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A FORUM OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY • VOLUME XIII • NO. 5 • FALL 2017

The Author in Dialogue: Jimena Canales’s The and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That Changed Our Understanding of Time by Robert P. Crease Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY

ver 150 people attended the March meeting session devoted to Jimena Canales’s book, The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That ChangedO Our Understanding of Time. It was the second of an annual series of FHP-sponsored sessions in which the author of a recent book on history of meets critics and commentators. The 2017 session was held on the third floor of New Orleans’ huge convention center. The atmosphere was relaxed and genial, with the papers and conversation directed, not at professional or professional phi- losophers, but to those interested in the general subject of the nature of time, and assumed a modest shared knowledge of both physics and philosophy. Canales, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and four other people spoke. Canales’s book was built around a 1922 episode in which Einstein and Bergson clashed about the nature of time; she discussed both the buildup to and the aftermath of the event, in which physicists and philosophers continued to display a lack of understanding for each others’ position. “The book has been more successful than I ever imagined,” Canales began. Part of the controversy, she continued, was fueled by Jimena Canales of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign physicists’ negative attitude towards philosophy, and she cited numerous examples. Then she noted that most if not all physicists have implicit philosophies, but these are so prevalent and taken for granted that they are not usually In This Issue recognized as philosophical at all. She also pointed to nega- tive reviews of her book, associating a defense of Bergson Author in Dialogue: Jimena Canales 1 with postmodernism, fake news, and specious thinking. The value of reviving interest in the controversy, she said, was in Historical Note: FHP March and April reviving discussion of the difference between psychological Sessions, 1994 — 2017 2 and philosophical time -- between, say, measuring the length of melodies and being able to hear them as melodies at all. March Session Reports 3 Jean Bricmont, of the Université catholique de Louvain, spoke next, giving a talk entitled “Bergson vs. Einstein: is FHP Events at 2018 March/April Meetings 4 there really a philosopher’s time?” His answer seemed to be in the negative. He explained the scientific issues of relativity Book Review 4 that he said had led Bergson into error. Relativity, he said, had nothing to do with consciousness, as Bergson seems to have In Memory of Martin M. Block 5 thought, but with clocks. Bricmont declared, though, that Continues on page 7 Officers and Committees 16 Historical Note: FHP March and April Meeting Sessions, 1994-2017 by Cameron Reed Alma College 2017 2015 continued 2011

The Author in Dialogue: The Physicist and Invited Session: APS and Public Engagement The History of Superconductivity from its the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the in Historical Perspective Discovery by Kammerlingh Onnes in 1911 Debate that Changed Our Understanding Invited Session: History of Relativity J. H. Van Vleck: Quantum Theory and of Time Magnetism Joint session with FED, FOEP. Puzzles, 2014 History of Physics and International History, and Reality TV: Physics Beyond Programs the Classroom Migrations of Physicists. Women and the 60 Years Since BCS and 30 Years Since Solvay at One Hundred: Pais Prize Talk. Woodstock History of Physics, Public Policy and National Facilities Centennial of the Nuclear Atom Marie : A 150th Birthday Celebration The History of the Communication of Accelerators for Sub-Atomic Physics: I. Joint session with FPS: Diversity in to the Public History Troubled Times Twentieth-Century Chinese Physicists and Centennial of Superconductivity Transitions in Physics and Related Fields Physics Working with Luis Alvarez (1911-1988) from the late 19th Century to Today Pais Prize Session in honor of David Cassidy Manhattan Project Scientific Legacy Gaining Inspiration from Galileo, Einstein, 2010 The Social Legacy of the Manhattan Project and Oppenheimer The Many Worlds of Five Legacies From the The Manhattan Project: History and Heritage History of the G2 From 1947 to Present Pais Prize: Sam Goudsmit: Physics, Editor, and More Physics Outreach and Physics History 2013 History of the Search for Gravitational Continues on page 6 Waves Celebrating 100 Years of at 2016 APS A History of Physics in Industry International Physics Programs and Peer Review: History and Issues History of Physics The History of Electrical Science Maria Goeppert-Mayer: The 50th Anniversary The Author in Dialogue: ’s of her Nobel Prize The Forum on History of Physics of To Explain the World the American Physical Society pub- Pais Session: Relations Between Physics and Beyond the Lab: Bringing History of Physics History of Physics lishes this Newsletter biannually at to the Public Public Policy and History of Physics. http://www.aps.org/units/fhp/newslet- The Iran Nuclear Deal: Physics, Physicists, ters/index.cfm. Each 3-year volume 100 Years of the Bohr Atom and the Historic Agreement consists of six issues. History of Physics from Pythagoras to Higgs 2012 Invited Session: Sidney Coleman Remem- The articles in this issue represent bered: Correspondence and Commentary the views of their authors and are Invited Session: Pais Prize Session: Some One Hundred Fifty Years of Maxwell’s not necessarily those of the Forum Equations (1862-2012) History You Won’t Find in Physics Textbooks or APS. Invited Session: The New Big Science and The Scientific Legacy of Edward Purcell the Transformation of Research (1912-2012) Editor History of Meteorology and Today’s Robert P. Crease 2015 Frontiers of Measurement Department of Philosophy The Scientific Legacy of Stony Brook University Physicists Advising on National Security Stony Brook, NY 11794 Inspirational Approaches to Teaching Physics/History of Physics History of Physics and Educational Topics [email protected] (631) 632-7570 Pais Prize Session: Physics at the Intersection Pais Session: The National Laboratories after of History, Technology, and Society 1980 “Why Peer Review?” Book Review Editor Invited Session: Three Perspectives on Michael Riordan the Supercollider [email protected]

