity to build upon this interest and was “Khrushchev and the Arts,” an account University in 1982. Working under Max expand the activities of the FHP. I would of Khrushchev’s effort to hold on to power Dresden, he received his Ph. D. from the work to promote continued attention to the by reining in the Soviet writers and artists State University of New York at Stony achievements of physicists, as well as the who were demanding greater de-Staliniza- Brook in 1987. In 1988, he was appointed circumstances that affected and influenced tion. My second book, “Marina and Lee,” to an academic position at the University their work. Undoubtedly, these stories will published by Harper & Row in 1977, was an of the Sciences in Philadelphia, where he serve to draw more young people into the attempt to explain the death of Presi- is currently a Professor of Mathematics and profession, and grant them an appreciation dent Kennedy by laying out the thinking Physics and Fellow in Humanities. He has for their predecessors’ contributions. My and actions of his assassin. My third also held visiting appointments at Hamilton own interest in the history of physics was book, “The Ruin of J. Robert Oppen- College, Haverford College and Humboldt piqued by my interactions with my gradu- heimer and the Birth of the Modern University of Berlin, as well as an adjunct ate advisor, Max Dresden. Every class Max Arms Race,” was published by Viking position at the University of the Arts. For taught contained a wealth of history and in 2005. This book is an account of briefer stays, he has been a research visi- humor. Admiring Dresden’s dedication, in President Truman’s decision to order tor at the University of Sussex, the Rudjer his later years, to his biography of Kramers, speeded-up production of the hydrogen Boskovic Institute in Zagreb, and the I realized that physicists have much to lend bomb, of opposition to the President’s University of Waterloo. He has published to our understanding of history. Last year, decision by much of the communi- a number of theoretical articles in journals a course I developed on the life and work ty of physicists in the U.S., and of the such as Physical Review D and General of Einstein was very well received. Perhaps Hearings that resulted in withdrawal of Relativity and Gravitation, as well as his- one potential role of the FHP would be to Oppenheimer’s Q clearance. Working torical articles in Physics in Perspective, help share information about courses and on the book, I spent many hours with and delivered scholarly presentations to programs on the history of physics. I am the physicists at Los Alamos who meetings as diverse as those of the Ameri- extremely pleased that the Pais Prize has developed the bomb and learned some can Society for Engineering Education, been so successful, and would work to help physics myself in order to weigh the the Society for Literature and Science, the promote it. I am very enthusiastic about the claims of rival scientists to the invention History of Science Society, the New Eng- growth of the history of physics as a field, of radiation implosion. I came away with land Complex Systems Institute and the and believe that the FHP has an important great respect for scientific ways of think- Cornelius Lanczos International Centenary role to play in its development. ing, and for what such thinking can do Conference. As a member of the American for our public life. I hope to devote the rest of my career to explaining sci- Physical Society for more than twenty ONE-YEAR REPLACEMENT ence, and the values of science, to the years, he has attended and presented at a E/C MEMBER-AT-LARGE number of national and regional meetings. larger public. His ten books cover a wide range of topics, (one to be selected) Guy T. Emery from the history of scientific prediction to Physics Department, Bowdoin College the development of Kaluza-Klein theory. Priscilla McMillan Associate of the Davis Center 8800 College Station They have received generally positive Harvard University Brunswick, ME 04011-8488 reviews and have been translated into a Cambridge, MA 02138 Phone (207) 725-3708 dozen languages. Awards he has received Phone (617) 547-6260 Fax (207) 725-3638 include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Ful- Email: [email protected] Email [email protected] bright Scholar award, a Homiller teach- Biographical Information: I received my Biographical Information: Guy T. Em- ing award, and a literary award from the BA from Bryn Mawr College in Russian ery is an experimental nuclear physicist Athenaeum Society of Philadelphia. His Language and Literature in 1950, and my with interests in nuclear spectroscopy, activity in the history of physics is diverse, MA from Harvard-Radcliffe in Russian nuclear structure, nuclear reactions, and ranging from a semester-long course on Area Studies in 1953. I worked as transla- the connections between nuclear proper- Einstein’s legacy, to a commissioned piece tor and foreign editor at the Current Digest ties, atomic properties, and the properties for an artistic celebration of the life and of the Soviet Press in New York City of pions and other particles. He received work of John Wheeler, and from historical his PhD from Harvard in 1959. He worked 6 Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 • History of Physics Newsletter at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and to the cultural and historical aspects of cultural history are of great interest. There joined the faculty at Indiana University physics. He is a fellow of the APS, has are also important connections with general (Bloomington) in 1966. There he became done committee service in it and in its political history, military history, and inter- associated with the Indiana University Nuclear Physics Division, and has also national relations. Perhaps the most useful Cyclotron Facility and served as liaison been active in the AAPT, including its role of the Forum on History of Physics is with outside users and for several years committee on the history of physics. His as a unifying force in what often seems a as associate director for research. In 1988 interests in the history of physics center rather fragmented American Physical Soci- he moved to Bowdoin College. He was at on the period from the late 1800s to World ety, and it has also done very great service various times a visiting faculty member War II, on spectroscopy as a theme, on the as a collegial meeting ground for profes- at Stony Brook and visiting researcher infrastructure of the physics profession, sional historians, physicists with an interest at Groningen and Osaka. He has taught and on the role of physics journals, includ- in the history of the subject, and the phys- a wide variety of courses, from physical ing The Physical Review. ics profession in general. It might be useful science for elementary education majors Statement: Physics history is interesting for it to seek ways to get more history of to graduate quantum mechanics, and has in itself, and its relations (in both direc- physics into the undergraduate curriculum, experimented with several courses related tions) with technological, intellectual and both for physics majors and for others.

BYLAWS: Forum on the History of Physics

Below are the proposed bylaws of the Forum, which have been approved by the APS Council. Assuming these cannot be ratified at the April business meeting because of a lack of a quorum (which seems likely) they will be published once again in the next (Fall 2006) Newsletter and a ballot for approval will be distributed to all members. If you wish, you can make comments or suggestions to any or all members of the Executive Committee, whose addresses are listed elsewhere in this Newsletter. In the following text, “Society” shall signify the American Physical Society, “Council” and “Executive Board” shall signify the Council and the Executive Board of the Society, respectively; “Executive Officer” shall signify that Officer of the Society; and “Regular Meeting” shall signify the principal meeting held once a year by the Forum.

ARTICLE I: NAME 2. Composition. The Executive Committee shall consist of This subunit of the American Physical Society, existing in the Officers of the Forum, the most recent Past Chair, the Forum accordance with Article VIII of the Constitution of the Society Councillor, six Members-at-Large elected to staggered three-year as revised in 1990, shall be called the Forum on the History of terms, and the immediate past Secretary-Treasurer for one year. Physics. The newsletter Editor and a representative of the AIP Center for History of Physics shall be ex officio non-voting members of the ARTICLE II: OBJECTIVE Executive Committee. The objective of the Forum shall be the encouragement of 3. Executive Committee Meetings. The Executive Committee scholarly research in the history of physics and the diffusion of shall meet at least once each year. The principal meeting shall be knowledge of this history and its relation to other scholarly dis- held during the Regular Meeting of the Forum. Any member of ciplines. the Executive Committee unable to attend a meeting may name a nonvoting alternate to represent him or her, subject to the approval ARTICLE III: ENABLING CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION of the Chair. The Chair of the Forum shall preside over the Ex- Article VIII of the Constitution of the Society, as said Article ecutive Committee meetings. A majority of the voting members, may be subsequently revised or amended, is hereby incorporated including at least two Officers, shall constitute a quorum. in these Bylaws by reference. ARTICLE VI: OFFICERS AND FORUM COUNCILLOR ARTICLE IV: MEMBERSHIP 1. Officers. The Officers of the Forum shall be a Chair, a The members of the Forum shall consist of members of the Chair-Elect, a Vice-Chair, and a Secretary-Treasurer. Society who have been members of the erstwhile Division of 2. Duties of the Chair. The Chair shall preside at all meetings History of Physics or who have indicated in accordance with of the Executive Committee and Business Sessions of the Forum procedures established by Council their desire to join the Forum at which his or her attendance is possible. and who retain membership from year to year by the payment of 3. Duties of the Chair-Elect. The Chair-Elect shall act in designated dues or by other method established by Council. place of the Chair if the latter is unable to perform his or her du- ties. The Chair-Elect shall perform such other functions as may ARTICLE V: EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE be explicitly provided in the Bylaws. 1. Governance. The Forum shall be governed by an Execu- 4. Duties of the Vice-Chair. The Vice-Chair shall act in place tive Committee, which shall have general charge of the affairs of of the Chair-Elect if the latter is unable to perform his or her du- the Forum. continued on page 9 History of Physics Newsletter • Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 7 FORUM AFFAIRS

