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HistoryNEWSLETTER Physics A FORUM OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICALof SOCIETY • VOLUME XII • NO. 1 • FALL 2012 News of the Forum: Physical Sciences Forum (PSF) established at the History of Science Society (HSS) By Catherine Westfall

The Physical Sciences Forum (PSF) was recently formed as part of the History of Science Society. The general aim of the PSF is to further scholarship in the history of the physical sciences as broadly understood, including but not limited to: physics; earth, space, and atmospheric science; astronomy; and materials science. It will help forge a more coherent community for those with a core specialty in these sub-fields with a particular emphasis on developing the connections linking these sub-fields and exploring their resonance with wider scholarship. The PSF met for the first time at the November 2012 HSS meeting in San Diego. Several FHP members were instru- mental in seeing the PSF come to life. Catherine Westfall, who was elected chair, and Don Howard helped organize the group, and Peter Pesic was an enthusiastic attendee who helped spread the word about the new group. Westfall appointed a steering committee that includes two other FHP friends—the head of AIP’s Center for the History of Physics, Greg Good, and University of Minnesota graduate student Joe Martin, who presented a paper at the Pais Prize session at the 2012 April meeting and organized a panel session at the 2013 March meeting. At the meeting those assembled laid out three plans for 2013, and identified committees to implement each plan. Greg Good is spearheading the effort for an annual meet- ing, the first to be held in spring 2013, that will provide an Physical Sciences Forum Chair Catherine Westfall. additional forum for early career scholars on the history of the physical sciences. The PSF also plans to host a session at the November 2013 History of Science Society meeting in Boston. Don Howard, Suman Seth, and Amy Fisher will plan this session. The meeting will also feature a distinguished In This Issue lecture PSF-sponsored by PSF given by Peter Galison. David Kaiser arranged the lecture, with encouragement from Seth March/April Meeting Sessions 2 and Westfall. For more information on PSF, contact Catherine Westfall, [email protected]. Literature 3 Complementing the Forum will be a new Humanities and Social Sciences Net (H-Net) list, which will serve as a communication channel providing announcements, calls New Books of Note 5 for papers, book reviews, and job postings in addition to promoting discussion about current research and the state Officers and Committees 6 of the field. For further information on H-Net, contact Joe Martin, [email protected]. FHP-Sponsored Sessions at the 2013 March and April Meetings

March Meeting FHP Sessions: “Bringing the Physical Review into “A transformational year in physics: Baltimore, Maryland the Digital Age” 1932” Monday–Friday, March 18–22 Mark Doyle Charles W. Clark, Joseph Reader

Session B10: Celebrating 100 Years of “Physical Review: a family of “Discovery and development of x-ray Physical Review at APS journals” diffraction” Chair: Don Howard, University of Gene Sprouse Yeuncheol Jeong, Ming Yin, Timir Datta Notre Dame Room: 309 Session M9: A History of Physics “Latest developments on Monday, March 18, 2013 in Industry followed by Panel documentary film ‘The State of the 11:15am–2:15pm Discussion Unit: The Kilogram’” Chair: Joseph Martin, University of Amy Young “In the Beginning...” Minnesota at Mimmeapolis Martin Blume Room: 308 Session S50: A Staged Reading of the Wednesday, March 20, 2013 Play: Farm Hall “The American Reception of the 8:00–11:00am Playwright: David C. Cassidy, Hofstra Quantum as Seen by the Physical University Review, 1900-1927” “Commercial Scholarship: Spinning Room: Holiday Ballroom 4 Robert P. Crease Physics Research into a Business Wednesday, March 20, 2013 Enterprise” 8:00–9:30pm “’Your Most Distinguished Orville Butler Contributor’: Einstein and the April Meeting FHP Sessions: Physical Review” “A Place for Materials Science: Denver, Colorado Daniel Kennefick University of Pennsylvania’s Laboratory for Research on the Saturday–Tuesday, March 13–16 Structure of Matter” Brittany Shields Session C6: : The 50th Anniversary of Her Nobel “Dad’s in the Garage: Santa Barbara Prize The Forum on History of Physics of in the Long 1970s” Chair: Paul Halpern the American Physical Society pub- Cyrus Mody Room: Governor’s Square 15 lishes this Newsletter biannually at Saturday, April 13, 2013 http://www.aps.org/units/fhp/newslet- “Industrial Physics—Southern 1:30–3:18pm ters/index.cfm. If you wish to receive California Style” a printed version of the Newsletter, Stuart Leslie “Maria Goeppert Mayer’s Work on please contact the editor. Each 3-year Beta-decay and Pairing, and Its volume consists of six issues. Panel Discussion: “Perspectives on Relevance Today” the History of Industrial Physics” Stephen Moszkowski The articles in this issue represent the Joseph Martin views of their authors and are not “Maria Goeppert Mayer and the necessarily those of the Forum or APS. Session N32: International Physics Nobel Prize” Programs and History of Physics Karen Johnson Editor Sponsoring Units: FIP FHP Robert P. Crease Chair: Gloria Lubkin, Physics Today “Remembrances of Maria Goeppert Department of Philosophy Editor Mayer and the Nuclear Shell Model” Stony Brook University Room: 340 Elizabeth Baranger Stony Brook, NY 11794 Wednesday, March 20, 2013 [email protected] 11:15am–12:25pm Session N1: A Staged Reading of the (631) 491-6361 Play: And the Sun Stood Still: A Play “Fulbright Opportunities in the about Nicolaus Copernicus Deputy Editor Physical Sciences” Playwright: Dava Sobel Catherine Westfall Katrin DeWindt Room: Governor’s Square 15 [email protected] Sunday, April 13, 2013 “Revisiting the Bohr Atom 100 Years 7:30–9:00pm Book Review Editor Later” Michael Riordan Ernst Wall [email protected] Continues on page 4 2 Volume XII, No. 1 • Fall 2012 • History of Physics Newsletter A Brief Guide to Manhattan Project Literature by Cameron Reed