2 Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter March 2017 Meeting Session Reports: “The Pais Prize Session for Mary Jo Nye” by Joseph D. Martin University of Cambridge owhere is better suited than Nye herself spoke on one of the New Orleans to honor the work issues that has defined her career, ask- of Mary Jo Nye, winner of the ing how the boundaries of physics 2017N Abraham Pais Prize for History of have evolved since the beginning of Physics. The city blends artistic, musi- the twentieth century. She used the cal, linguistic, and culinary influences broad perspective her work provides from a vibrant collection of cultural to examine how the history of physics traditions, and so presented a fitting has responded—or not—to the prevail- backdrop for a celebration of Nye’s ing winds of the physics profession. contributions to history of physics, Nye’s analysis showed that historians which have often examined how meth- of physics have largely reproduced the ods, theories, and practices blend in prestige hierarchies that exist in physics the spaces where scientific disciplines itself, focusing their attentions on rela- meet. The Forum on the History of tivity, , and –sponsored prize session at the and high energy physics. But she also APS March meeting showcased work identified recent trends that show the that followed Nye’s spirit of exploring field waking to the wider collection of boundaries between disciplines and dis- investigations that often move fluidly Mary Jo Nye of Oregon State University cussing the interfaces between science across the boundaries of the physics, and politics. Continues on page 8

Session Report: “60 Years Since BCS and 30 Years Since Woodstock” by Brian Schwartz Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York

ince the session dealt with physics history and was sponsored by the APS Forum on the History of PhysicsS (FHP), it seems worthwhile to present some background as to how the session and its speakers came about. For the March 2017 meeting Alan Cho- dos, the FHP program chair (currently chair of the FHP Executive Committee) called me and indicated that the forum was interested in having a session cele- brating the 60th anniversary of the 1957 BCS theory and needed an organizer. I accepted and proposed the title for the session, and some potential speakers. In the past, for the 50th anniversary of BCS, the 2007 APS March meeting had two invited sessions: “50 Years of BCS Theory,” sponsored by the DCMP, and a second invited session, “20th Anniversary of High Tc Superconduc- tivity ‘Woodstock’ Session.” Later that Superconductivity experts figuring out the projector Continues on page 9

Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter 3 FHP Invited and Contributed Events at the 2018 March and April Meetings Note: Times and Titles subject to change

March 5-9, 2018 Meeting April 14-17, 2018 Meeting Los Angeles, CA Columbus, OH

Monday, March 5, 8 am - 11 am Room 5 Sunday, April 15, 10:45 am - 12:33 pm “Historical Perspectives on Soviet “Dark Matter & Galaxies: The Legacy Monday, April 16, 3:30 pm - 5:18 pm Physics” of Vera Rubin” (co-sponsored with “History of Women Pioneers in FPS) Astronomy” (co-sponsored with DAP) Monday, March 5, 11:15 am - 2:15 pm Room 5 Sunday, April 15, 1:30 pm - 3:18 pm Tuesday, April 17, 1:30 pm - 3:18 pm “Pais Prize Session: Peter Galison” “The History of Numerical Relativity” “The Chapel Hill Conference and its (co-sponsored with DCOMP) role in the Renaissance of General Tuesday, March 6, 8 am - 11 am Relativity” (co-sponsored with Room 5 Monday, April 16, 1:30 pm - 3:18 pm DGRAV) “The Author in Dialogue: A. Douglas “The Legacy of ” Stone’s Einstein and the Quantum”