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS truly impoverished institutions. Intellectual and seconders do not have to be members Elsewhere in this issue you will find support is provided by the Topical Group of the APS or of any other scholarly or complete information on the forum elec- on Gravitation and General Relativity, FHP, professional society. Selection Commit- tion that is now underway. In addition, and the Division of Astrophysics of APS. tee members and current APS Forum on during the coming summer the forum The primary goal is to encourage stu- the History of Physics (FHP) Executive nominating committee will be assembling dents graduating from 4-year colleges to Committee members are not eligible for a slate of nominees for the election to stay in the sciences by sharing with them nomination for the Award. A nomination be held in early 2007 of a Vice-Chair the excitement of physics. We have also should include: (subsequently to become Chair-Elect, been able to fill a number of requests from • A letter of not more than 1,000 words Chair, and finally Past-Chair) and two 2-year colleges, K-12 teachers, commu- evaluating the nominee’s qualifications Members-at-Large of the Executive Com- nity groups, and even a few PhD-granting in light of the Selection Criteria and Eli- mittee (for two year terms). We welcome institutions. About 150 visits have been gibility for the Award and identifying the suggestions from any FHP members of arranged so far, most of them by our very scholarly and further professional achieve- possible candidates (including self-nomi- competent webmaster, Danuta Mogilska ments to be recognized. The Selection Cri- nations). Please include, if possible, brief of U. Texas, Brownsville. Most of the re- teria and Eligibility are given in a posted CVs of suggested candidates. (In addition quests have been for talks about some topic description of the Award and also at the to candidates chosen by the nominating concerning general relativity, relativistic APS Prizes and Awards Web site. There is committee, FHP bylaws provide that if as astrophysics (black holes, quasars, cosmol- no nomination form; the nominating letter many as 5% of the forum membership sug- ogy, etc), history of physics, or Einstein. substitutes for a form. gest the same person for the same office, If you have not already volunteered • A list of the nominee’s most impor- that person shall be deemed to have been to be part of the speaker data base and tant publications. Reprints of up to five of nominated and will appear on the ballot.) are willing, please send a message to the nominee’s articles may be included. Please send suggestions and information [email protected] with your name, • At least two seconding letters, but no to Robert H. Romer (Physics Department, coordinates, topic(s) you might speak more than four. Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. 01002 or about, and the sorts of audiences/institu- • A biographical sketch would be help- [email protected] ). tions that appeal to you. ful but is not required. If, on the other hand, you would like to Five copies of the complete nomination VOLUNTEERS NEEDED arrange to have a talk at your institution, package should be mailed to the Chair of Your Forum always needs people club, or whatever, go to http://www.phys. the Selection Committee, whose name is who are willing to help. A bunch of com- utb/WYPspeakers/REQUESTS/howto.html. posted on the APS Prizes and Awards Web mittees will be appointed at or just after —Richard Price for TGG and Virginia site and is published in APS News. the April meeting, including(a) editorial Trimble for FHP The name and address of the Chair board and publications (duties uncertain), of the Selection Committee can also be (b) fellowships(evaluates nominations, of AIP CONGRESSIONAL obtained from: APS Honors Program, One which there are very few), (c) nominat- SCIENCE FELLOWSHIP Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740- ing (realwork), (d) program for 2007 (real AIP will choose one scientist to spend 3844, Tel: (301) 209-3268, Fax: (301) work), and (e) membership (meaning re- a year working for a congressional office. 209-0865, E-mail: [email protected]. For cruitment). If any of these appeal to you, Qualifications include U.S. citizenship, general information about APS prizes and please contact the incoming chair, who membership in at least one AIP Member awards policies see www.aps.org/praw/his- officially appoint them, vtrimble@astro. Society at time of application, and a PhD tory/index.cfm. umd.edu. A couple of other committees are or equivalent in physics or a related field. perpetuated in other ways, the Pais Award Please see http://www.aip.org/gov/cf.html LATE BREAKING NEWS Selection and Historic Sites committees. for application details; application materi- The Canadian Association of Physicists Please contact their respective chairs, Mi- als must be postmarked by January 15, (CAP) has just started a new Division on chael Nauenberg and John Rigden. 2006 and sent to: APS/AIP Congressional the History of Physics. We are happy to Science Fellowships, c/o Jackie Beamon- welcome this new example of the present GOOD SPEAKERS OFFERED Kiene, APS Executive Office, One Physics vitality of the field, and look forward to AND SOUGHT Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3843. future interactions with it. The mandate The World Year of Physics is over, for the Division is given on the CAP site but your WYP Speakers’ Bureau will live ABRAHAM PAIS AWARD FOR http://www.cap.ca/prof/divisions/dhp.html. on as the Las Cumbres Speakers’ Bureau. HISTORY OF PHYSICS The interim Chair is Allan Griffin, Profes- Thanks to a grant from Wayne Rosing, Guidelines for Nominations: Anyone sor Emeritus, University of Toronto, FRSC, founder, director, and expander of Las (not a member of the Selection Commit- Toronto, Ontario, M5S1A7, Canada, tel. Cumbres Observatory, there will be money tee) may submit one nomination or sec- 416 978 5199/7135, griffin@physics. to keep the web site going and to provide onding letter to the Chair of the Selection utoronto.ca. Further details are given on some travel support fors peakers going to Committee in any given year. Nominators http://cap06.brocku.ca/english/.

8 Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 • History of Physics Newsletter BYLAWS continued from page 7 tary-Treasurer, and for open positions of Members-at-Large of the Executive Committee. The Nominating Committee shall nominate ties. The Vice-Chair shall perform such other functions as may be at least two candidates for the office of Secretary-Treasurer during explicitly provided in the Bylaws. the final year of that officer’s term, unless the current Secretary- 5. Duties of the Secretary-Treasurer. The Secretary-Trea- Treasurer is re-nominated, in which case a second candidate may surer shall maintain the records of the Forum including minutes or may not be nominated. The Nominating Committee shall notify of Executive Committee meetings and Business Sessions, Forum the Secretary-Treasurer of the results not later than sixteen weeks activities, and membership lists. The Secretary-Treasurer shall in sufficient time for the election to occur before the Regular notify the Executive Committee of matters requiring the decision Meeting. The Secretary-Treasurer shall inform the Forum mem- of said Committee and shall prepare the agenda of Executive bers of the nominations made and shall invite these members to Committee meetings and Business Sessions. The Secretary-Trea- suggest candidates for the various offices and Executive Commit- surer shall prepare minutes of Executive Committee meetings and tee positions. If as many as five percent of the total Forum mem- Business Sessions and shall submit these minutes to each member bership determined on 30 June of the year preceding the election of the Executive Committee and to the Executive Officer within suggest the same person for the same office, that person shall be four weeks after each meeting. Following elections, such minutes deemed to have been nominated. are to include the results of the election and a roster of the current The Secretary-Treasurer shall poll the Forum membership by Executive Committee membership. mail and/or electronic ballot, stating a closing date at least three The Secretary-Treasurer shall keep the Council and Executive weeks prior to the Regular Meeting. Ballots shall be returned to Officer of the Society informed of the activities and needs of the and counted by the Secretary-Treasurer or his or her designate. Forum. The Secretary-Treasurer shall have responsibility for all Election shall be decided by a plurality of those voting. If funds in the custody of or placed at the disposal of the Forum and there is a tie, the Executive Committee shall decide the election, shall authorize disbursements from such funds for expenses in a with the Chair voting only in the case of a tie among the other manner that is consistent with the general policies of the Society Executive Committee members. The Secretary-Treasurer shall and the Forum. Financial records shall be kept on an annual basis communicate the results of the election to the Chair and to the consistent with the fiscal policies of the Society. The Secretary- Executive Officer at least two weeks prior to the Regular Meeting Treasurer shall present a financial report at the principal meeting and shall publish the results in a manner designated for official of the Executive Committee and at the annual Business Session announcements. of the Forum. 4. Nomination and Election of the Forum Councillor. The 6. Duties of the Forum Councillor. The Forum Councillor Executive Committee shall nominate at least two candidates for shall serve as liaison between the Council of the Society and the the position of Forum Councillor. The Secretary-Treasurer shall Executive Committee of the Forum. invite inform the Forum members of the nominations made and Following each Council meeting, the Forum Councillor shall shall invite these members to suggest additional candidates for the report to the Chair and the Secretary-Treasurer regarding Council position of Forum Councillor during the last year of the current actions that affect the status and operations of the Forum. Reports Councillor’s term. If as many as five percent of the total Forum shall be made to the entire Executive Committee during their membership determined on 30 June of the year preceding the regularly scheduled meetings. election suggests the same person, that person shall be deemed to have been nominated. The Executive Committee, taking account ARTICLE VII: ELECTION AND TENURE OF THE OFFICERS, of suggestions from the membership, shall nominate at least two EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS, AND FORUM COUN- candidates for the position of Forum Councillor, unless the cur- CILLOR rent Forum Councillor is re-nominated, in which case a second 1. Qualifications. Officers, Forum Councillor, and Members- candidate may or may not be nominated. The Secretary-Treasurer at-Large of the Executive Committee must be current members of shall poll the Forum by mail and/or electronic ballot, stating a the Forum for at least two years prior to at the time of nomina- closing date at least three weeks before 1 September. Ballots shall tion. be returned to and counted by the Secretary-Treasurer or his or her 2. Ballot. The Vice-Chair, Secretary-Treasurer, Forum Coun- designate. Election shall be by plurality of those voting. If there is cillor, and Members-at- Large of the Executive Committee shall be a tie, the Executive Committee shall decide the election, with the elected by mail and/or electronic ballot as hereinafter provided. Chair voting only in the case of a tie among the other Executive 3. Nomination and Election of the Vice-Chair, Secretary- Committee members. The Secretary-Treasurer shall communicate Treasurer, and Executive Committee Members. The Secretary- the results of the election to the Chair and to the Executive Of- Treasurer shall invite Forum members to suggest candidates for ficer before 1 September of the year prior to that in which the new the various offices and Executive Committee positions and convey Councillor assumes office and shall publish the results in a manner these suggestions to the Nominating Committee. If as many as designated for official announcements. five percent of the total Forum membership determined on 30 5. Official Year. The official year shall extend from the close of June of the year preceding the election suggest the same person one Regular Meeting to the close of the next Regular Meeting. for the same office, that person shall be deemed to have been 6. Vice-Chair, Chair-Elect, and Chair. The member elected nominated. Each year the Nominating Committee, taking account as Vice-Chair shall serve in that office for one year, then for one of suggestions received from the membership shall nominate at year as Chair-Elect, and then for one year as Chair. The Chair least two candidates for the office of Vice-Chair, for Secretary- shall not be eligible for the office of Vice-Chair in the year fol- Treasurer during the final year of the term of the current Secre- continued on page 10

