DOCSLIB.ORG

María Goeppert Mayer: De Gotinga a Premio Nobel De Física

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
María Goeppert Mayer: De Gotinga a Premio Nobel De Física José Manuel Sánchez Ron José Manuel Sánchez Ron María Goeppert Mayer: de Gotinga a Premio María Goeppert Mayer: Nobel de Física de Gotinga a Premio María Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) fue una de las cuatro José Manuel Sánchez Ron se Nobel de Física mujeres que, hasta la fecha, han obtenido el Premio Nobel licenció en Física en la Universidad de Física: Marie Curie (1903), María Goeppert Mayer Complutense de Madrid y doctoró en la Universidad de Londres. (1963), Donna Strickland (2018) y Andrea Ghez (2020). Desde 2019 es catedrático emérito Insertando su biografía y contribuciones en el contexto de de Historia de la Ciencia en la los mundos científico y nacional en los que vivió (Alemania Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, y Estados Unidos), el catedrático emérito de Historia de la donde antes de obtener esa cátedra en 1994 fue profesor titular Ciencia en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid y miembro de Física Teórica. Es autor de de la Real Academia Española, José Manuel Sánchez Ron, numerosas e influyentes obras de reconstruye en este libro los avatares de su carrera, que la historia de la ciencia internacional llevó de la Universidad de Gotinga a la de California en San y española. En 2015 recibió el Diego, pasando por Johns Hopkins, Columbia y Chicago. Premio Nacional de Ensayo por El mundo después de la revolución. Dotada especialmente para la física teórica, sin embargo las La física de la segunda mitad del “circunstancias” de su vida no le permitieron desarrollar un siglo xx, el primer Premio Nacional programa de investigación con cierta coherencia y continuidad. concedido a un libro dedicado La principal “circunstancia” de su vida profesional fue su a la historia de la ciencia. En 2016 recibió el Premio Julián matrimonio con un científico, Joseph Mayer, algo de lo que Marías a la carrera científica en se valieron la mayoría de las instituciones en las que éste Humanidades de la Comunidad de trabajaba para negarle puestos y salarios. En consecuencia, Madrid. Desde 2003 es miembro tuvo que adecuarse a los intereses científicos de las personas de la Real Academia Española. que investigaban en los centros en los que su esposo profesaba. María Goeppert Mayer: de Gotinga a Premio Nobel de Física Goeppert Mayer: María Científicos – como Karl Herzfeld, Edward Teller o Enrico Fermi – que reconocieron su talento, como antes lo habían Esta obra es conmemorativa reconocido Max Born y James Franck en Gotinga. Y en todas del 40 aniversario del Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear. Nuestro las ocasiones, en todas las instituciones en que estuvo dejó organismo cumple 40 años al huella. Así hasta llegar a su gran éxito, el modelo nuclear de servicio de la seguridad nuclear capas, que la condujo al Premio Nobel. y de la protección radiológica en España. Su misión sigue siendo proteger a los trabajadores, la población y el medio ambiente de los efectos nocivos de las radiaciones ionizantes, Ron Sánchez Manuel José consiguiendo que las instalaciones nucleares y radiactivas sean operadas por sus titulares de forma segura y con medidas de prevención. José Manuel Sánchez Ron María Goeppert Mayer: de Gotinga a Premio Nobel de Física José Manuel Sánchez Ron María Goeppert Mayer: de Gotinga a Premio Nobel de Física A todas las mujeres que desearon ser científicas, pero no pudieron. “Pasamos una sola vez por este mundo. Pocas tragedias pueden ser más vastas que la atrofia de la vida; pocas injusticias más profundas que la de negar una oportunidad de competir, o incluso esperar, mediante la imposición de un límite externo, que se intenta hacer pasar por interno”. © Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear, 2020 © José Manuel Sánchez Ron STEPHEN JAY GOULD, Edición: The Mismeasure of Man (1981) Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear C/ Pedro Justo Dorado Dellmans, 11 28040 Madrid www.csn.es Diseño y maquetación: Tau Diseño Impresión: Punto Verde Depósito Legal: M-28007-2020 Sumario INTRODUCCIÓN 11 PRÓLOGO 15 C A P Í tulo 1 El mundo científico de María Goeppert Mayer: la mecánica cuántica 19 C A P Í tulo 2 Gotinga y los primeros años de María Goeppert 61 C A P Í tulo 3 Estados Unidos 113 C A P Í tulo 4 María Goeppert Mayer en Estados Unidos (1930-1945) 147 C A P Í tulo 5 El camino hacia el Nobel 195 BIBLIOGRAFÍA 247 8 Introducción En este 2020 que será recordado por todos por la fatídica pandemia de la covid-19, el Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear que me honro en presidir alcanza los cuarenta años de existencia. Si bien es cierto que su origen se remonta a la Junta de Energía Nuclear – creada en 1951 al calor de similares organismos establecidos en otros países europeos tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial –, de la que dependía todo lo re- lativo a la energía nuclear, no es hasta 1980 cuando se publica en el Boletín Oficial del Estado la Ley de Creación del Consejo, una institución independiente de la Administración General del Estado que tiene como fin primordial velar por la se- guridad nuclear y la protección radiológica de las personas y del medio ambiente. Aunque entre sus funciones principales se encuentran las reguladoras de las instalaciones nucleares y radiactivas, o la vigilancia del medio ambiente , tiene otros objetivos menos conocidos como son el desarrollo y promoción de planes de investigación. Y es que esta institución no sólo es deudora de la herencia de ex- periencia y conocimiento acumulado en estos ocho lustros de existencia, sino que tiene muy presente continuar con el compromiso de profundizar en la investiga- ción y continuo aprendizaje con los que contribuir a la buena marcha de nuestro organismo en el futuro. Bajo esta premisa, y como conmemoración de nuestro 40 aniversario, hemos querido publicar esta obra que, además, sirva para recordar y reivindicar a María Goeppert Mayer, uno de los científicos más importantes en el desarrollo de la físi- ca nuclear. Una mujer y científica que amó, vivió y trabajó por la ciencia. Para este fin, hemos contado con la inestimable colaboración de quien firma este libro, José Manuel Sánchez Ron (físico, catedrático de Historia de la Ciencia y académico de la Real Academia Española y correspondiente de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, entre otros logros de su extenso currículo), quien reconstruye su vida y obra con excepcional escritura. 11 MARÍA GOEPPERT MAYER: DE GOTINGA A PREMIO NOBEL DE FÍSICA Introducción Son muchos los científicos que podíamos haber escogido relacionados con los Pero también quisiera que este libro sirva para prestigiar la contribución de ámbitos de lo nuclear o radiológico, pero hemos querido rendir homenaje a una las mujeres a la ciencia a lo largo de la historia. Un papel que ha solido silenciarse, mujer extraordinaria que, a pesar de vivir la ciencia desde pequeña y disponer de marginarse e invisibilizarse. La ciencia no entiende de género sino de investi- un fenomenal talento para la física y las matemáticas, por el hecho de ser mujer, gación y conocimiento y éstos no distinguen entre hombres y mujeres. Por eso, no pudo desarrollar una carrera científica con normalidad. deseamos que esta publicación ayude a normalizar y poner en valor el esfuerzo Aunque se doctoró en física en 1930, con apenas 24 años y en una época en y capacidad que han tenido, tienen y tendrán en el complejo universo científico la que era extraño que las mujeres accediesen a la universidad, no encontraba un todas las investigadoras, estudiosas y científicas. trabajo digno como científica. Las instituciones le hacían de menos y no hallaba un trabajo como científica digno a su mente privilegiada. A pesar de esto, ella no Josep María Serena i Sender se rendía y, mientras recorría Estados Unidos, acompañando a su marido, cola- Presidente del Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear boraba con las mayores mentes de la física cuántica, pero sin obtener un puesto académico. Su intelecto le había abierto paso a la fuerza entre sus iguales y se ha- bía convertido en un referente mundial. Sin embargo, no sería hasta 1946 cuando comenzaría realmente su vida profesional, cuando recibió un nombramiento en un departamento de física en Chicago. Otro de los aspectos de su biografía que me gustaría destacar es su ánimo de colaboración e intercambio de conocimiento, entendiendo que la ciencia es algo que afecta a toda la humanidad. Siempre que podía se abría a nuevos estudios y colaboraciones que la permitiesen profundizar en diferentes campos o poco inves- tigados por ella. Así estableció vínculos con los principales científicos de su época, convirtiéndose en amistad personal en muchos casos. María Goeppert Mayer había logrado convertirse en una física de prestigio, pero eso no quiere decir que tuviera el reconocimiento que se merecía. No sería hasta 1960, cuando tenía 54 años, cuando se le ofreció un puesto a jornada com- pleta como catedrática de Física de la Universidad de California. Era el primer trabajo reconocido y bien remunerado que conseguía. Tres años después, en 1963, recibiría junto a Hans Jensen (y Eugene Paul Wigner) el Premio Nobel de Física “por sus descubrimientos relacionados con la estructura nuclear de capas”. Se convertía así en la segunda mujer en obtener un Premio Nobel en ciencia después de que Marie Curie recibiese los de Física (1903) y Química (1911). Después de ella, tan solo otras dos mujeres lo han obte- nido, también de manera compartida, la canadiense Donna Strickland (2018) y la estadounidense Andrea M. Ghez (2020), lo que hace que el Nobel de Física sea el Premio Nobel que menos mujeres hayan ganado. Por fin María Goeppert Mayer no sólo era reconocida como una gran científi- ca, sino que había conseguido hacer ciencia. Tras una larga carrera – buena parte de ella en la sombra –, siendo ejemplo de lucha, superación y dejando huella allí por donde pasaba, había derribado las barreras burocráticas gracias a su tesón y capacidad.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Donna Strickland '89 (Phd), a Self-Described “Laser Jock,” Receives
    Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD), a self-described “laser jock,” receives the Nobel Prize, along with her advisor, Gérard Mourou, for work they did at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. By Lindsey Valich Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD) still recalls the visit she took to the On- tario Science Centre when she was a child growing up in the town of Guelph, outside Toronto. Her father pointed to a laser display. “ ‘Donna, this is the way of the future,’ ” Strickland remembers him telling her. Lloyd Strickland, an electrical engineer, along with Donna’s moth- er, sister, and brother, was part of the family that “continually sup- ported and encouraged me through all my years of education,” Donna Strickland wrote in the acknowledgments of her PhD thesis, “De- velopment of an Ultra-Bright Laser and an Application to Multi- Photon Ionization.” She was captivated by that laser display. And since then, she says, “I’ve always thought lasers were cool.” Her passion for laser science research and her commitment to be- ing a “laser jock,” as she has called herself, has led her across North America, from Canada to the United States and back again. But it’s the work that she did as a graduate student at Rochester in the 1980s that has earned her the remarkable accolade of Nobel Prize laureate. When Strickland entered the University’s graduate program in op- tics, laser physicists were grappling with a thorny problem: how could they create ultrashort, high-intensity laser pulses that wouldn’t de- stroy the very material the laser was used to explore in the first place? Working with former Rochester engineering professor Gérard Mourou, Strickland developed and made workable a method to over- come the barrier.