Book Review: in the Playhouse, The Manhattan Project’s Secret Work in Dayton, Ohio by Linda C. Thomas

by Cameron Reed Alma College ven after more than 70 years, project, it has been largely overlooked details of some important aspects by Manhattan scholars. (Disclosure: This of the Manhattan Project remain reviewer served as a reviewer for some onlyE partially known to scholars of the of the chapters of this book while it was Project, let alone the public at large. Lin- in preparation.) da Thomas’s Polonium in the Playhouse In effect, this volume is two books in fills a gap in Manhattan history with one: A history of the , and a very readable, fast-paced, well-illus- a biography of the author’s grandfather, trated, and carefully documented treat- , a execu- ment of a highly-secret Project facility tive who was appointed to coordinate all operated by the Monsanto Chemical Manhattan Project chemistry research. Company in an upscale residential With access to family papers comple- neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio. This mented with interviews and documents facility was devoted to extracting and accessed through numerous Freedom of purifying polonium, a key ingredient Information Act requests, the author is in the -emitting “initiators” uniquely positioned to relate this story. used in the , Hiroshima, and The Manhattan Project was immensely atomic bombs. Details of complex, but Thomas does an excellent the Dayton project were not declassi- job of describing its scientific and orga- Polonium in the Playhouse, The fied until 1983, and some aspects of nizational background and the work of Manhattan Project’s Secret Chemistry the associated chemical research still its major facilities and laboratories in Work in Dayton, Ohio. Linda C. remain under wraps. As the Dayton just enough detail to set the stage for Thomas, 247 pp. Trillium, Columbus, work was not mentioned in Henry how the Dayton project fit into to the Ohio. 2017. Price $29.95 (hardcover). Smyth’s 1945 Atomic Energy for Military overall picture. ISBN 978-0-8142-1338-4. Purposes public report on the bomb Continues on page 12 4 Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter In Memory of Martin M. Block

by Silvio Bergia, University of Bologna and National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Bologna (Italy); [email protected] and Giorgio Dragoni, University of Bologna, and National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Bologna (Italy); [email protected]

the Physics Nobel Prize (11 December 1957), entitled “The Law of Parity Con- servation and other Symmetry Laws of Physics.” In it, one reads the follow- ing: “The situation that the physicist found himself in at that time has been likened to a man in a darkroom grop- ing for an outlet. He is aware of the fact that in some direction there must be a door, which would lead him out of this predicament, But in which direction? … The fact that parity conservation in the weak interaction was believed for so long, without experimental support was very startling. …” [2]. Fascinated by these issues, Block proposed that in the weak interactions parity was not conserved, which would then explain the tau/theta puzzle, a subject of great actuality in those days, but he did not Book Review: dare to formally transmit his view to the participants at the conference. Polonium in the Playhouse, The Manhattan Project’s Secret Chemistry Richard Feynman, however, communi- Physicists Block and Puppi at work in Bologna during the Sixties cated Block’s idea to the participants, as Work in Dayton, Ohio by Linda C. Thomas Courtesy of Prof. Giovanna Puppi, Bologna (Italy) mentioned in his 1985 book [3], Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman: “Anyway, I was sharing a room with a guy named ecollections of studies and in New York, and Martin Block, an experimenter. And one discoveries by American physi- received his doctorate there in 1951. evening, he said to me: ‘Why are you cists in the last century have Between 1958 and 1959 he received a guys so insistent on this parity rule? Rbeen widespread, one example being John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship Maybe the tau and theta are the same those cited in David Kaiser’s 2011 book and, in 1964, the Unesco Fellowship, as particle. What would be the conse- [1]. We believe that certain authors, well as one given by NATO during the quences if the parity rules were wrong?’ however, have not received sufficient years 1964-65. As an assistant professor I thought a minute and said: ‘It would attention, one being Martin M. Block, at Duke University, in Durham, North mean that nature’s laws are different for who passed away at the age of 90 on Carolina, he guided a Cosmic Ray High the right hand and the left hand, that July 22, 2016. Martin is fondly remem- Energy Group that, after the introduc- there’s a way to define the right hand bered in Italy because between 1961 tion of the bubble chamber invented by physical phenomena. I don’t know and 1964 he collaborated there on an by Donald Glaser in 1952, built a liquid that that’s so terrible, though there must interesting set of research projects with helium bubble chamber with the col- be some bad consequences of that, but Italian authors. Various physicists, laboration of W. M. Fairbank (1958). I don’t know. Why don’t you ask the particularly in Bologna and Pavia, While Block was an experimental experts tomorrow?’ He said: ‘No, they remember his research projects, and physicist, he participated in the famous won’t listen to me. You ask.’ So the next that he and his wife and children struck Rochester Conferences and retained an day, at the meeting … I got up and said, up friendships with their peers. In this interest for . A subject ‘I’m asking this question for Martin article, we try to provide an account of of great interest for various physicists Block: What would be the consequences his life and studies in Italy. was a reflection about the validity of if the parity rule was wrong?’ Murray the conservation law in the phenomena Gell-Mann often teased me about this, Life and early research activity of the weak interactions. That validity saying I didn’t have the nerve to ask the was generally accepted, but not experi- question for myself. But that’s not the Martin M. Block was born on Novem- mentally confirmed. The situation was reason I thought it might very well be ber 29, 1925 in Newark, New Jersey. clearly described by Chen Ning Yang, an important idea.” He pursued his studies of physics at on the occasion of his acceptance of Continues on page 14 Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter 5 Historical Note: “FHP March and April Meeting Sessions, 1994-2017”