History of Physics Newsletter • Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 9 BYLAWS continued from page 9 For meetings of the Forum, including the Regular Meeting, the Program Committee shall be responsible for the solicitation and lowing his or her term of office. selecti n of invited and review papers and for the arrangement of 7. Terms of Office. The terms of office of the Officers and the programs of such meetings. Members-at-Large of the Executive Committee shall begin at the 3. Fellowship Committee. The Fellowship Committee shall close of the Regular Meeting of the Forum following their elec- consist of the Vice-Chair and four other members appointed by tion. The Secretary-Treasurer shall serve for a term of three years the Executive Committee, upon the recommendation of the Chair and may not serve more than two consecutive terms. The tenure of to a one-year term. The Vice-Chair shall serve as Chair of the a Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee shall terminate in Fellowship Committee. The Fellowship Committee shall promote the event of his or her assumption of a post as an elected Officer the nomination of candidates for Fellowship, shall review the of the Forum, and the unexpired portion of his or her term shall qualifications of such candidates, and shall report its recommenda- be filled as hereinafter provided for a vacancy. tions to the Executive Committee for approval before submission The term of office of the Forum Councillor shall begin at the is made to the Executive Officer of the Society. beginning of the calendar year following his or her election. Fo- 4. Publications Committee. The Publications Committee rum Councillors shall serve for a term of four years and may not shall consist of three members appointed by the Chair to stag- serve more than two consecutive terms unless otherwise specified gered three-year terms. The Chair shall appoint the Chair of the by Council. Publications Committee from among the members. The Publica- 8. Vacancies in the Offices. If a vacancy occurs in the office tions Committee shall solicit articles for Physics News, and shall of Chair, the Chair-Elect shall succeed and complete the term and serve as the Forum interface with editors and publications for the shall serve as Chair also in the following year. popular press. The Vice-Chair shall serve simultaneously as Chair-Elect 5. Editorial Board. The Editorial Board shall consist of three during the remainder of the term and shall continue to serve as members appointed by the Chair to staggered three-year terms. Chair-Elect in the following term. The Editorial Board shall assist the Editor in policy decisions If a vacancy occurs in the office of Chair-Elect otherwise than regarding the Forum newsletter, History of Physics Newsletter, through advancement to Chair, the Vice-Chair shall become Chair- and any other publication sponsored by the Forum. Elect. In this case, and also if the office of Vice-Chair becomes va- 6. Award Committee. The Award Committee shall consist of cant for other reasons, the office of Vice-Chair shall remain vacant at least three members appointed by the Chair. The Award Com- for the remainder of the term. In the next scheduled election, candi- mittee shall consider policies and procedures for any Forum award dates for both Chair-Elect and Vice-Chair shall be nominated. and make recommendations regarding this award to the Executive If vacancies occur in the offices of both the Chair and the Committee. The Award Committee shall be responsible for fund Chair-Elect, the Vice-Chair shall become Chair and shall complete raising for any Forum award that is approved by APS Council. the term. In this case a special election shall be held to fill the of- 7. Terms of Office of Appointed Committee Members. The fices of Chair-Elect and Vice-Chair. The members so elected shall terms of committee members appointed or recommended by an continue to serve as officers in the normal succession order. incoming Chair shall commence at the beginning of the year in Vacancies in any other elected office shall be filled (or left un- which he or she assumes office. filled) by the Executive Committee until such time as the vacancy 8. Ad Hoc Committees. The Chair shall appoint other ad hoc can be filled by regular election procedures. committees as necessary, which shall serve only during his or her term as Chair. ARTICLE VIII: APPOINTED COMMITTEES 1. Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee shall ARTICLE IX: MEETINGS consist of four members appointed by the Chair to staggered 1. Regular Meeting. One meeting of the Forum, to be known two-year terms and one member appointed by the Council for a as the Regular Meeting, shall be held annually at such time and one year terms. The Chair shall ascertain through the Executive place as shall be ordered by the Executive Committee, subject to Officer the identity of this member. The Nominating Committee approval by the Executive Board. Whenever it shall be feasible shall prepare a slate of candidates for the positions of Vice-Chair, and not to the disadvantage of the members of the Forum, the Secretary-Treasurer, and Members-at-Large of the Executive Com- Executive Committee may order this or any other meeting to be mittee according to Article VII.3 of these Bylaws. The Nominat- held conjointly with a Meeting of the Society or of another soci- ing Committee shall advise the Chair on suitable candidates for ety, conference, or group, so long as such joint meeting does not Society committees, including relevant Society Prize and Award conflict importantly with the schedule of Meetings of the Society committees, and on candidates for Society offices. The Nominat- as determined by the Executive BoardOfficer. The registration fee ing Committee shall perform such other duties as described in for the Regular Meeting, when not held jointly with a Meeting of the Bylaws. the Society, shall be fixed after consultation with the Executive 2. Program Committee. The Program Committee shall con- Officer. Non-members of the Society shall pay a surcharge to be sist of the Chair, the Chair-Elect, the Vice-Chair, the Secretary- set each year by the Executive Board as specified in the Bylaws Treasurer and three other members appointed by the Chair, upon of the Society. recommendation of the Chair-Elect. The Chair-Elect shall serve 2. Annual Business Session. Each year the Forum shall hold a as Chair of the Program Committee. The Program Committee Business Session which shall be a session of the Regular Meeting. shall have the responsibility of assisting the Executive Officer, This Business Session shall be devoted exclusively to the reports or his or her designate, in arranging the meetings of the Society. of officers and committees, election results, and the transaction

10 Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 • History of Physics Newsletter of business affairs. A majority vote of those Forum members of Physics Newsletter. There shall be at least one issue per year; present shall be sufficient for approval of actions, provided that the frequency and timing of these issues shall be determined by those present number at least five percent of the membership of the Editor in consultation with the Secretary-Treasurer, subject to the Forum. No scientific program of the Division Forum shall be approval of the Executive Committee or its delegate. The Execu- presented simultaneously with the Business Session. tive Committee may direct the Secretary-Treasurer to distribute 3. Other Meetings. Meetings of the Forum, other than the complimentary copies of the newsletter to specified non-members Regular Meeting, may be initiated by the Executive Committee of the Forum. The Editor shall be assisted in policy decisions by or by petition of twenty percent of the members of the Forum, an Editorial Board. subject to approval by the Executive BoardOfficer. Special confer- ences may be sponsored in whole or in part by the Forum, subject ARTICLE XII: OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS to the rules and regulations specified in the Society Constitution Official announcements shall be made in the History of Phys- and Bylaws. ics Newsletter, and in such other publications as the Executive 4. Papers at Meetings. Programs of meetings of the Forum Committee may direct. may provide for the inclusion of both invited and contributed papers. When a meeting of the Forum is held in conjunction with ARTICLE XIII: PROCEDURE OF AMENDMENT OF BY- a meeting of the Society, the rules of the Society shall apply to LAWS submitted papers. When a meeting of the Forum is not held in Proposal of an Amendment to these Bylaws may be made by conjunction with a meeting of the Society, the Executive Commit- the Council, by the Executive Committee, or by a petition to the tee shall prescribe the subject and character of the meeting, which Chair signed by not fewer than ten percent of the members of the may include limitations on the subject matter of submitted papers. Forum. If the proposed amendment originates within the Forum, it The Secretary-Treasurer shall fix the deadline date for receipt must be approved by Council before further action can be taken. of titles and abstracts in consultation with the Executive Officer Following Council approval, the Secretary-Treasurer shall dis- and shall designate the place to which they should be sent. The tribute copies of the proposed Amendment to all members of the amount of time to be allowed for the presentation of a paper at the Forum, usually in the winter issue of the newsletter or electroni- Regular Meeting shall be determined by the Program Committee, cally, but not less than three weeks before the Regular Meeting. except as otherwise directed by the Executive Committee. These Opportunity shall be given for discussion during the Business allotments of time shall be consistent with the Constitution and Session. With the unanimous consent of those members present Bylaws of the Society and with regulations of Council. and voting, the voting on the proposed Amendment may be carried out at the Business Session, provided that those present number ARTICLE X: DUES at least five percent of the membership of the Forum. Without Dues for maintenance of membership in the Forum shall be that consent, the voting on the proposed Amendment shall be as established by Council. follows. Not later than the next issue of the newsletter after said Regular Meeting. During the next regularly scheduled election, the ARTICLE XI: NEWSLETTER Secretary-Treasurer shall again distribute copies of the proposed The newsletter of the Forum, History of Physics Newsletter, Amendment and include a vote on the amendment on the ballot, shall be managed and edited by an Editor, who shall be elected accompanied by ballot forms, by mail and/or electronically. Adop- by the Executive Committee for a term of three years. The Edi- tion of the Amendment shall require a two-thirds favorable vote tor shall oversee the preparation and distribution of the History by those voting. ■

