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A Nobel for Communism Fessor of History at Colby College, Maine, Should Be Commended for His Brave Effort

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A Nobel for Communism Fessor of History at Colby College, Maine, Should Be Commended for His Brave Effort physicsworld.com Reviews Alexei Kojevnikov Not every Nobel-prize winner gar- ners a book-length biography, es- pecially so quickly. Historians are notoriously slow to address recent and complex topics, and Josephson, a pro- A Nobel for communism fessor of history at Colby College, Maine, should be commended for his brave effort. He is uniquely qualified ence lost its competitive edge in elec- for the task, having previously re- tronics after the shift from vacuum searched the history of Leningrad tubes to semiconductors. Computers physics and having known Alferov serve as the key case in point, in the personally for years. But although he wake of decisions by Soviet minis- is unmatched in the speed of his re- terial commissions in 1967–1969 to search and writing, Josephson pays abandon an original line of BESM-6 some price in occasional sloppiness, computers in favour of reverse- ranging from some trivial oversights to RIA Novosti/Science Photo Library engineering the IBM-360 system. Yet more serious inconsistency of thought. as Alferov’s Nobel indicates, Soviet For example, Natalia Sonina, whom scientists played an often-overlooked Alferov describes warmly as his first role in the development of other teacher in semiconductors, becomes crucial components of modern-day “Nina” in Josephson’s translation. He information technology. reconstructs Alferov’s scientific tra- Alferov’s research career started jectory on the basis of the Nobel lec- in 1953 at the Leningrad Physico- tures and various commentaries about Technical Institute, where he helped the prize, but only cites, without seri- to develop the first generation of ously analysing, the original scientific Soviet semiconductor electronics. papers by Alferov’s research team. After completing his thesis in 1961, he Josephson’s characterization of the embarked on an independent, for- Soviet academic system also follows ward-looking research programme on some existing stereotypes that do not heterojunctions. At the time, labs in necessarily hold true. He describes as different countries were proudly get- a disadvantage the fact that Soviet aca- ting ready to announce their first demic institutes often had to manu- Socialist science Zhores Ivanovich Alferov’s share of semiconductor lasers. However, these facture some basic instruments and Noble-prize winner the 2000 Nobel Prize for Physics for early devices were still inefficient, and materials in-house, rather than pur- Zhores Alferov. the invention of heterotransistors was they only worked at extremely low chasing them as their Western coun- long overdue. Since their first appear- temperatures. In theory, lasers based terparts were able to do. Yet this very Lenin’s Laureate: ance in 1967, these devices have revo- on heterojunctions promised huge im- feature apparently helped Alferov’s Zhores Alferov’s lutionized the handling of light signals provements, but almost everyone – collaborator Dmitry Tretiakov to dis- Life in Communist in electronics in much the same way including Vladimir Tuchkevich, Al- cover the right kind of semiconductor Science that the transistor had earlier revolu- ferov’s academic advisor and the di- synthesized in the laboratory next Paul R Josephson tionized the technology of handling rector of the Leningrad Institute – door. Josephson often recites the 2010 MIT Press electric currents. The heterotransis- thought that, in practice, the chances mantra that the Soviet system did not $29.95/£22.95 tor, or heterojunction, allowed the de- of making suitable materials were nil. respect the autonomy of researchers 307pp velopment of affordable miniaturized Two different semiconductors had to and pushed them too strongly towards semiconductor appliances that have match not only in several electric prop- applied results. But at least in Al- transformed daily life, underpinning a erties, but also in their lattice structure. ferov’s case, the blame is misdirected. whole range of gadgets, including CD Working with a small group of “The system” trusted Alferov enough players, fibre-optic-cable networks, young colleagues and students, Al- to support his research despite his environmentally friendly LED lamps ferov persisted, and in 1967 they ac- supervisor’s doubts. Meanwhile, in the and more efficient solar cells. complished the crucial breakthrough US, Herbert Kroemer filed a patent But other aspects of Alferov’s ca- with the first ideal pair of semiconduc- for the double-heterostructure laser reer are less well known, as they run tors, gallium arsenide (GaAs) and alu- simultaneously with Alferov in 1963, counter to widely held stereotypes. minium gallium arsenide (AlGaAs). but was refused support by his em- The title of Paul Josephson’s bio- The following year, they built the first ployer, Varian Associates in Cali- graphy, Lenin’s Laureate, reflects the double-heterostructure laser, and in fornia’s Silicon Valley, as “the device