Continued from page 2

2010 continued 2005 1999 continued

The 50th Anniversary of the Prediction of Einstein and Friends (3 sessions) I.I. Rabi: Physicist and Citizen Superfluidity of He3 Quantum Optics Through the Lens of Physics in the 20th Century: The Revolution: Secrecy and Physics History Quantum Mechanics and Relativity Remembering The Rise of Megascience 20th Century Developments in Origins of Research and Teaching at Selected Instrumentation & Measurements Physics Departments 2004 History of Physics in National Defense The Laser: Historical Perspectives and Impact on Precision Measurements History of Physics in Canada 1998 2009 History of Physics in Industrial Laboratories Monolayers and Multilayers: Agnes Pockels The History of Critical Phenomena and Katharine Blodgett Science and Its Critics Origins of Valley The Discovery of Black Holes Teaching Physics a Century Ago Centenary of The Sun as a Physics Laboratory 50 Years of Anderson Localization Science Advising 1997 The Scientific Legacy of John Wheeler Mossbauer Spectroscopy: various History of Telescopes Historical Perspectives One Hundred Years of Electrons Science Policy: Yesterday, Today, and Joseph Henry Bicentennial Tomorrow 2003 The Electron Centennial History of MURA, Fermilab, and the SSC 100 Years of Electron-Photon Interactions & J. Willard Gibbs and His Legacy: A Double Rivalry (Electron Centennial II) 2008 Centennial The Early Days of Solid State Physics 1996 50th Anniversary of Physical Review Letters History/Methodology and Career Industrial Physics History Development Topics in the History of Radioactivity th Triumphs of 20 Century 2002 History of Computing in Physics (2 sessions) Contributions of Women to Physics Manhattan Project and Beyond Tunneling, From Decay to Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project 1995 Biology 80 Years of Quantum Mechanics: A New Synchrotron radiation: From Stepchild to International Project New Studies of ’s Works Star The Centennial of X-Rays 2007 EPR to Entanglement Centennial 1994 20th Anniversary of High Tc History of Los Alamos Superconductivity Session The Solid-State Roots of Silicon Valley Condensed Matter Physics at Synchrotron 2001 Milestones in the History of Astrophysics Facilities: History as Prologue Science Advice to the Government Building the Elements: 50 Years of B2FH NIST at the Millennium: Condensed Matter Nucleosynthesis (2 sessions) and Measurement Science Scientists and National Security: Washing- n Changing Role of Nuclear Weapons in History of Electronic Structure Theory in ton’s Four Governments Foreign Policy Atoms History of Gravitational Waves and General Relativity 2000 Sputnik 1957: Its Effect on Science in America Twenty Years of the Quantum Hall Effect/ 2006 George Pake Prize 1999 Low Temperature Physics, A Historical Perspective A Century of Critical Phenomena Women and Men Inside the Atom: A Historical Look (April meeting abstracts apparently not available) Physics in the 20th Century: World War II, Accelerators, and the Rise of High Energy Physics

6 Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter Session Report: “The Author in Dialogue: Jimena Canales’s The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That Changed Our Understanding of Time”