    [Show full text]
  • Secrets Jeremy Bernstein
    INFERENCE / Vol. 6, No. 1 Secrets Jeremy Bernstein Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the decided to found a rival weapons laboratory. Even if Teller United States had offered me a job, I doubt that I would have accepted.3 by Alex Wellerstein After obtaining my degree, I was offered a job that University of Chicago Press, 528 pp., $35.00. would keep me in Cambridge for at least another year. One year became two and at the end of my second year I was uclear weapons have been shrouded in secrecy accepted at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. from the very beginning. After plutonium was It was around this time that the chairman of the physics discovered at the University of California in department at Harvard, Kenneth Bainbridge, came to me NDecember 1940, researchers led by Glenn Seaborg submit- with an offer. Bainbridge had been an important figure at ted a pair of letters to the Physical Review. The details of Los Alamos during the war. Robert Oppenheimer had put their discovery were withheld from publication until after him in charge of the site in New Mexico where the Trinity the war.1 Once the project to make a nuclear weapon got test had taken place.4 Bainbridge told me that the labora- underway, secrecy became a very serious matter indeed. tory was offering summer jobs to young PhDs and asked The story of these efforts and how they evolved after the if I was interested. I was very interested. Los Alamos had war is the subject of Alex Wellerstein’s Restricted Data: an almost mystical significance for me due to its history The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • Harry Truman, the Atomic Bomb and the Apocalyptic Narrative
    Volume 5 | Issue 7 | Article ID 2479 | Jul 12, 2007 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus The Decision to Risk the Future: Harry Truman, the Atomic Bomb and the Apocalyptic Narrative Peter J. Kuznick The Decision to Risk the Future: Harry stressed that the future of mankind would be Truman, the Atomic Bomb and theshaped by how such bombs were used and Apocalyptic Narrative subsequently controlled or shared.[3] Truman recalled Stimson “gravely” expressing his Peter J. Kuznick uncertainty about whether the U.S. should ever use the bomb, “because he was afraid it was so I powerful that it could end up destroying the whole world.” Truman admitted that, listening In his personal narrative Atomic Quest, Nobel to Stimson and Groves and reading Groves’s Prize-winning physicist Arthur Holly Compton, accompanying memo, he “felt the same who directed atomic research at the University fear.”[4] of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory during the Second World War, tells of receiving an urgent visit from J. Robert Oppenheimer while vacationing in Michigan during the summer of 1942. Oppenheimer and the brain trust he assembled had just calculated the possibility that an atomic explosion could ignite all the hydrogen in the oceans or the nitrogen in the atmosphere. If such a possibility existed, Compton concluded, “these bombs must never be made.” As Compton said, “Better to accept the slavery of the Nazis than to run a chance of drawing the final curtain on mankind.”[1] Certainly, any reasonable human being could be expected to respond similarly. Three years later, with Hitler dead and the Nazis defeated, President Harry Truman faced Truman and Byrnes en route to Potsdam, July a comparably weighty decision.
    [Show full text]
  • DONNA STRICKLAND, PH.D. Professor, University of Waterloo
    DONNA STRICKLAND, PH.D. Professor, University of Waterloo Donna Strickland is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo and is one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 for developing chirped pulse amplification with Gérard Mourou, her PhD supervisor at the time. They published this Nobel-winning research in 1985 when Strickland was a PhD student at the University of Rochester in New York state. Together they paved the way toward the most intense laser pulses ever created. The research has several applications today in industry and medicine — including the cutting of a patient’s cornea in laser eye surgery, and the machining of small glass parts for use in cell phones. Strickland was a research associate at the National Research Council Canada, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a member of technical staff at Princeton University. In 1997, she joined the University of Waterloo, where her ultrafast laser group develops high-intensity laser systems for nonlinear optics investigations. Strickland was named a Companion of the Order of Canada. She is a recipient of a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Premier’s Research Excellence Award and a Cottrell Scholar Award. She received the Rochester Distinguished Scholar Award and the Eastman Medal from the University of Rochester. Strickland served as the president of the Optical Society (OSA) in 2013 and is a fellow of OSA, the Royal Society of Canada, and SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics). She is an honorary fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering as well as the Institute of Physics.