fact that Alferov is an outspoken 1970 the team made it work continu- could not possibly have any practical communist, who at the age of 80 re- ously at room temperatures – an im- applications”. In the end, Kroemer mains a leading member of the par- provement for which we should feel shared half of the 2000 Nobel prize liamentary opposition in Russia. thankful whenever we play or record a with Alferov. Moreover, his prize-winning work CD or DVD. The team’s accomplish- For the biographical part of his took place in the Soviet Union during ment was recognized in the Soviet narrative, Josephson relies mostly the 1960s – a period when, according Union by the highest award – a Lenin on Alferov’s own account Nauka i to conventional wisdom, Soviet sci- Prize – in 1972. Obshchestvo, a collection of autobio- 46 Physics World March 2011 physicsworld.com Reviews graphical essays and popular talks would have been to not downplay published in Russian in 2005. The For Zhores Alferov, Alferov’s communism, but to explain book has also appeared in Italian but, it as a modern variety, which has as far as I know, it has not been trans- communism now evolved about as far from its original lated into English – probably because version as modern global capitalism of its strongly communist content. has from its origins in racist, slave- Alferov became a communist in the means the revival holding colonialism. same manner in which others become To do this, one needs to overcome Catholics or Baptists: by way of his of Russian science the wishful blindness that wants to family and cultural upbringing. His believe communism is just a thing of father, a worker and a soldier, joined the era of perestroika, he sympathized the past. Such blindness prevents the the Bolshevik party in 1917 because of with the reformist line of Mikhail public from coming to terms with the its anti-First World War stance. An Gorbachev. For Alferov, communism continuing international persistence atheist and communist internation- now means primarily the defence of and popular appeal of communism, alist, he married a Jewish girl despite social welfare, public education and or even from admitting that if elec- protestations from their religious healthcare, and last, but not least, the tions in post-Soviet Russia had been families. The couple named their sons revival of Russian science and hi-tech more democratic and fair, then com- Marks, after Karl Marx, and Zhores, industry. As an internationalist, Al- munists would have won them on after Jean Jaurès, a French socialist ferov regards the dissolution of the more than one occasion. For the fore- assassinated in 1914 for his opposition Soviet Union as a terrible mistake, seeable future, the prospects for a to the imperialist war. and the rise of post/anti-Soviet na- democratic transfer of power between The older son Marks turned 18 in tionalism as a tragedy for its peoples. political parties in Russia continue to 1942 and volunteered to defend his Such views are not welcomed by be linked with the new communist socialist homeland against fascism. today’s mainstream media, and to movement as a key player. To com- After fighting heroically at Stalingrad make them publishable, Josephson prehend this political situation, we and Kursk, he died in another major softens Alferov’s story and punctuates need to start hearing, rather than battle at Korsun, Ukraine, in 1944. To it with a general narrative about turning a deaf ear to, the political his younger brother, Marks Alferov Soviet history and science. This nar- voices of Alferov and his comrades. has remained a life-long role model. rative is not always relevant, but it is Like him, Zhores joined the commu- sufficiently anti-communist and thus Alexei Kojevnikov is a historian at the nist youth league, the Komsomol, and more familiar to its intended readers. University of British Columbia in Vancouver, in 1965 the Communist Party. During However, I think a better strategy Canada, e-mail [email protected] Web life: lightsources.org ever heard of and plenty we had not – including applied research in fields from physics to biology”. some, such as Armenia’s Center for the Essentially, the light produced in a synchrotron or Advancement of Natural Discoveries using free-electron laser is coherent, inherently bright and Light Emission (CANDLE), that are still under can be easily manipulated to produce an construction. The people behind it are press officers essentially monochromatic beam, thus allowing and other communicators from 25 different scientists in many disciplines to probe the structure facilities, including familiar names such as the UK’s of matter on the nano- and meso-scale. For a Diamond Light Source and the European biologist, that might mean studying the structure of Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France. a protein molecule or a single cell. A materials All together, 71 different facilities appear in the scientist or engineer, on the other hand, might use site’s directory, along with links to information the same light source to obtain high-resolution about the types of experiments being performed images of cracks or structural defects.
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