Continued from page 1 physicists could do philosophy a favor by giving up certain ways of speaking that seem to lead philosophers to think that relativity does have to do with consciousness. The take-home lesson of the Bergson-Einstein controversy, he concluded, is that (as Bertrand Russell had warned) to understand the world, we cannot trust our intuitions. “I am a scientist -- an astrophysicist,” said Adam Frank of the University of Rochester, the third speaker in the session, “and I loved this book.” The reason, he said, was that it highlighted a different dimension to time, what phi- losophers call “lived time,” than the one that physicists are used to discussing. Bergson, he said, was trying to grasp lived time and distinguish it from the way physicists encounter time. Frank proceeded to describe the approach to time of phenomenologists, who study the conditions for the possibility of any experience altogether -- again, the difference between what is involved in measuring the length of a piece of music and what is involved in hearing it in the first place. It is difficult to describe this to physicists, who are interested in structures and foregrounded objects of research, but it is part of being human and nothing subjective. You have to use Jean Bricmont of the Université catholique de Louvain (top left), Adam Frank of the University a different kind of language to describe of Rochester (top right), Joseph Martin of the University of Cambridge (bottom left) and Alberto it. “I want to turn the usual question on Martinez of the University of Texas at Austin (bottom right) its head,” Frank said. “The usual ques- tion is, ‘How do we situate experience within physics?’ I want to change it to, about what would have happened. It’s experiment, Einstein and his followers ‘How do we situate physics within the also hard even to get a fix on what it would have come to appreciate that totality/unity of experience?’” Such would mean for Bergson to win. Still, clock time was derived from lived time. a question can only be answered by he thought that the exercise might be But we also have to be somewhat chari- admitting that there is a time that is not a good thought experiment that would table to Bergson and imagine that the the physicist’s time -- not clock time. give a “different and helpful perspec- victory was not entirely complete, but Frank also noted that one major diffi- tive on the history that we do have,” that Bergson ultimately had to realize culty to reconciling the physicists’ and and in particular on the split between that he had to stop defending his time the philosophers’ view of time is that physics and philosophy. as the opposite of clock time, and aban- the practitioners of each field have an What Martin intended was not that, don the rivalry between his views and “ontological mania,” regarding them- in envisioning a win by Bergson, it Einstein’s. If this all happened, Martin selves as the wardens of the ontological would mean that Bergson’s account was implying, several good things primacy of things like time. would replace accounts of objective might have occurred. Joseph Martin’s talk was entitled, time, or that all objections to Bergson’s First, it would have affirmed the “What if Bergson Won?” Being a good account would vanish. Rather, the dis- right of philosophers to engage with the historian, he immediately apologized, agreement, he noted, was not really physicists in the European intellectual admitting that counterfactual history about time itself, but “about who has community, and perhaps the American is out of favor with historians. It’s hard the authority to speak on behalf of one as well, about the nature of scientif- enough, he said, to evaluate state- the phenomena.” If Bergson had suc- ic phenomena. This would have meant ments about what did happen, let alone ceeded in this counterfactual thought that “philosophers (even those without

Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter 7 positivistic leanings) would have gotten their own standing.” Furthermore, one clarity, and said that “from the point better than Bergson was at respond- might add, it would have meant that of view of logic, all of our concepts are ing to the leading edge of theoretical physicists would have been more likely freely chosen conventions.” Martinez knowledge.” It would have encouraged to notice and respond to what Bergson also listed problems with Bergson’s at least some philosophers to keep up and other philosophers were noticing various remarks about relativity, call- with their technical competence of and responding to. A world in which ing one remark by Bergson about the science enough to carry philosophy of Bergson had won, Martin said, would twin paradox “stunningly inept.” In science forward. It would have meant be “one in which physics doesn’t split the question and answer period, Frank that the philosophical community quite so abruptly from its natural phi- objected to that remark, saying that would have taken philosophy of sci- losophy roots.” As a result, Martin said, Bergson’s error was not the point. Berg- ence more seriously as a mainstream had Bergson “won,” whatever that son was pointing out that each twin had discipline rather than as a specialty would mean, it would have encouraged its own experience. The point is not to best left to technicians or even to sci- greater communication between the work out the details mathematically, it’s entists who have read a bit of Kant physics and philosophical communities. to emphasize the role of lived experi- and Popper. Second, Martin said, if The final talk in the session was by ence, whose root is different from the that happened, “scientists would have Alberto Martinez, who tried to explain functioning of the apparatus. Martinez gotten better at communicating those Einstein’s allergic reaction to Bergson. responded that “Bergson needed more ideas to philosophers, if only to fend Martinez cited a lot of pro and con courage,” and was making a straw man off potential philosophical critiques, remarks by Einstein about philosophy, out of Einstein. n which would have been important for noting that Einstein liked Hume-like

Session Report: “The Pais Prize Session for Mary Jo Nye”