    [Show full text]
  • Sterns Lebensdaten Und Chronologie Seines Wirkens
    Sterns Lebensdaten und Chronologie seines Wirkens Diese Chronologie von Otto Sterns Wirken basiert auf folgenden Quellen: 1. Otto Sterns selbst verfassten Lebensläufen, 2. Sterns Briefen und Sterns Publikationen, 3. Sterns Reisepässen 4. Sterns Züricher Interview 1961 5. Dokumenten der Hochschularchive (17.2.1888 bis 17.8.1969) 1888 Geb. 17.2.1888 als Otto Stern in Sohrau/Oberschlesien In allen Lebensläufen und Dokumenten findet man immer nur den VornamenOt- to. Im polizeilichen Führungszeugnis ausgestellt am 12.7.1912 vom königlichen Polizeipräsidium Abt. IV in Breslau wird bei Stern ebenfalls nur der Vorname Otto erwähnt. Nur im Emeritierungsdokument des Carnegie Institutes of Tech- nology wird ein zweiter Vorname Otto M. Stern erwähnt. Vater: Mühlenbesitzer Oskar Stern (*1850–1919) und Mutter Eugenie Stern geb. Rosenthal (*1863–1907) Nach Angabe von Diana Templeton-Killan, der Enkeltochter von Berta Kamm und somit Großnichte von Otto Stern (E-Mail vom 3.12.2015 an Horst Schmidt- Böcking) war Ottos Großvater Abraham Stern. Abraham hatte 5 Kinder mit seiner ersten Frau Nanni Freund. Nanni starb kurz nach der Geburt des fünften Kindes. Bald danach heiratete Abraham Berta Ben- der, mit der er 6 weitere Kinder hatte. Ottos Vater Oskar war das dritte Kind von Berta. Abraham und Nannis erstes Kind war Heinrich Stern (1833–1908). Heinrich hatte 4 Kinder. Das erste Kind war Richard Stern (1865–1911), der Toni Asch © Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland 2018 325 H. Schmidt-Böcking, A. Templeton, W. Trageser (Hrsg.), Otto Sterns gesammelte Briefe – Band 1, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55735-8 326 Sterns Lebensdaten und Chronologie seines Wirkens heiratete.
    [Show full text]
  • The Russian-A(Merican) Bomb: the Role of Espionage in the Soviet Atomic Bomb Project
    J. Undergrad. Sci. 3: 103-108 (Summer 1996) History of Science The Russian-A(merican) Bomb: The Role of Espionage in the Soviet Atomic Bomb Project MICHAEL I. SCHWARTZ physicists and project coordinators ought to be analyzed so as to achieve an understanding of the project itself, and given the circumstances and problems of the project, just how Introduction successful those scientists could have been. Third and fi- nally, the role that espionage played will be analyzed, in- There was no “Russian” atomic bomb. There only vestigating the various pieces of information handed over was an American one, masterfully discovered by by Soviet spies and its overall usefulness and contribution Soviet spies.”1 to the bomb project. This claim echoes a new theme in Russia regarding Soviet Nuclear Physics—Pre-World War II the Soviet atomic bomb project that has arisen since the democratic revolution of the 1990s. The release of the KGB As aforementioned, Paul Josephson believes that by (Commissariat for State Security) documents regarding the the eve of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Soviet sci- role that espionage played in the Soviet atomic bomb project entists had the technical capability to embark upon an atom- has raised new questions about one of the most remark- ics weapons program. He cites the significant contributions able and rapid scientific developments in history. Despite made by Soviet physicists to the growing international study both the advanced state of Soviet nuclear physics in the of the nucleus, including the 1932 splitting of the lithium atom years leading up to World War II and reported scientific by proton bombardment,7 Igor Kurchatov’s 1935 discovery achievements of the actual Soviet atomic bomb project, of the isomerism of artificially radioactive atoms, and the strong evidence will be provided that suggests that the So- fact that L.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nobel Laureate George De Hevesy (1885-1966) - Universal Genius and Father of Nuclear Medicine Niese S* Am Silberblick 9, 01723 Wilsdruff, Germany
    Open Access SAJ Biotechnology LETTER ISSN: 2375-6713 The Nobel Laureate George de Hevesy (1885-1966) - Universal Genius and Father of Nuclear Medicine Niese S* Am Silberblick 9, 01723 Wilsdruff, Germany *Corresponding author: Niese S, Am Silberblick 9, 01723 Wilsdruff, Germany, Tel: +49 35209 22849, E-mail: [email protected] Citation: Niese S, The Nobel Laureate George de Hevesy (1885-1966) - Universal Genius and Father of Nuclear Medicine. SAJ Biotechnol 5: 102 Article history: Received: 20 March 2018, Accepted: 29 March 2018, Published: 03 April 2018 Abstract The scientific work of the universal genius the Nobel Laureate George de Hevesy who has discovered and developed news in physics, chemistry, geology, biology and medicine is described. Special attention is given to his work in life science which he had done in the second half of his scientific career and was the base of the development of nuclear medicine. Keywords: George de Hevesy; Radionuclides; Nuclear Medicine Introduction George de Hevesy has founded Radioanalytical Chemistry and Nuclear Medicine, discovered the element hafnium and first separated stable isotopes. He was an inventor in many disciplines and his interest was not only focused on the development and refinement of methods, but also on the structure of matter and its changes: atoms, molecules, cells, organs, plants, animals, men and cosmic objects. He was working under complicated political situation in Europe in the 20th century. During his stay in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden he wrote a lot papers in German. In 1962 he edited a large part of his articles in a collection where German papers are translated in English [1].