he Manhattan Project and its legacies continue to Tprovide fertile ground for analysis by scientists, historians, and cultural observers alike. Rec- ognition of the Project’s pivotal role in twentieth-century history is clearly indicated by the fact that in a 1999 Newseum survey, the top- ranked news stories of the century for both the public and journalists were those concerning the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Naga- saki and the end of World War II. Given the historical signifi- cance of the Project it is not sur- prising that it has spawned a vast literature: a recent Google search using the key phrase “Manhattan Project” returned over 90 million hits. While many of the sources that turn up are accurate and well- prepared, many more are of dubi- ous quality or utterly irrelevant to serious study of the Project. Whether was issued in and is still Rhodes, R.: The Making of the Atomic one is a casual reader, a student pre- worth reading. Known as the Smyth Bomb (Simon and Schuster, New paring a class project, a inter- Report, it is readily available online. For York, 1986). ested in technical details, or a historian professional historians, the volumes by researching organizational or sociologi- Jones and Hewlett & Anderson are still Smyth, H. D.: Atomic Energy for Mil- cal issues, it is difficult to know where foundational standards, extensively itary Purposes: The Official Report to begin. footnoted to original Manhattan Engi- on the Development of the Atomic In this article I offer a brief survey neer District documents. For a shorter Bomb under the Auspices of the Unit- of sources on the Project. My intent survey, a Department of Energy history ed States Government, 1940-1945 to give a highly-selective list of a few of the Project by Frank Gosling can be ( Press, 1948). solid starting places under each of recommended; do a search on DOE/ four headings: general survey-level MA-0002 and it will not take you long Biographical works works, biographical works, technically- to locate a downloadable copy. The outstanding personalities of the oriented works, and websites. Readers Project were the physicist J. Robert seeking a more extensive listing should Gosling, F. G.: The Manhattan Proj- Oppenheimer and Manhattan Engineer consult my annotated bibliographies ect: Making the Atomic Bomb (U.S. District commander General Leslie R. on the Project which were published in Department of Energy, 2001). DOE/ Groves. Material on Oppenheimer’s life the September 2005 and February 2011 MA-0002. abounds. Bird and Sherwin’s volume editions of American Journal of Physics. covers Oppenheimer’s life in detail Hewlett, R. G. and Anderson, O. E.: and is likely to become the defini- Survey-level sources A History of the United States Atomic tive biography. Abraham Pais and The outstanding synoptic survey of the Energy Commission. Vol. 1: The New Robert Crease appealingly combine Project is ’ The Making World, 1939/1946 (Pennsylvania physics and personal reminiscences of the Atomic Bomb. While it contains State University Press, 1962). and examine Oppenheimer’s post- some material that is tangential to the war service on numerous government main story, Rhodes’ descriptions of the Jones, V. C.: United States Army in committees. David Cassidy integrates physics, people, and places involved are World War II. Special Studies. Man- Oppenheimer’s pre-war physics into engaging and accurate. hattan: The Army and the Atomic the growth of American physics in The first official government pub- Bomb (Center of Military History, the 1920’s and 1930’s, which set the lication on the Project, Henry Smyth’s United States Army, Washington, stage for the Project. Robert Norris’ Atomic Energy for Military Purposes, 1985). Continues on page 4 Volume XII, No. 1 • Fall 2012 • History of Physics Newsletter 3 Manhattan Project Literature FHP Sessions