Continued from page 3 such as solid state and condensed matter these questions as we might expect it to space, absolute despots, and absolute physics, chemical physics, and plasma be. In some cases, direct observations notions of selfhood. physics. The challenges of dealing carry greater weight, but in others, the “What Kuhn has been dishing us with the richness and complexity of indirect inferences are what we remem- is nonsense” was the take-away from late-twentieth century physics, and ber as the groundbreaking discoveries. Michael Nauenberg’s talk on the origins especially those activities that push up If therefore behooves historians to of the quantum. The nonsense in ques- against disciplinary boundaries, Nye consider what other factors might tion refers to a long and contentious suggested, should make historians of guide our instincts about which is more debate about the conceptual origins of physics more open to the types of multi- important for a particular episode. the quantum. Thomas Kuhn suggested author collaborations now standard in Richard Staley, following Franklin, that historians withhold the blue riband physics itself. paid tribute to Nye’s perceptive work from and award it instead Two previous Pais Prize winners on boundaries by considering the inter- to . The former might joined the panel to speak in Nye’s honor, faces between physics and physiology. have nominally quantized the energy the first being Allan Franklin. Franklin In a professional world so thoroughly spectrum in 1900 in the course of his was awarded last year’s prize for his compartmentalized by specialization, efforts to explain black-body radia- trailblazing work on the history of it is easy to forget that many of those tion, Kuhn argued, but it was Einstein experiment, and his talk furthered in we remember for their contributions to who fully committed to the idea when that line of research, tracing the dif- physics were also fascinated by physi- he introduced light quanta in 1905. ference between direct and indirect ological phenomena. For figures like Nauenberg quoted Einstein’s advice to experimental detection through a Ernst Mach and Hermann von Helm- examine what physicists do, rather than number of examples from twentieth- holtz, understanding physical phe- what they say they did, when tracing century physics. This history has nomena like light, space, and motion their histories to argue that Kuhn did become particularly important in meant probing the bodily mechanisms Planck an injustice. light of the recent gravitational wave governing sight, hearing, and balance. Rounding out the session was the observations at LIGO—which directly The same thinkers willing to map out symposium’s second former Pais Prize recorded a phenomenon that had the boundary between physics and winner, Roger Stuewer, who began previously been indirectly inferred, physiology were often also those who his career in the history of science leading the physics community to were likely to navigate into politics. alongside Nye in the University of mull how to apportion credit for the Machism, Marxism, and mechanism Wisconsin’s graduate program. Stuewer discovery, and the accolades likely to became intertwined in the second half shared his renowned expertise in the accompany it. Franklin’s case studies of the 1800s for those natural philoso- history of nuclear physics. He jux- suggest that the distinction between phers who, like Mach, were as skeptical taposed his narrative account of the direct and indirect observation is not of absolute boundaries between areas evolving understanding of the nucleus always so powerful an arbitrator of of knowledge as they were of absolute and with a discussion of

8 Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter the concurrent political developments that led to World War II. Scientific understanding of the disintegration of the nucleus marched in lockstep with the disintegration of Europe, and the political fissions of the 1930s scattered the European scientists responsible for knowledge of nuclear fission across the globe. Coming to rest in more stable political environs, they sparked new interest in nuclear physics worldwide. Stuewer, in closing, noted the injus- tice of denying Lise Meitner a Nobel Prize, echoing Nye’s observation of the dearth of women among physics laureates. Nye observed that the stark gender disparity in physics has been cast in relief by the recent deaths of Vera Rubin and , both of whom achieved just about every honor physics has to offer except its highest. A session devoted to work that crosses boundaries therefore offered ample opportunity to reflect on the boundaries that remain, in both physics and the his- tory of physics. The physics profession opened up to boundary-crossing physi- cal investigation in the late twentieth century, but significant boundaries, built on race, class, and gender, persist for physicists themselves. And engag- ing the boundary-crossing topics and approaches that define recent physics Allan Franklin of the University of Colorado (top left), Michael Nauenberg of the University of will necessarily require breaking down California, Santa Cruz (top right), Richard Staley of the University of Cambridge (bottom left) similar boundaries for those studying and Roger Stuewer of the University of Minnesota (bottom right) its history. n

Session Report: “60 Years Since BCS and 30 Years Since Woodstock” Continued from page 3 same year a comprehensive conference, Alan Chodos suggested that I con- temperature superconductivity, Doug “BSC@50” was held at the University sider starting off with a talk by Andrew Scalapino (University of California, San- of Illinois and a book based on the Zangwill (Georgia Tech), who had just ta Barbara), on the status of the theory of conference was published: “BCS: 50 finished a historical article on Walter both BCS and high Tc superconductors, Years,” edited by Leon N. Cooper Kohn and was in the middle of a book and Neil Ashcroft (Cornell), to report and Dmitri Feldman, World Scientific project on Phil Anderson. I agreed on the latest high temperature experi- (2010). In 2011, two APS March meet- with Alan and invited Andy who, after ments and theory involving hydrogen, ing sessions were held to celebrate the checking with Phil, got Phil’s personal especially the high Tc sulfides. 100th anniversary of the discovery of “top five” list of contributions to super- After I finalized the program and superconductivity by Kammerlingh conductivity. Andy suggested his talk speakers for the session “60 Years since Onnes: a session called “The History of title: “Phil Anderson and Supercon- BCS and 30 Years since Woodstock,” Superconductivity from its Discovery ductivity: An Appreciation of his Con- two of the original speakers had to by Kammerlingh Onnes in 1911,” spon- tributions.” Organizing the rest of the cancel suddenly, and fortunately two sored by the FHP, and another session, session was straightforward, choosing excellent substitutes generously agreed “The Kavli Foundation Special Sym- Paul Grant (W2AGZ Technologies and to speak. For the talk on Anderson, posium: Nobelist Perspectives on 100 formerly IBM), to cover Woodstock, Piers Coleman (Rutgers) agreed to Years of Superconductivity,” sponsored Richard Greene (University of Mary- speak on Anderson’s contributions to by the DCMP and DMS. land), to review of experimental high superconductivity. Piers had recently

Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter 9 coedited a book for Phil‘s 90th birthday in 2013, “PWA90: A Lifetime of Emer- gence,” World Scientific (2016). For the talk on hydrogen and superconductiv- ity, Isaac Silvera (Harvard) agreed to speak on his recently published experi- ment results claiming to have produced and observed metallic hydrogen. The APS meetings staff was exceptionally cooperative in that they were able to include the new speakers and talks in the Bulletin even though the abstract deadline had long passed. Almost all of the session speak- ers were old enough to be active in research in the 1950 and 60s, during the so-called “golden age of superconduc- tivity’ and thus directly participated in its history. Alan Chodos and I noted that it seems unlikely that one will be able to have a BCS session with eyewitness researchers available to speak at the 75th anniversary. Piers Coleman in his talk, “Phil Anderson’s Magnetic Ideas in Super- conductivity,” discussed Anderson’s work on superconductivity, from his pseudo-spin formulation of the BCS theory, to the Anderson Higg’s mecha- nism and the resonating valence bond RVB theory of cuprate superconductiv- ity. He divided Anderson’s contribution into different time periods. The 1950s Piers Coleman of Rutgers University (standing) with session organizer Brian Schwartz (seated) included antiferromagnetism and the pseudospin formulation of supercon- ductivity. The period from 1958 to 1963 Bednorz on cooper oxide perovskites Experimental Status of the High Tc was most productive and included: followed by the 93 K transition tem- Problem,” started by noting that over dirty superconductors, the theoretical perature detected in yttrium, barium, 50,000 experimental papers had been and experimentally observed Josephson perovskites by Paul Chu. Their published since 1987 on the copper Effect, flux creep in type 2 superconduc- results were immediately confirmed oxide (cuprate) high Tc superconduc- tors and a prescient paper on “Plas- leading to pandemonium at the March tors. He summarized the experimental mons, Gauge Invariance and Mass,” 1987 meeting at the New York Hilton properties that are understood pres- known as the Anderson Higgs Effect. In termed ``The Woodstock of Physics.’’ ently and those not yet understood. He 1973 Anderson presented his theory of Many speakers at the Woodstock meet- then listed the many improved experi- resonant valence bonds which showed ing were forecasting that the discovery mental measuring techniques such as that in copper oxide lattices, electrons of high Tc superconductors (HTCS) ARPES, SI-STM(QPI), RIXS, Quantum from neighboring copper atoms interact would result in “the energy deliv- Design MPMS and PPMS and the avail- to form a valence bond. With doping, erance of mankind.” The immediate ability of higher magnetic fields. In however, the bonded electrons can be period after the discovery of high Tc addition, there are improved and avail- unlocked and form mobile supercon- was filled with optimistic proposed able high Tc materials. He presented ducting Cooper pairs. This RVB concept applications, but few practical uses the layered crystal structure of cuprate was used by Anderson to explain the followed. The bottom line then and superconductors and illustrated the high Tc results first discovered by Bed- now seems to be that despite the many frustration of antiferromagnetism norz and Muller in 1986. successes of HTCS wire technology and with doping. Ultimately, he presented Paul Grant’s talk, “The Woodstock the prototype testing of applications to a phase diagram of the cuprates con- of Physics: The Hyped Future Then transmission lines and other uses, there structed from many separate experi- (1987)…The Actual Situation Now seems to be no significant commercial ments (figure 1). Greene ended his talk (2017),” reviewed the experimental applications. Grant speculated that in with the big question remaining, “What history of high temperature supercon- the future power application might be causes the Cooper pairing in HTSC?” ductors starting with the initial 1986 one of the HTSC applications. Doug Scalapino in the title his talk experiments of Alex Muller and Georg Richard Greene’s talk, “The Current asks the question, “Why did it take