BOOK REVIEWS

Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen nated, New York where its premier was two physics giants on a relatively equal in Debate—Historical Essays accompanied by a powerful symposium, footing, somehow equivalent to their stand- and Documents on the 1942 organized by Brian Schwarz, that explored ings as physicists. Frayn himself has stated Meeting Between Niels Bohr its meaning, and elsewhere. Since that that he was inspired to write the play after and Werner Heisenberg time it has generated other symposia and reading “Heisenberg’s War” by Thomas conferences; it has resulted in the reissu- Powers. In that book Powers had expressed Edited by Matthias Dörries, Office for ing of the Frayn play along with several the opinion that Heisenberg discouraged History of Science and Technology, postscripts by Frayn and it has likewise atom bomb research in Nazi Germany, at University of California, Berkeley, 2005 generated numerous critical commentary least partly out of ethical motives Reviewed by Benjamin Bederson that among other things probed its histori- In this volume the Editor, Matthias Dor- cal accuracy. roes. Professor for History of Science at the The now famous Frayn play has stirred If one were to try to get at the core of University of Strasbourg, invited a number an old hornet’s nest—the meeting between the conflict of opinions, probably oversim- of science historians to offer their opinions Bohr and Heisenberg in Copenhagen, Sep- plifying it, it would be that in some fash- on the play. To make it even more interest- tember 15-21 1941. The play itself was a ion or other the play attempted to place ing, it happened that Gerald Holton released the moral and ethical behavior of these huge success in London, where it origi- continued on page 12 History of Physics Newsletter • Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 11 Book Reviews continued from page 11 a shocker at the New York symposium. bomb, only failing because of his ineptitute distant eras of revolutionary physics of He revealed that the Bohr family had in in the quest, with Powers sticking to his the 1920s and that almost equally distant their possession a number of draft letters, claim that Heisenberg did what he could to era of the horror of Nazi Germany into the never sent, written by Bohr, addressed to hamper its development and ensure that the realm of historic legend and consuming Heisenberg. The family had decided not to Nazis would not succeed in building such a literature. ■ release these letters until 2012. However, bomb before the end of the war. The Bohr as a result of the notoriety resulting from letters did nothing to change either of their IWAN RHYS MORUS the Frayn play, with the existence of the minds. Other writers took more nuanced letters now publicly revealed, they decided positions, although most (including Cas- When Physics Became King to release them now, and in fact posted them sidy, Holton and Walker) were decidedly on the Bohr website, along with translations, skeptical about Heisenberg’s unwillingness The University of Chicago Press, Chicago for all to see. They are at http://www.nbi.dk/ to cooperate with the Nazis. While Bohr’s and London, 2005). xii + 303 pages. $25.00 (paper). NBA. The present volume also reproduces unsent letters to Heisenberg made no men- images of all of them, along with typed ver- tion of bombs or fission, he was quite firm Reviewed by Roger H. Stuewer, sions in German and in English translation. in his denial of the somewhat self-serv- Professor Emeritus of the History The Editor also asked the writers to supply ing version of the meetings described by ofScience and Technology, University postscripts to their articles, after they had Heisenberg to Robert Jungk in Brighter of Minnesota seen the Bohr letters. than a Thousand Suns. Among the commentators were Finn One opinion, frankly expressed by Iwan Rhys Morus, Lecturer in the Aaserud, Director of the Niels Bohr Ar- Finn Aaserud, Director of the Niels Bohr Department of History and Welsh History chive in Copenhagen, David Cassidy, Archive in Copenhagen, captured my atten- at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dieter Hoffmann, Thomas Powers, Paul tion. He states...“increased public interest in has written what he calls an “unashamedly Rose , Mark Walker, and Gerald Holton. our field created by Copenhagen may add cultural history” of 19th-century physics, Each of the eleven had useful things to say, to the readership of our publications…and seeing its development as a “collective though I have to admit, some more than make funding agencies more positively enterprise,” the “product of the mass mo- others. What I found particularly interest- inclined toward history of science scholar- bilization of material and social resources ing was the fact that in virtually every case ship.” Something like what happened to the on an unprecedented scale” in which their original takes on the meetings were support of physics in the US after Sputnik. physicists carved out “a cultural niche for reinforced in their postscripts after having My personal inclination lies more to- themselves and their new discipline.” (pp. read the Bohr draft letters. What does this wards that of Rose than of Powers. Once 4-5) His is not a comprehensive history, say about our abilities to have our opinions you have started on the road to compro- following a simple chronological time line altered after they are once formulated? mise and accommodation, as Heisenberg from beginning to end; instead, he devotes At least two themes are explored certainly did in deciding to work within each chapter, a synthesis of recent scholar- in this volume. The first represents the the Nazi regime, where does it end? Bohr ship, to a particular aspect of 19th-century opinions of the contributors concerning understood this, to his everlasting credit, physics, with several overarching themes the historical validity of the Frayn play, while Heisenberg did not. running through them—that, for example, that is, did Frayn portray accurately the In the October 2005 issue of Physics physicists in their investigation of nature meetings between Heisenberg and Bohr Today, David Mermin offers a remarkable and discovery of universal physical laws in Copenhagen in 1941? The play, which quote by Einstein, made in reference to were “crucially dependent on a range of consists basically of dialogues between those who testified during the McCarthy cultural and material resources,” (p.18) these two, with Bohr’s wife Margarethe hearings: “Every intellectual who is called that institution building was vital in es- acting as a sort of intermediary, is almost before one of the committees ought to re- tablishing physics as a discipline, and that entirely talk, and Frayn is the first to admit fuse to testify, i.e. he must be prepared for physicists “had to find ways of defining that the play’s conversations were invented, jail and economic ruin…If enough people themselves and what they did in relation not recorded. The dramatist’s license thus are ready to take this grave step they will to their audiences in such a way as to taken is certainly legitimate, assuming that be successful. If not, then the intellectuals convince them that they could indeed be the sense of the conversations are accurate of this country deserve nothing better than trusted to speak for nature.” (p. 21). He reflections of what actually occurred. The the slavery which is intended for them.” begins each chapter with an introduction second theme is the even dicier question: Einstein practiced what he preached—he and closes it with a conclusion. The result did Heisenberg deliberately try to discour- was an outspoken pacifist living in Ger- is an understandable, widely accessible, age (at the least) or actually sabotage (at many throughout the first world war. beautifully written, fascinating, and in- the most) the Nazi bomb efforts? The two The volume contributes significantly sightful portrait of 19th-century physics. most extreme positions on the latter ques- to the extensive literature on that famous Morus sets the stage by discussing, first, tion were taken by Rose and Powers, both encounter. Yet, I still recommend actually the enormously influential scientific and adhering to their long-held opinions, with reading the play. I recently did just that to educational institutions that were born at Rose claiming that Heisenberg, while not refresh my memory, having attended the the end of the18th century in revolutionary a Nazi, was a strongly patriotic supporter New York premier. Even on paper, with- France, among them the Institute of France of the German side, and would and did out that splendid production, it remains and the École Polytechnique; second, the work enthusiastically in search of a fission a powerful work of art that places those subsequent attempts to reform the teaching