Continued from previous page Continued from page 2 outstanding biography of Hawkins, D.: , the Los Ala- After the staged reading there will be a is exhaustive and very readable. mos Story (Tomash, 1983). Origi- discussion of the play with the playwright. nally published as Los Alamos report Bird, K., and Sherwin, M. J.: Ameri- LAMS-2532. Session P1: Plenary Session II: can Prometheus: The Triumph and The Quantum 100 Years Ago, the Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer Hoddeson, L., Henriksen, P. W., Quantum Today, and the Quantum (Knopf, 2005). Meade, R. A, and Westfall, C.: Criti- Tomorrow cal Assembly: A Technical History of Chair: Edward Kolb Cassidy, D.: J. Robert Oppenheimer Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Room: Plaza ABC and the American Century (Johns Years, 1943-1945 (Cambridge, 1993). Monday, April 15 Hopkins, 2009). 8:30–9:06am Reed. B. C.: The Physics of the Man- Norris, R. S.: Racing for the Bomb: hattan Project (Springer, 2010). “Bohr’s Creation of his Quantum General Leslie R. Groves, The Man- Atom” hattan Project’s Indispensable Man Serber, R.: The : John Heilbron (Steerforth Press, 2002). The First Lectures on How To Build An Atomic Bomb (University of Cali- Session Q6: Pais Prize Lecture: Pais, A., and Crease, R. P.: J. Robert fornia, 1992). Relations between Physics and Oppenheimer: A Life (Oxford, 2006). History of Physics Websites Chair: Don Howard Technical works The Los Alamos National Laboratory Room: Governor’s Square 15 The starting point for readers who wish maintains a website about the history Monday, April 15 to immerse themselves in the science of of the facility: 10:45am–12:33pm the Project is ’s 1943 Los http://www.lanl.gov/history/index. Alamos Primer. This report is considered shtml “Pais Prize Lecture: The Joy of a founding technical document of the History” Project; it was distributed to newly- The NSF Digital Library on the Atomic Roger Stuewer arriving scientists at Los Alamos and Bomb contains material on the history summarizes what was known at the and science of the bomb and includes “How History Helped Einstein in time of the genesis of the laboratory. links to the Smyth Report and Bain- Special Relativity” David Hawkins offers an extensive bridge’s report: Al Martinez qualitative technical and administrative www.atomicarchive.com history of Los Alamos from its inception “How to Make Judicious Use of through December 1946. The detailed The homepage of the Manhattan Proj- Current Physics in Reconstructing Its technical history of Los Alamos by Hod- ect Heritage Preservation Association History” deson et al. is appropriate for a readers provides links to thousands of photo- Michel Janssen with some background in physics and graphs, documents, personal memoirs, . A popularly-accessible and frequently-asked-questions and little- Session X7: 100 Years of the well-written treatment of the essential known facts: Bohr Atom features of nuclear weapons can be http://www.mphpa.org/classic/index. Chair: Peter Pesic found in Jeremy Bernstein’ work. For htm Room: Governor’s Square 16 physicists who wish to dig into the Tuesday, April 16 technical details, this author humbly The Federation of American Scientists 10:45am–12:33pm recommends his own text. The work of maintains a website containing copies Los Alamos culminated in the Trinity of hundreds of Los Alamos technical “ and the Third Quantum test, and test director Kenneth Bain- publications: Revolution” bridge’s 1946 report on that event is http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/ Alfred Goldhaber makes for fascinating reading (search lanl/index1.html under LA-6300-H). “Memories of Crisis: Bohr, Kuhn, and the Quantum Mechanical Bainbridge, K. T.: Trinity Los Alamos ‘Revolution’” report LA-6300-H. Suman Seth

Bernstein, J.: Nuclear Weapons: “What Is Complementarity?” What You Need to Know (Cambridge, Don Howard 2008).