    [Show full text]
  • GSA TODAY • Employment Service, P
    Vol. 7, No. 7 July 1997 INSIDE • Call for Editors, p. 15 GSA TODAY • Employment Service, p. 21 • 1997 GSA Annual Meeting, p. 28 A Publication of the Geological Society of America Evidence for Life in a Martian Meteorite? Harry Y. McSween, Jr. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 ABSTRACT The controversial hypothesis that the ALH84001 mete- orite contains relics of ancient martian life has spurred new findings, but the question has not yet been resolved. Organic matter probably results, at least in part, from terrestrial contamination by Antarctic ice meltwater. The origin of nanophase magnetites and sulfides, suggested, on the basis of their sizes and morphologies, to be biogenic remains con- tested, as does the formation temperature of the carbonates that contain all of the cited evidence for life. The reported nanofossils may be magnetite whiskers and platelets, proba- bly grown from a vapor. New observations, such as the possi- ble presence of biofilms and shock metamorphic effects in the carbonates, have not yet been evaluated. Regardless of the ultimate conclusion, this controversy continues to help define strategies and sharpen tools that will be required for a Mars exploration program focused on the search for life. INTRODUCTION Since the intriguing proposal last summer that martian mete- orite Allan Hills (ALH) 84001 contains biochemical markers, bio- genic minerals, and microfossils (McKay et al., 1996), scientists and the public alike have been treated to a variety of claims sup- porting or refuting this hypothesis. Occasionally, the high visibil- ity of the controversy has overshadowed the research effort (e.g., Begley and Rogers, 1997), but I believe that science will benefit significantly from this experience.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix E Nobel Prizes in Nuclear Science
    Nuclear Science—A Guide to the Nuclear Science Wall Chart ©2018 Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP) Appendix E Nobel Prizes in Nuclear Science Many Nobel Prizes have been awarded for nuclear research and instrumentation. The field has spun off: particle physics, nuclear astrophysics, nuclear power reactors, nuclear medicine, and nuclear weapons. Understanding how the nucleus works and applying that knowledge to technology has been one of the most significant accomplishments of twentieth century scientific research. Each prize was awarded for physics unless otherwise noted. Name(s) Discovery Year Henri Becquerel, Pierre Discovered spontaneous radioactivity 1903 Curie, and Marie Curie Ernest Rutherford Work on the disintegration of the elements and 1908 chemistry of radioactive elements (chem) Marie Curie Discovery of radium and polonium 1911 (chem) Frederick Soddy Work on chemistry of radioactive substances 1921 including the origin and nature of radioactive (chem) isotopes Francis Aston Discovery of isotopes in many non-radioactive 1922 elements, also enunciated the whole-number rule of (chem) atomic masses Charles Wilson Development of the cloud chamber for detecting 1927 charged particles Harold Urey Discovery of heavy hydrogen (deuterium) 1934 (chem) Frederic Joliot and Synthesis of several new radioactive elements 1935 Irene Joliot-Curie (chem) James Chadwick Discovery of the neutron 1935 Carl David Anderson Discovery of the positron 1936 Enrico Fermi New radioactive elements produced by neutron 1938 irradiation Ernest Lawrence
    [Show full text]
  • UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The new prophet : Harold C. Urey, scientist, atheist, and defender of religion Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j80v92j Author Shindell, Matthew Benjamin Publication Date 2011 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The New Prophet: Harold C. Urey, Scientist, Atheist, and Defender of Religion A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History (Science Studies) by Matthew Benjamin Shindell Committee in charge: Professor Naomi Oreskes, Chair Professor Robert Edelman Professor Martha Lampland Professor Charles Thorpe Professor Robert Westman 2011 Copyright Matthew Benjamin Shindell, 2011 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Matthew Benjamin Shindell is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2011 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page……………………………………………………………………...... iii Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………. iv Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….
