The California Tech

Newsflash! Security Ernest Explains finds Crime and returns ? Incident Report • see page 6 see page 5 THE CALIFORNIA TECH XCVIII, NUMBER 13 CALIFORNIA FRIDAY I 7 JANUARY 1997 ans Bethe speaks on the making of the bomb fission, the principle behind the A-bomb, America was the only one of the Allied cated his support for the Department of was discovered by Otto Hahn in late 1938 Powers with this ability, their effort was Energy's nuclear stewardship program of Hans Bethe, professor emeritus of and a theory explaining the process was thrown into high gear with the appoint replacing nuclear tests with advanced University, Nobel laureate and one developed in 1939. By 1941, there were ment of General Leslie Groves as head of supercomputer simulations. pioneers of modem quantum phys at least four countries attempting to de- the project in September 1942. Hans Bethe was born in Germany in ics. gave an hour long general interest ret velop a weapon based on fission that had Bethe emphasized in his talk that the 1906 in the contested province of Alsace clllllpecti', ve on 'The Making ofthe Bomb" a legitimate chance of success: Germany, successful creation of the bomb by the Lorraine along the French boarder. He Thursday the 16th of January. The Britain, the Soviet Union and the United United States consisted of many related -entered the University of Frankfurt in 1924 i-h.cllto tie moved from 20 I East Bridge States. The Soviet Union's research pro- projects that dealt with one particular prob and received his doctorate in 1928. Bethe normal site of Thursday Physics gram was shocked into near-inactivity by lem. During the question and answer ses was forced to flee with his wife to En ~lloqlui ulm) to the more spacious Ramo the sudden German invasion of mid-1941, sion after the talk Hans Bethe was asked gland in 1933 because of the rising power ~ldil.orium due to an unexpected surge while the American program, which had if more freedom of communication would of the Nazis. In 1935, he accepted an as linterest that may have been related to been initiated by Albert Einstein's personal have hastened the creation of the bomb. sistant professorship at Cornell University, L.A. Times mentioning the event in letter to President Roosevelt on the day Bethe responded that the limiting factor with which he has remained affiliated to weekly Science Calendar. As it was, before Pearl Harbor, was proceeding at a was the production of fissionable materi this day. In 1938, he produced the work Ramo was unable to seat everyone pace that could be charitably called stately. als (plutonium and enriched uranium) and on stellar energy production that would wanted entrance and the lobby was In England the war with Germany spurred that many of the projects, like the explo eam him a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967. with people trying to listen to the intense interest in the development offis- sive lens, were completed successfully Richard Feynman received his Ph. D. from \l:81, It 'Wru'4'lpea outside through speak- sion weapons. The secret "Maud Cornmit- without revealing the entire project. When Hans Bethe in 1942. Bethe officially re tee" was formed and determined that a questioned if America should have tired from Cornell in 1975, but he contin This year's talk was much less tech nuclear weapon was feasible. While En- dropped the bomb on Japan, Bethe as ues to work on the physics of supernovas than in years past and dealt with his gland lacked the resources to build the serted that it saved lives by ending the war and neutron stars. These talks are a yearly pmlen,:e with the Manhattan Project to' bomb, America possessed the industrial quickly and preventing the Japanese from event for Bethe, who usually spends a a working atomic bomb during strength and manpower to produce a making a bloody last stand. In an inter month or so at the balmy environs of IT. He described how nuclear weapon before the Germans. Since view afterwards by The Tech, Bethe indi- Caltech on winter sabbatical. ~------------------------------------------------. .u ........ urer takes first in SURF competition Oliver Stone to visit BY PUBLIC EVENTS and "Nixon." He has been nomi , nated for an Oscar six times, and Sebastian Maurer won first Director Oliver Stone will has won twice. He al so has an prize in Wednesday's third and Emmy to his credit from the final round of the Doris S. give the 1996-97 James c.n:rpaluSURF speaking compe Michelin Lecture, entitled HBO movie "Indictment: The for his presentation of nu "Film, Chaos, and Mass Delu McMartin Trial." :lnI:ricialsimulations of magnetic sion." For a more complete lines in type IT supercon- Born in New York City in filmography, point your Web 1946 of a French mother and browser at our event page: http:! The competition took place American father, Oliver Stone Iwww.cco. caltech.edul -opel in the Beckman Institute Audi dropped out of college in 1965 fy97Ise.970J28.hrml Iorium. Out