4 Volume XII, No. 1 • Fall 2012 • History of Physics Newsletter FHP Sessions New Books of Note On the Cucumber Tree: Scenes from the Life of an Itinerant Jobbing Scientist By Peter Day, Glasgow: The Grimsay Press, 2012, 236 pp., $19.95 (paperback)

Reviewed by Robert P. Crease

his is the kind of book—an unas- the situation of someone who want- suming, informative, and enter- ed, even yearned, to have that door Ttaining memoir that ranges over opened but needed help in lifting the personal, scientific, and administrative latch”. matters—that I think more of you Here’s Day on what it’s like to should be writing. pick a good research topic: “[P]retty Day’s research, which is officially much like picking an opponent your classified as chemistry though it has a own size in a boxing match. Too light- strong physics component, included weight and the game is soon over but pioneering the study of mixed-valence the win trivial; too weighty and you compounds. His administration risk retiring hurt after a lot of effort included directorship of the Institut and little to show for it.” Laue-Langevin (ILL; 1989-91) and He relates his growing attraction directorship of the Royal Institution to mixed valence compounds, and his (1991-1998). 1966 visit to Bell Labs in Murray Hill The curious title refers to the Hun- to work with Melvin Robin. That col- garian expression az uborkafan, which laboration culminated in an important was used by H. S. Hoff, another British contribution, the Robin-Day classifica- science administrator—under the pen tion of mixed valence compounds. But name William Cooper—in the novel Day also writes of hurt feelings on Memoirs of a New Man. Hoff trans- Robin’s part over credit for that work, lated the expression literally as “on the and relates that the two ended up no make” or “on the climb,” characteriz- longer communicating. ing it as an image “of lasting poetry for Day became Assistant Director a human occupation equally lasting of the ILL in 1988, then Director the and poetic.” following year; that part of the climb Day appropriates the image for his overwhelming, Day writes, especially involved him in things like negotiat- own street-level perspective on what it since “first things and last things are, ing with the union and with “events;” was like to pursue a scientific career. In after all, the bedrock of adolescent defects in the reactor requiring its truth, he wound up in several intercon- angst.” Assigned to explain an optical shutdown. From there he moved on to nected cucumber trees. One was the spectroscope to a distinguished visitor become Director of the Royal Institution. Oxford academic community of the (Neville Mott), Day became captivated The chapters are mostly short, the 1960s and 1970s, another the interna- by the instrument, and his interests anecdotes mostly interesting, and the tional, interdisciplinary scientific com- then veered towards chemistry. book has numerous black and white munity, and yet a third consisted of a Day ended up at Wadham College, pictures. The book costs less than $20, network of scientific institutions and Oxford, as an undergraduate, and and can be read on a long train trip. A the administrators who run them. remained there for graduate work. He historian will find many details about Day’s writing is disarmingly casual. provides often compelling descriptions the grain of today’s scientific life that In early chapters he tells us what it was of its rituals and personalities, not only are usually passed over in more formal like to be a teenager, for whom “all the of the strong but also of the weak ones: or ambitious histories and biographies. world looks fascinating,” who was ini- “[S]o wrapped up were they in the fine We could use many more tales from the tially attracted to physics. “[T]he sweep detail of their expertise that they were cucumber tree like this one. of its intellectual ambitions” seemed quite unable to imagine themselves in

Volume XII, No. 1 • Fall 2012 • History of Physics Newsletter 5 Forum on History of Physics | American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740

OFFICERS & COMMITTEES 2012–2013

Forum Officers Program Committee Chair: Peter Pesic Chair: Peter Pesic Chair-Elect: Don Howard Chair: Brian Schwartz Vice Chair: Catherine Westfall Vice Chair: Catherine Westfall Past Chair: Marty Blume Secretary-Treasurer: Cameron Reed Nominating Committee Chair: Peter Pesic Forum Councilor Michael Riordan Fellowship Committee Chair: Catherine Westfall Other Executive Board Members Diana K. Buchwald, Robert P. Crease, Forum Webmaster Lisa Crystal, Paul Halpern, Richard Robert P. Crease Stanley, Gregory Good (non-voting)