    [Show full text]
  • EUGENE PAUL WIGNER November 17, 1902–January 1, 1995
    NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES E U G ENE PAUL WI G NER 1902—1995 A Biographical Memoir by FR E D E R I C K S E I T Z , E RICH V OG T , A N D AL V I N M. W E I NBER G Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences. Biographical Memoir COPYRIGHT 1998 NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS WASHINGTON D.C. Courtesy of Atoms for Peace Awards, Inc. EUGENE PAUL WIGNER November 17, 1902–January 1, 1995 BY FREDERICK SEITZ, ERICH VOGT, AND ALVIN M. WEINBERG UGENE WIGNER WAS A towering leader of modern physics Efor more than half of the twentieth century. While his greatest renown was associated with the introduction of sym- metry theory to quantum physics and chemistry, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for 1963, his scientific work encompassed an astonishing breadth of sci- ence, perhaps unparalleled during his time. In preparing this memoir, we have the impression we are attempting to record the monumental achievements of half a dozen scientists. There is the Wigner who demonstrated that symmetry principles are of great importance in quan- tum mechanics; who pioneered the application of quantum mechanics in the fields of chemical kinetics and the theory of solids; who was the first nuclear engineer; who formu- lated many of the most basic ideas in nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry; who was the prophet of quantum chaos; who served as a mathematician and philosopher of science; and the Wigner who was the supervisor and mentor of more than forty Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Alfred O. C. Nier
    CHEMICAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION ALFRED O. C. NIER Transcript of Interviews Conducted by Michael A. Grayson and Thomas Krick at University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota on 7, 8, 9, and 10 April 1989 (With Subsequent Corrections and Additions) ACKNOWLEDGMENT This oral history is one in a series initiated by the Chemical Heritage Foundation on behalf of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. The series documents the personal perspectives of individuals related to the advancement of mass spectrometric instrumentation, and records the human dimensions of the growth of mass spectrometry in academic, industrial, and governmental laboratories during the twentieth century. This project is made possible through the generous support of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Upon Alfred O.C. Nier’s death in 1994, this oral history was designated Free Access. Please note: Users citing this interview for purposes of publication are obliged under the terms of the Chemical Heritage Foundation Oral History Program to credit CHF using the format below: Alfred O.C. Nier, interview by Michael A. Grayson and Thomas Krick at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 7-10 April 1989 (Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Foundation, Oral History Transcript # 0112). Chemical Heritage Foundation Oral History Program 315 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) serves the community of the chemical and molecular sciences, and the wider public, by treasuring the past, educating the present, and inspiring the future. CHF maintains a world-class collection of materials that document the history and heritage of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries; encourages research in CHF collections; and carries out a program of outreach and interpretation in order to advance an understanding of the role of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries in shaping society.
    [Show full text]