12 Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 • History of Physics Newsletter Book Reviews continued from page 12 of mathematics and the Mathematical Tri- better,” that is, of maximum efficiency. sion of electricity in a cable was its self- pos examination at the University of Cam- His work was clarified a decade later by induction, not its resistance, as William bridge; and third, the origin of a research another French engineer, Émile Clapeyron, Henry Preece, the practically-minded head ethos and extraordinary professorships in through which William Thomson learned of the British telegraph network, vigor- theoretical physics in German universi- about Carnot’s work in 1845. Thomson ously mantained. This rancorous dispute ties in the middle decades of the century, became professor of natural philosophy at between the “theoreticals” and “practicals,” treating, in each of these national contexts, the University of Glasgow in 1846, learned Morus observes, “underlines the point that, the significant physical and mathematical about Joule’s experiments in 1847, and as in many other cases, what was at stake contributions of prominent figures such as conceived the second law of thermodynam- here was authority. Physics and physicists Pierre-Simon Laplace, Charles Babbage, ics in1851. In that he was anticipated in had to find a cultural role for themselves and Herman Helmholtz. Morus then turns 1850 by Rudolf Clausius at the if the new discipline was to be ultimately to attempts to uncover the unity of nature, University of Halle, Germany, who also successful.” (p. 174) The “cultural author- from the search for a transcendental unity had learned about Carnot’s work through ity” of physics--“its claims to provide a in nature by proponents of the Romantic Clapeyron’s and about conservation of better way of looking at and understanding Naturphilosophie in Germany at the begin- “force” through the earlier and independent the world--did not burst full-grown from ning of the century, to the later recognition publications on it of his countrymen, Julius Jupiter’s head. It had to be argued for.” by Michael Faraday and others that the Robert Mayer and Herman Helmholtz, both Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s discovery of “forces” of nature, such as electricity and of whom were motivated to investigate the Xrays and Henri Becquerel’s discovery magnetism, could be converted one into the science of work by physiological consider- of radioactivity at the end of the century other, and even, as James Prescott Joule ations. Clausius extended his analysis and “were an important part of this process.... found later, totally conserved. Indeed, to introduced the term “entropy” in1865, for They provided hard evidence ... that phys- William Thomson and Peter Guthrie Tait, which Ludwig Boltzmann at the University ics really could deliver the goods.” (p. 191) as well as to James Clerk Maxwell, energy of Graz, Austria, who along with Max- Turning to astronomy, Morus notes that and its conservation became new unifying well founded the kinetic theory of gases, George Bidell Airy, after being appointed physical principles and ones that underlay gave a statistical interpretation in 1877. as Astronomer Royal in 1835, “imposed a the quest to understand the mechanics Morus pointedly concludes that, “Making ‘factory mentality’ on the Royal Observa- of the ether. Further, the conservation of common ground among physicists from tory” in Greenwich. He organized work ac- energy became the “ideal tool for creating different cultures and backgrounds as to cording to a “strict hierarchy,” with Airy at and holding together” the new discipline what the science of work really was itself the top, his managers below him, and the of physics, one that “crossed the bound- required work.” (p. 155) “obedient drudges,” the human computers aries between factories, laboratories, and In his next chapter, Morus returns to and observers, at the bottom--a system university studies and lecture halls.” (p.86) developments in electricity, now in the sec- that Morus labels “industrial astronomy.” Electricity, as Morus shows next, not only ond half of the 19th century, and discusses One consequence was that Airy commit- became of fundamental scientific interest the new phenomenon of its discharge ted the Royal Observatory to undertake as a consequence of the work of Ales- between two oppositely charged poles in only systematic daily observations, and he sandro Volta, Hans Christian Oersted, and evacuated glass tubes, as studied experi- therefore refused to search the sky to try Faraday, it also was turned into a “tech- mentally in the 1850s by William R. Grove to find the planet Neptune that John Couch nology of display” by William Sturgeon’s and his friend John Peter Gassiot in Eng- Adams had predicted in 1845. On the posi- invention of the electromagnet in 1824 land, and by Julius Plücker and his student tive side, Airy soon thereafter developed a and Joseph Henry’s subsequent construc- Wilhelm Hittorf in Germany. The London grand plan for an international network of tion of enormous ones, supporting weights chemist William Crookes, however, became observatories with Greenwich as its nodal of up to 1600 pounds. Moreover, through the most prolific researcher in this area in point. Concurrently, Lord Rosse was con- the development of telegraphy in the the 1870s, inventing the radiometer and structing his giant reflecting telescope, the late 1830s and early 1840s,especially by arguing that these cathode rays constituted Leviathan, at Parsonstown, an enormous Charles Wheatstone in Britain and Samuel a “fourth state of matter,” one rarer than undertaking that also was very much a F.B. Morse inAmerica, electricity became a gases, and one tied to the physics of the “product of industrial culture,” (p. 209) saleable commodity, with electrical devices ether, which to him and a substantial num- using it to search the heavens for support being featured prominently in the Great ber of other prominent British scientists, for William Herschel’s nebular hypothesis Exhibition of 1851 in London. At the end all believers in spiritualism, soon “offered and life on other worlds, a controversial of the century, Nikola Tesla’s enormous a way of communicating with the dead.” supposition then as now. The middle high-frequency, high-potential induction (p. 178) Earlier, however, in 1873, Max- decades of the century also saw both pho- coils fascinated American audiences with well had published his great Treatise on tography and spectroscopy introduced into their huge and noisy discharges. Sadi Car- Electricity and Magnetism, on the basis of astronomical practice and developed into not, also motivated by economic concerns, which Oliver Heaviside and Oliver Lodge crucial laboratory research tools. The rise published his profound analysis of the concluded theoretically, before Heinrich of laboratory science and precision mea- motive power of heat in 1824 and thereby Hertz in Karlsruhe, Germany, conclusively surements, in fact, became hallmarks of brought “abstruse natural philosophy to confirmed Maxwell’s prediction of electro- experimental physics in the 19th century, bear on a very practical question,” (p.132) magnetic waves in the ether in 1888, that namely, “how to make steam engines work the primary limiting factor in the transmis- continued on page 14

History of Physics Newsletter • Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 13 Book Reviews continued from page 13 beginning with the establishment of teach- in physics courses. Morus’s final words electron anomalous moment, hyperfine ing laboratories in German universities in are worth pondering by both historians structure) presented at the Shelter Island the second quarter the century and culmi- and physicists: Science is not a given. Conference of 1946. Part of the intended nating in the construction of the Cavendish It is a cultural achievement of immense audience for this book (including histori- Laboratory in Cambridge beginning in and unprecedented significance.... Since ans, sociologists, and philosophers) will 1871 with Maxwell as Cavendish Profes- physics is a product of culture, as the unfortunately have to look elsewhere to sor of Experimental Physics, and that of nineteenth century recognized, it is also find an adequate account of what the origi- the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt part of a common culture. The shape of nal meaning and purpose of the diagrams. in Berlin beginning in 1887 with Helm- modern scientific institutions, the status of At the Pocono Conference of 1947, where holtz as President. Both became seats of scientific experts, their relationship to gov- Feynman gave his first public demonstration precision measurements, for example of ernment and to industry are not engraved of the diagrams, some of the older masters the standard unit of electrical resistance, in stone. It is up to citizens of the twenty- present refused to accept them, in part be- the ohm, which was essential for the first century to decide whether and how cause they seemed to be “visualizations.” commercial exploitation of electricity in they value physics and physicists — what At the Pocono Conference, Schwinger telegraphy and other areas. “Precision mat- role they will play in this century’s culture. spent most of one day expounding his tered,” Morus notes, because it was “a way (pp. 284-285) ■ theory, while Feynman had little time for of inculcating new disciplinary regimes his presentation. They were both a bit as much as anything else. It was a crucial DAVID KAISER slow to publish their theories, and Freeman element in the fashioning of physicists as Dyson’s papers “The radiation theories much as of physics.” (p. 260)In his final Drawing Theories Apart: of Tomonaga, Schwinger, and Feynman” chapter, Morus surveys fin-de-siècle phys- The Dispersion of Feynman (Feb.1, 1949) and “The S matrix in quan- ics and its institutions. William Thomson, Diagrams in Postwar Physics tum electrodynamics” became the first pub- now Lord Kelvin, in Britain and the now- lications that described the diagrammatic University of Chicago Press, 2005, 316 p. ennobled Hermann von Helmholtz in Ger- method. For a while the procedure was many “had come to stand for a particular Reviewed by Laurie M. Brown for attributed to Dyson, and for a long time kind of imperial physics,” a “cocksure new History of Physics Newsletter theorists referred to Feynman-Dyson dia- science, its spokesmen confident and self- grams. Robert Oppenheimer, at the Insti- assured, convinced that they held the keys The title of this book (according to the tute for Advanced Study, had shown Dyson to unlocking nature’s secrets.” (p. 262) Its author) is an “inverted analogy” to that papers that Sin-itiro Tomonaga had sent to buzzword was progress, and physics “lay of the article “Drawing Things Together” him. These were written in Japan toward at the very heart” of culture. Still, novelists by the French science studies guru Bruno the end of the war and afterwards (under were less sanguine. Mary Shelley’s Fran- Latour. David Kaiser’s book draws on “La- terrible circumstances), and Dyson was the kenstein, published early in the century, tourian themes: the building of networks, first to point out the valuable contributions expressed the fears of what natural philoso- the work of translation and enrollment, and of Tomonaga and his school. phy might become; Bram Stoker’s Dracula, so on.” (p. 7) However the science studies In the third chapter (Dyson and the published late in the century, raised the discussions are confined mostly to the first Postdoc Cascade), Kaiser describes how specter of the limitations of physics; and and last chapters (as in Andy Pickering’s Dyson became the “diagrammatic ambas- H.G. Wells’s Time Machine of 1895 envi- “Constructing Quarks”) and to some foot- sador”. His lectures, preprints, and personal sioned a bleak future for humanity, and his notes. That said, I will couch the rest of contacts helped to spread to Great Britain War of the Worlds of 1898 presented the this review in language more accessible and to places like Princeton, Columbia, and nightmare of annihilation by alien species and perhaps more congenial to most read- Harvard (where due to Schwinger’s pres- who were scientifically and technologically ers of this newsletter. ence they were used sub rosa). Internation- superior to our own. But the Great War of Kaiser considers the Feynman diagrams ally the news spread mainly by papers and 1914-1918 proved that we did not have to to be a theorist’s tools, analogous to the lecture notes, especially to Japan, which look to other worlds for means of destruc- instruments that experimentalists use to produced 97 diagrammatic articles from tion: The National Physical Laboratory in investigate nature. He describes their dis- 1949 to 1954, compared to 139 in America Teddington under Richard T. Glazebrook semination (or, as he prefers “dispersal”) and 23 in Great Britain. (Kaiser might have became a center for war work, just as the from their origin with Feynman and Dyson noted that the Bethe-Salpeter two–body Physikalish-Technische Reichsanstalt in at Cornell to physicists at other centers relativistic equation (Dec. 1951), that he Berlin under Emil Warburg did. In sum, of theoretical physics, acquiring local devotes a section to, was written down in while I caught a few slips, Morus has writ- characteristics and new applications, other a paper in Progress of Theoretical Physics ten a book that is filled with insights into than their original use as mnemonics and by Yoichiro Nambu in August, 1950). The the cultural history of 19th-century phys- aids to “visualizing” physical processes in Soviet theorists, who later made important ics, and one that historians, physicists, and quantum electrodynamics (QED). contributions to renormalized QED, were their students can read with great profit. The second chapter of the book in- in this earlier period inhibited in publica- It also would serve well as a textbook cludes a brief review of the QED problems tion by the cold war and their involvement or for supplementary reading in history raised by the spectacular Columbia Uni- in the Soviet H-bomb. courses, or even as recommended reading versity experimental results (Lamb Shift, Kaiser traces “family resemblances”