of more than 180 original presenters, eight final to teach in Vietnam and returned The James Michelin Distin ists remained to compete for in 1967-68 as a soldier on the guished Visitor's Program has three prizes on the basis of pre front line. He completed his been established under a gift llentation skill. The finalists pre studies at New York University from Miss Bonnie Cashin to fos IIeI1ted a wide range of scientific Film School in 1971 and worked ter a creative interaction be research, ranging from at several jobs around New York tween the arts and the sciences. femtosecond chemistry, which Sebastian Maurer, winner of the coveted until the success of his screen was examined by Julius Su, to SURF speaking award play "Midnight Express" in OLIVER STONE: "FILM, the study of turbulent gas mix properties on Schiff-Base com simple terms. Bill Whitney, 1978. CHAOS, AND MASS DE ing by Stephen Chase. plexes. who has been a judge every LUSION" Among his many film cred Steven Bennett secured sec The judges had a particu year since the first Perpall com Tuesday, January 28, 1997 at ond prize with his talk concern larly difficult time this year petition, remarked on the par its are "Platoon," "Born on the 8 p.m. Beckman Auditorium ing the study of titanium diox choosing winners. They delib ticular quality of the speakers 4th of July," "JFK," "The Free (Tickets are not required) ide in the presence of ultravio erated for fifteen more minutes this year, making the process of Doors," "Natural Born Killers," let light as a catalyst for the deg than originally scheduled in choosing winners especially rndation of organic pollutants in order to corne to a consensus. difficult. water. Fay Peng took third place Afterwards, Steve Frautschi, a The Dori s S. Perpall IN THIS ISSUE for her presentation of her work judge, remarked how hard it awards were created by Robert examining one aspect of cancer was to compare different speak Perpall, a member of the SURF THE USUAL THIS WEEK'S cell migration through the base ers. As an example, he cited board, in memory of .his late ment membrane of blood ves the difficulty in comparing Fay wife. The awards were started STUFF FEATURES sels. Also presenting were Brian Peng's ability to explain her in 1993 as an incentive for stu Bookwonn ............ .. ................. .. 9 Board of Control Minutes .......... 8 D'urso on electromagnetic research, overcoming the lan dents to prepare excellent pre Opinions ... ...... ......... ..... .. ... ...... .. .3 Circle of Fire .............................4 Waves in dielectric structures, guage barriers of organic chem sentations. The first place win Dean's Comer....... ... ......... ... .. .... ? Crime and Incident Beat... ...... .. 10 Matthew Bamet on engineering istry, versus Sebastian Maurer's ner will receive $500; the sec Announcements .................... .... 12 Ernest Explains .... ........ .... .. .... ... 6 protein-membrane interactions ability to explain the complex ond $300; and the third $200. DILBERT®........ ....................... .. IO Facts About Depression ....... ...... 5 and Christopher Chang on the physics of superconductivity in CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 Now Hear This ..... ....... ...... .. ... .... 6 Media Guy.... .............., .. ... .......... 8 The Outside World .... ..... ....... .... ..5 Mindstalk ......... .......... ..... .. .........2 2 17 January, 1997 OPINIONS THE CALIFORNIA fact, given the way I use the lat their head, this is still slavery, ending the attempts at nrrlh;h. ter term, it often will not be. but the problem lies more with tion would be a simpler their government than with the cutting the violent crime On Free Labor Markets company, whose dubiousness is Not that I can see any aUlmo_ MindStalk more in the area of ethics than for the Federal government by D. R. Sullivan Byron Philhour quotes me: morality. If they are working as ban any drug, anyway, "Opening our markets ... makes an alternative to starving, the cially as a constitutional arrIP~. us all wealthy global citizens" problem does not lie with the ment was needed for al~unQ. On Political Labels tarian', itself stolen from the and takes me to task. My inter company; the problem lies with One might have thought anarchist opponents of property pretation is that he assumed my their not having any wealth or would have established a I apparently have been who followed Proudhon, "us all" referred to everyone in natively available jobs. Barring dent. dubbed a neoliberal and a con Kropotkin, and Bakunin. And the world; for the purpo~es of the the company from operating in One might also think servative. Actually, that might the libertarian position is hardly article it referred to Americans. ternationally will SImply deprive the availability of drugs in not be so contradictory; I sus close to most conservative po Opening our markets allows those workers of a job.

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