14 Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 • History of Physics Newsletter Book Reviews continued from page 14 in particular schools, in part by their par- polarization, he became committed to The last idea, first advanced by Heisenberg ticular ways of drawing the diagrams. He quantum fields. who later dropped it, was to construct the discovers (or rather, I think, invents) what When particle theorists turned their scattering amplitudes from its analytic he calls the Feynman Dyson split. He attention to the meson theory of strong properties, poles and cuts in the complex claims that Dyson viewed the diagrams as interactions, using the successful renor- momentum plane, which were supposed to devices for “merely” writing compactly malized QED as a paradigm, most of contain the “real physics”. the quantum field theoretical amplitudes, them realized that the strong (or rather, David Kaiser’s book will prove absorb- while thought of them as an alternative to intermediate) coupling would defeat any ing and rewarding, especially to those who quantum field theory and, in some sense a perturbation theory. Thus they tried to have worked in the fields of physics that visual representation of a physical process. abstract other “good” features of QED, he discusses. Others interested in science In fact, no one was more aware than Feyn- using modified Feynman diagrams. They history and sociology will also profit, but man that he was doing perturbation theory replaced three-particle vertices by “blobs”, should be aware that his conclusions are and that QED is a low-energy effective used thick lines for renormalized propaga- not without controversy. That is bound field theory. He had originally hoped to tors, etc., and the modified diagrams were top be a consequence of any original eliminate the fields, but since fitting the employed in dispersion relations, single approach. ■ Lamb shift experiment requires vacuum and double, and in the “analytic S matrix”. OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS

The Light Quantum: Celebrating Einstein’s Paper of June 1905

Eugen Merzbacher, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill I speak as one of the rapidly dwindling of his misgivings about quantum mechan- he had just turned twenty-six. He was number of physicists who saw Albert Ein- ics. At the end of the academic year, before employed as technical expert third class stein (1879-1955) in person. In 1950-51, returning to Israel, Racah again knocked at the Patent Office in the capital of Swit- as a postdoc member of the Institute for on Einstein’s office door to say a formal zerland, Bern, and had recently become a Advanced Study in Princeton, I often saw goodbye. Einstein called “come in,” and father. This paper, submitted even before Einstein walking around ten in the morn- upon seeing Racah at the door asked him: his Ph.D. dissertation, was his first incur- ing from his house on Mercer Street to his “Are you still working on quantum me- sion into the quantum theory, which – for office in the Institute and occasionally at chanics?” better or worse – held his interest to the afternoon tea. My lasting memory is the From 1935 to 1947, before coming end of his life (18 April 1955). A fine surprise engendered by his commanding to America, I lived in Ankara, Turkey, English translation by A. B. Arons and M. tall stature, contradicting the popular image with my family. On weekend excursions B. Peppard was published in the American of him as hunched in an easy chair. Not we would often talk with peasants and Journal of Physics 33, 367 (1965), with wishing to waste his time, few of us junior shepherds in the villages on the Anatolian an acknowledgment of help from Martin scientists ever spoke to “the professor,” but steppes. Their knowledge of the outside Klein, the first 2005 winner of the APS/ I recall an anecdote worth recounting.1 world was sketchy, but invariably they had AAIP Abraham Pais Award for the History Giulio Racah was a visiting profes- heard of three important men: Adolf Hitler, of Physics. sor at the Institute during the same year. Charlie Chaplin (referred to by his French For perspective it helps to note what Famous for applying group theory to atom- nickname, Charlot), and Albert Einstein. else happened in 1905, Alfred Binet in- ic spectroscopy, he was an Italian theorist Of the three, Einstein, born in 1879, was vented the IQ test. The Aliens Act came who had joined the faculty of the Hebrew the oldest. Oddly, ten years later in 1889, into force in Great Britain. The Tsar ag- University. When he arrived at Princeton, Chaplin and Hitler were born within four gravated the political turmoil in Russia on he followed European etiquette and an- days of each other. Einstein and Chaplin “Bloody Sunday,” when over a hundred nounced that he would pay his respects knew each other in the early 1930’s in striking workers were killed by the Cos- to Professor Einstein. He found Einstein California. They shared political tenden- sacks, starting the Revolution of 1905. in his office at work, presumably on uni- cies. Hitler cast his dark shadow over both Germany, wishing to challenge British fied field theory, with his assistant (Bruria of them and was caricatured in Chaplin’s dominance of the seas, began building the Kaufman, I believe). They chatted for a film, The Great Dictator. Dreadnought battleship. Picasso launched few minutes and Einstein asked Racah the On 17 March 1905, when Einstein his Pink Period in Paris. Debussy com- usual question: “What are you working on finished the first of his astonishing series posed La Mer and Richard Strauss Sa- these days?” Racah explained that he was of papers in his annus mirabilis, “Con- lome. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published applying quantum mechanics to atoms and cerning an heuristic2 point of view toward The Return of Sherlock Holmes and Edith 3 nuclei. Einstein apparently expressed some the emission and transformation of light,” continued on page 16

History of Physics Newsletter • Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 15 BYLAWS continued from page 15 is so rich to which Einstein has not made mula for the energy density of blackbody a remarkable contribution. That he may radiation, Wharton The House of Mirth. The XX sometimes have missed the target in his chromosome was identified as female and speculations, as, for example, in his hy- the XY chromosome as male determinant. pothesis of light quanta, cannot really be fits the experimental data at low ra- The use of tree rings to establish dates held too much against him, for it is not diation frequencies ν (long wavelengths) was introduced as dendrochronology. In possible to introduce really new ideas even and high temperatures T, but not at high physics, R. W. Wood observed resonance in the most exact sciences without some- frequencies and low temperatures. If ex- radiation from mercury vapor at low pres- times taking a risk.” (Pais, p.382) trapolated to frequencies beyond its range sure and Langevin worked out the theory By 1922, however, the Nobel com- of applicability, it predicts the total radia- of magnetism. mittee was evidently happy to bestow its tion energy in a finite volume to be infinite. It is interesting to speculate what phys- award to Einstein for his discovery of the Five years earlier, Planck had proposed his ics and indeed the world would be like if law of the photoelectric effect, which is famous, experimentally confirmed, expres- Albert Einstein had not survived into adult- based on the light quantum hypothesis, sion for the spectral distribution of radia- hood. Such rhetorical questions are usually avoiding any explicit mention of Special tion in a cavity, which Einstein writes as answered by asserting that the science has and General Relativity. Presumably, the a life of its own and that, sooner rather committee felt more comfortable citing than later, the same discoveries would the photoelectric effect, because in 1916 have been made and the same theoretical Robert Millikan’s extensive and careful concepts developed. This is surely true measurements had confirmed Einstein’s Here α and β are empirical constants, for most advances, which are “in the air,” predictions and convinced most physicists determined by fitting the existing data over and, like everyone else, Einstein stood of the correctness of his theory. the entire frequency and temperature range. “upon the shoulders of Giants” (Newton In view of all this it is not surprising (See the Figure depicting the Cosmic 5 to Hooke in 1675/6, but traceable to an that many physicists think that the March Microwave Background spectrum, which 11th century Italian Talmudist). By the 1905 paper on the light quantum is primar- follows Planck’s distribution accurately for time he was twenty-six he had acquired ily about the photoelectric effect. Actually, T=2.73°K.) For low temperatures and short an impressive amount of knowledge about the theory of the photoelectric effect ap- wavelengths, the Planck formula agrees contemporary physics, both theoretical and pears only at the end of the paper as an with Wien’s radiation formula, proposed experimental. Painstaking archival research application of 4 the light quantum hypoth- in 1896, by excellent historians of science has laid esis, which is put forward in the bulk of bare the sources of his inspirations and the paper as a novel means of interpreting has even shed light on his human frailties. Planck’s 1899 formula for the spectral dis- In modern notation, we write When all is said, however, we remain in tribution of blackbody or cavity radiation. awe of Einstein’s astonishing originality. I cannot possibly improve on Einstein’s Without him and his publications, some own words expressing the basic idea near of the sharp turns in direction that his the beginning of his paper: where k is Boltzmann’s constant, a insights ultimately gave to physics in the “It seems to me that the observations term introduced earlier by Planck, and h first half of the twentieth century would about ‘schwarze Strahlung’ (blackbody ra- is Planck’s constant. In passing, Einstein have reached our consciousness and our diation), fluorescence (‘Photolumineszenz’), rederives from the empirical values of α textbooks, if at all, only years later than the production of cathode rays by ultra- and β a value for Avogadro’s number that they actually did. violet light and other related phenomena is accurate to within two percent. Einstein’s light quantum hypothesis, connected with the emission or transforma- In the next sections of his paper Ein- the birth of what (since 1926, when the tion of light are more readily understood stein uses thermodynamics to obtain an name was introduced by G. N. Lewis for if one assumed that the energy of light is expression for the entropy of a particular 4 something quite different [Pais p.407] ) discontinuously distributed in space. In ac- frequency component of the radiation as a we came to call the photon, was the first cordance with the assumption considered function of the volume, and in the limit of of these pivotal turning points to which here, the energy of a light ray spreading high frequency and low radiation density his unerring intuition led him. Seventeen out from a point source is not continuously (or low temperature) he finds a logarithmic years later the circumspect Swedish Acad- distributed over an increasing space but dependence on the volume, just like the emy finally awarded him the Nobel Prize consists of a finite number of energy quanta case of an ideal gas or a dilute solution. for 1921 “for his services to theoretical (‘Energiequanten’) which are localized at This is his clue for his interpretation of physics and especially for his discovery of points in space, which move without divid- radiation as composed of discrete quanta the law of the photoelectric effect.” (Pais, ing, and which can only be produced and of energy. He connects the entropy to p.510) In 1913, halfway between 1905 absorbed as complete units.” Boltzmann’s probability and infers that, and the Nobel Prize, Planck and some of Having stated his bold program, Ein- if the frequency is high, “monochromatic his distinguished colleagues recommended stein retreats to familiar ground and de- radiation of low density…behaves ther- Einstein for membership in the Prussian rives what we now call the Rayleigh-Jeans modynamically as though it consisted of Academy, writing this: “In sum, one can Law from the energy equipartition law of a number of independent energy quanta of say that there is hardly one among the classical kinetic theory. The resulting for- magnitude Rβν/N .” great problems in which modern physics 16 Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 • History of Physics Newsletter Einstein’s astonishingly sophisticated many years for the physics community to states) that establish conclusively that the arguments leading to his hypothesis of accept light quanta (or photons) as a le- nonlocality, which Einstein so abhorred, is the discrete nature of electromagnetic gitimate species of animals in the particle here to stay. radiation were based on an assumption zoo, with mass zero. In 1905 Einstein did This ends my brief account of Ein- that we now know not to be tenable: That not think of them as particles, and late in stein’s first salvo in 1905. More was to radiation can be considered as composed his life, in 1950, he wrote to his friend come shortly: The theory of Brownian of lumps of energy, or quanta, localized Michele Besso: “All these fifty years of motion, Special Relativity, and E = mc2 .I in space. If he had made his calculation pondering have not brought me any closer thank Martin J. Klein for showing me, by in momentum space instead of coordinate to answering the question, What are light personal example as well as through his space, he would have reached the same quanta?5” Over time, Einstein himself and important articles about Einstein8, how one conclusion by legitimate means. Ironically, many others showed that he had been too should approach the history of physics. Al- the principles of (special) relativity prevent cautious in stipulating that his heuristic though I have benefited from many books us from thinking of light quanta, as these hypothesis referred only to light quanta and articles, Max Jammer’s The Concep- constituents of radiation soon came to be of high frequency. The strange concept tual Development of Quantum Mechanics9 called, as localizable in ordinary space. of a wave-particle duality became a new remains my major reference for the early At this point Einstein turns to ap- paradigm in physics and generated many history of quantum physics. I owe thanks plications of his “heuristic” viewpoint to debates and much confusion.6 Finally, in to Jeremy Bernstein and Marc Lange for processes involving the production and 1923, Arthur Compton’s experimental re- helping me to improve this paper, which transformation of light. He points out that sults on scattering of x rays from electrons originated as a colloquium talk on the oc- in 6 ordinary fluorescence conservation of provided the evidence that convinced even casion of the 2005 Einstein Centennial in energy implies that the emitted light must the last skeptics, like Niels Bohr, of the my home department at Chapel Hill. ■ have a smaller frequency than the absorbed physical reality of light quanta. Einstein’s ______light – as observed and known as Stokes’s contributions to our understanding of the 1 A personal note: When I arrived in the U.S. in Rule. All along, Einstein is careful to em- physics of light quanta spanned a period of 1947, friends told me that, without my knowledge, Einstein had placed my name on a list of needy phasize that his speculation applies only to twenty years, until the advent of quantum immigrants whom he recommended to one of the radiation of high frequency and may not be mechanics in the 1924-1927 period. He in- Jewish aid organizations for financial support in appropriate in the low frequency regime. troduced the A and B coefficients for emis- the aftermath of World War II. Einstein had a rep- Finally, in Section 8 of the paper, we sion and absorption, as well as induced or utation for signing such petitions liberally, without much investigation. He had little patience with reach the photoelectric effect, “the produc- stimulated emission, of radiation by atoms. bureaucracy and probably helped scores of people tion of cathode rays [i.e., photoelectrons] Together with Satyandra Nath Bose, he start a new life behind the scenes. I thought it best by illuminating solid bodies.” Suggesting introduced the new non-classical statistics, to ignore what I was told and extend my thanks that in the process of photoemission the now known as Bose-Einstein statistics and only to the agency from which I received the help that was essential for coming to graduate school energy Rβν N of a light quantum is trans- generalized to all particle species with in- in America. Undoubtedly, Einstein’s secretary, ferred to an electron, he proposes that the tegral spin. And he extended the theory to Helen Dukas, was instrumental in bringing cases maximum kinetic energy of the photoelec- the calculation of the specific heat of solids like mine to Einstein’s attention. trons is at low temperatures. 2 Webster defines heuristic as “valuable for stimulat- ing or conducting empirical research but unproved To appreciate the importance of Ein- or incapable of proof.” stein’s contributions to present-day quan- 3 “Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des or in modern notation, tum physics we only need to think of mod- Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt,” ern quantum optics and the new experi- Annalen der Physik 17, 132 (1905). 10 E = hν −φ 4 References to Pais are to the excellent biography: max ments with Bose-Einstein condensates. Abraham Pais, “Subtle is the Lord…,” Oxford The discovery of quantum mechanics University Press, New York, 1982. Here Π is the retarding potential re- in the third decade of the twentieth century 5 “Die ganzen 50 Jahre bewusster Grübelei haben quired to stop the escape of electrons from lifted the fog for many physicists. As il- mich der Antwort der Frage ‘Was sind Lich- the body, ε is the magnitude of the electron tquanten’ nicht näher gebracht.” (Pais, p.382) lustrated by the anecdote recounted at the 6 The President of the American Physical Society, charge, and P stands for the minimum en- beginning of this paper, it made Einstein Marvin Cohen, was recently interviewed on a ergy necessary to extract an electron from more uncomfortable, because of the intrin- radio show and asked, “What do you answer a the surface of the solid body, now called sically probabilistic nature of quantum me- student when he/she asks if light is a particle or a the work function φ, characteristic of the wave?” He said, “I answer ‘yes’.” chanics and its implications of a “spooky” 7 Nathan Rosen was Einstein’s assistant from 1934 to nature of the solid. The theory thus pre- action-at-a distance and what he saw as the 1936. He was on the faculty of the University of dicts that the maximum kinetic energy of demise of objective physical reality. The North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1941 to 1952, when he moved to Israel and I was appointed to the electrons Emax is a linear function of the much-cited 1935 (EPR) paper by Einstein, frequency, with a universal slope. In the the resulting vacancy. Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen, entitled 8 Martin J. Klein, “Einstein’s First Paper on last section of the paper Einstein predicts “Can quantum-mechanical description of Quanta”in The Natural Philosopher, vol. II, p.59, that in the process of photoionization of a physical reality be considered complete?” Blaisdell Publishing Co., 1963, and “Einstein gas, the absorbed light energy L will pro- expressed Einstein’s abiding discomfort and the Wave-Particle Duality” in The Natural Philosopher, vol III, p.3, Blaisdell Publishing duce L Rβν moles of ions in the gas. 7 with quantum mechanics. It is ironic that Co., 1964. The paper was submitted on 17 March Einstein’s light quanta have been central 9 Max Jammer, The Conceptual Development of 1905 and published on 9 June. It took in the crucial experiments (on entangled Quantum Mechanics, McGraw-Hill Book Com- pany, New York, 1966. History of Physics Newsletter • Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 17 How Einstein Discovered the Photon

Michael Nauenberg, Physics Department, University of California, Santa Cruz

During May 1905, Einstein wrote ful analysis of Planck’s original derivation equilibrium, S is the entropy density per a letter to his old school friend Conrad of his black-body formula, and revealed unit frequency and E is the energy density Habicht promising to send him four pa- some fundamental inconsistencies in its per unit frequency which Einstein took to pers, one of which dealt with the nature of derivation. Planck had applied classical be the Wien distribution. However, in this light, and which Einstein regarded as “very mechanics and Maxwell’s electrodynamics case Einstein had to justify the application revolutionary.’’ In this paper, entitled On to derive an equation for an ensemble of of this thermodynamic relation, and for this a heuristic point of view concerning the charged oscillators in thermal equilibrium purpose he introduced a novel variational production and transformation of light, with electromagnetic radiation inside a method. It turns out that from the viewpoint he compared the entropy of low density cavity. But then he took over Boltzmann’s of radiation as a gas of photons, Einstein’s monochromatic radiation in thermal equi- statistical counting method for a fictious variational method is justified because librium with the entropy of an ideal gas, molecular gas having discrete energy photon number is not a conserved quantity. and concluded that this radiation behaved levels, without requiring that this level This was a piece of good luck, because in as if it consisted of a gas of “energy spacing  vanish in the continuum limit retrospect a similar derivation for massive quanta’’ which now we call photons. This corresponding to classical physics. Instead, bosons would not have been possible. contradicted the generally accepted view for his oscillators he set =hv, where v is In the Wien limit, Einstein found that radiation was a wave phenomena, as the radiation frequency and h is a constant, that the total entropy of monochromatic demonstrated by interference experiments, now known as Planck’s constant. Einstein radiation in thermal equilibrium depends and for a long time Einstein’s insight was criticized Planck’s arguments, and pro- logarithmically on the volume V, as is the rejected even by Planck who often is given ceeded to apply his profound understand- case for the entropy of a molecular gas in credit for it. ing of statistical mechanics (by 1902 he the low density limit. Einstein also showed Physics students know that Einstein had developed the canonical ensemble that the number density N of the radia- energy quanta explains the photo electric and thermal fluctuation theory indepen- tion quanta is determined by the relation effect (for which he received the Nobel dently of Gibbs) to obtain a relation for N=E/hv where v is the frequency of the Prize in 1921), which could not be under- the entropy of monochromatic radiation radiation and h corresponds to Planck’s stood by classical theory. But as late as at low densities. For this purpose, Einstein constant (he represented h in a somewhat 1915, Millikan, who carefully established applied the Wien distribution which also different form). Finally, he concluded that the experimental validity of this phenom- is the low density limit of the Planck Monochromatic radiation at low enon, wrote in the introduction to his pa- distribution. Martin Klein commented density [i.e., within the domain of per that “Einstein’s photoelectric equation that “Einstein based his calculation on validity of the Wien radiation for- ... cannot in my judgment be looked upon this Wien distribution, perhaps because mula] behaves thermodynamically as at present as resting upon any sort of sat- of its greater simplicity... ,” but there is a if it consists of mutually independent energy quanta of magnitude hv isfactory theoretical foundation,’’ because profound reason why Einstein considered as Wien had remarked in his 1911 Nobel this limiting distribution. In making his However, there is a gap in Einstein’s prize acceptance speech, “it is a priori im- analogy, Einstein must have realized that argument. In a footnote in his paper, possible to introduce a dualistic approach the ideal gas model would be applicable Einstein noted that the pressure p of a into optics, e.g. to assume simultaneously to a real gas only in the limit of low densi- molecular gas is given by p=TdS/dV, but Huygens’ wave theory and Newton’s ema- ties, where interactions can presumably be he did not apply this relation to obtain the nation theory.” neglected, and therefore, if thermal radia- radiation pressure. Since S depends loga- When Planck and some of his col- tion was due to energy quanta which also rithmically on V, one finds that p α NT/V, leagues proposed Einstein for membership might have interactions, he had to consider but as originally pointed out by Maxwell, to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in the same limit. This important point has p=(1/3)E/V, from which Boltzmann 1913, they concluded “that although he escaped the attention of commentators of derived the T 4 law for the temperature may sometimes have missed the target in Einstein’s paper. dependence of thermal radiation. But neither his speculations, as, for example, in his hy- Einstein’s derivation of a relation Einstein, nor his contemporaries comment- pothesis of light quanta, this cannot really for the radiation entropy followed along ed on this paradox which has been neglect- be held against him, for it is not possible lines similar to those developed earlier by ed also by modern commentators of Ein- to introduce really new ideas even in the Planck, who had applied the thermodynam- stein seminal paper. The solution of this most exact sciences without sometimes ics relation dS/dE=1/T to his ensemble of paradox is that the entropy depends also taing a risk.” Even Bohr quipped that “if charged oscillators with mean energy E on the frequency v of the monochromatic Einstein sends me a telegram that he has and entropy S in thermal equilibrium at radiation, and this frequencey does not re- found proof for light quanta I will hold it temperature T. When the temperature de- main constant when the volume of the cav- as contrary evidence, because his telegram pendence of E is known, this relation can ity is changed adiabatically, but varies as arrived by an electromagnetic wave.’’ then be solved for S as a function of E. V (-1/3). Taking this volume dependence In his paper Einstein made a very care- For monocromatic radiation in thermal of the frequency into account leads to

18 Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 • History of Physics Newsletter Maxwell’s correct relation for the pressure dence of the entropy is rather complicated, the more complicated volume dependence of isotropic radiation. which would have been a puzzle. Its solu- of the entropy obtained from Planck’s It is plausible that Einstein also con- tion became evident nineteen years later formula. Hence, already in 1905 Einstein sidered the consequences of his analysis when Bose showed that photons do not could have discovered the quantum sta- in the case that the energy density of ra- obey Boltzmann statistics. The statistics of tistics of photons, had he followed more diation is given by the Planck black-body photons introduced by Bose implies that fully the implications of Planck’s rather formula, but he did not mention this in photons are correlated, which accounts for than Wien’s distribution. ■ his paper. In this case the volume depen-

Feynman and Schwinger

Letter to Edward Gerjuoy, by Hans Christian Reply by Edward Gerjuoy von Baiyer Readers can refer to the original Gerjuoy article on Julian Schwinger in Dr. von Baeyer’s letter is dignified and without animus; I hope the Fall 2005 FHP Newsletter. It can be accessed at the FHP website. to reply in kind. This said, I cannot agree that my article’s refer- ence (in its first paragraph) to the panel which is the subject of his Dear Prof. Gerjuoy, letter was inapposite. Running across the full length of the top of As admirer of Schwinger, and author of the words quoted in the panel are a 10”x6” almost full length photograph of Feynman, the opening paragraph of your fine essay in the History of Physics accompanied by 7”x13” of text extolling his brilliance and (as Newsletter (Vo.IX, No.5, Fall 2005), allow me to mount a gentle quoted in my article) stating, without any mention of Schwinger, defense. The essays accompanying the large portraits on the A that Feynman created QED. There is no photo of Schwinger on the CENTURY OF PHYSICS timeline are not meant to tell the story panel. The only explicit mention of Schwinger on the panel occurs of physics in the twentieth century. Instead, they are illustrations, in a box accurately quoted by von Baeyer. This box, whose size is vignettes, if you will, and their function is to draw in the audience. 1.75”x4.5”, is surrounded by a collection of 23 other boxes, most The essays are colored by my opinions, and hence subjective. The of which are larger than the one mentioning Schwinger. Moreover actual history is told in the dated boxes below them, which try to quite a few of those other boxes are accompanied by photos of the be more objective. The essays frequently refer to events that are physicists they list. Thus even accepting, as I do accept, that the included further down the page in their historical context. This is motivation for the panel’s design was as von Baeyer recounts, I the case here, too. stand by my assertion (in the second paragraph of my article) that A foot below the words you cite, in a prominent place near the the panel, prepared only about five years after Schwinger’s death, middle of the panel, there is a box with the following text: illustrates the fact “that in recent years the remarkable researches “1948 THE MODERN THEORY OF LIGHT AND ELEC- of Julian Schwinger…appear to be increasingly overlooked.” TRONS IS FORMULATED. The American physicists Richard Finally, to close my response to von Baeyer’s letter, I do not see Feynman* & Julian Schwinger*, and the Japanese physicist Sin- how the aforementioned panel box can be regarded as evidence Itiro Tomonaga* develop quantum electrodynamics (QED), the against my assertion (in the last paragraph of my article) that “ex- first complete theory of the interaction of photons and electrons.” plicitly mentioning Schwinger’s name no longer is fashionable,” [The asterisk stands for a little Nobel medal.] an assertion I continue to endorse. I wanted to point this out in light of your remark that “explic- Before signing off I take the opportunity to acknowledge itly mentioning Schwinger’s name no longer is fashionable.” an error in my article, originally pointed out to me by Michael Fisher. Walter Gilbert did not, as I wrote, obtain his Ph.D. under Respectfully, Schwinger’s direction; rather he was a postdoc of Schwinger’s. Hans Christian von Baeyer My error stems from my reliance on the text of the obituary of Chancellor/Professor of Physics Schwinger published in Nature (reference 2 of my article), whose College of William and Mary accuracy I should have independently checked. My article’s asser- Williamsburg, VA tion that Schwinger’s Ph.D. students include four Nobel Laureates fortuitously remains correct, however, by virtue of the 2005 phys- ics Nobel Prize awarded to Roy Glauber.

E. Gerjuoy University of Pittsburgh

History of Physics Newsletter • Volume IX, No. 6 • Spring 2006 19 History of Physics Presorted N E W S L E T T E R First Class US Postage PAID American Physical Society Bowie, MD One Physics Ellipse Permit No. 4434 College Park, MD 20740

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