10 Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter Paul Grant of EPRI (left), Richard Greene from the University of Maryland (middle), and Douglas Scalapino of the University of California, Santa Barbara (right) over 40 years from the experimental Figure 1: Phase diagram of the cuprates discovery of superconductivity to the BCS theory and will it take this long to The T*green dotted line on the right is AFM fluctuations and the T* on the left is unknown understand the high Tc superconduc- N.P. Armitage, P. Fournier and R.L. Greene, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 2421 (2010) tors?” He summarized the experimental advances and theoretical clues from the discovery of superconductivity in 1911 until 46 years later with the BCS theory in 1957. He also described the many failed attempts to explain super- conductivity by such noted physicists as Albert Einstein, , Lev Landau, Walter Heisenberg and others. Hints to the solution were implied in the phenomenological theory of Heinz and Fritz London, indicating a likely phase transition with long-range order. In 1950, through the effect, electron-phonon interactions were implicated in the mechanism for super- conductivity, leading to the attractive force for pairing of electrons calculated by Cooper and then followed by the BCS theory. However, even after more than thirty years of intensive theoretical for the HTCS materials, we are close a metal at very high pressure. That and experimental research, the origin of to understanding the high Tc problem prospect was made even more enticing HTCS is still not clear. It seems that for and that the Hubbard model plays an when, in 1968, physicist Neil Ashcroft HTCS, one is dealing with more exotic important role in the understanding showed that metallic hydrogen might electronic mechanisms (e.g. by antifer- of HTCS. He concluded that: 1) the become superconducting at room tem- romagnetic correlations), and instead pairing is mediated by short range AF perature (figure 2). Silvera described of conventional, purely s-wave pairing, spin fluctuations, 2) the pairing emerges his experiment in which a hydrogen more pairing symmetries are thought to from a delicately balanced phase depen- sample at a temperature of around 5.5K be involved (d-wave in the case of the dent upon near neighbor hopping and was squeezed between the teeth of a cuprates; primarily extended s-wave, 3) the theory includes the many differ- diamond anvil cell that created multi- but occasionally d-wave, in the case of ent HTCS materials. megabar static pressures. Based on his the -based superconductors). Scala- The final paper in the session was calibration of the pressure scale, Silvera pino listed the many theoretical ideas by Isaac Silvera on “Pressing Hydrogen claimed that metallization took place at for high Tc and discussed Anderson’s into an Atomic Metallic Phase: Implica- 495 gigapascals (GPa). At this pressure RVB approach, spin fluctuation pair- tions for Superconductivity.” In 1935 point, the sample – which they could ing, nematic pairing, loop currents and physicists Wigner and Huntington not identify definitively as solid or more. Scalapino stated his belief that predicted that hydrogen would become liquid – change from black and opaque

Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter 11 Figure 2: Hydrogen and Poly-Hydrides under Pressure

N.W. Ashcroft, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 187002 (2004)

Insights into structure, Design of new materials at property relationships ambient pressure

Discovered Predicted

H S CaH MgH Hydrogen Hydrogen HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8+x 3 6 6 P =31 GPa P =200 GPa P =150 GPa P =375 GPa P =500 GPa P =2000 GPa T =203 K T =234 K T =271 K T =356 K T =764 K Tc =164 K c c c c c Isaac Silvera of

to the highly reflective characteristic A further complication was the fact to use X-ray to determination of ground of a metal. His result, claiming to have that his sample, in which he claimed to state structure, (liquid or solid), to observed metallic hydrogen, remains observe metallic hydrogen, broke after measure the conductivity vs T to test controversial and thus he had to coun- the measurements were made. Silvera for superconductivity, and to show if ter the criticism of the experiment in concluded his talk by listing his plans the state is metastable, and to produce that the pressure was overestimated. for the future: to repeat the experiment, metallic hydrogen at lower pressures. n

Book Review: “Polonium in the Playhouse, The Manhattan Project’s Secret ChemistryWork in Dayton, Ohio by Linda C. Thomas”

Continued from page 4

Design of the bomb initiators is initially separated; when the initiator chemical processes necessary to realize still one of the most closely-classified was crushed by the assembling bomb both methods, using polonium-bearing elements of the Manhattan Project. core they mixed, producing the initiat- ores from Canadian mines and slugs of These devices, each about the size of ing . Because of the short half- irradiated in the Oak Ridge a golf ball, were designed to create life of Po, these initiators had limited and Hanford reactors. a brief torrent of neutrons to initiate half-lives, and so it was necessary to The central figure of the story, the nuclear chain reaction by what establish a dependable supply chain of George Allen Thomas, was born near are known as “alpha-n” reactions, this otherwise rare element. Only two Lexington, Kentucky, in 1900. His inter- wherein alpha-particles emitted by a methods of sourcing Po are available: est in chemistry was apparent at a naturally-radioactive material strike a By extracting it from waste lead-dioxide young age, and after skipping two light-element material, resulting in the ores from and -mining years in high school he enrolled in emission of neutrons. Polonium (Po) is operations, or by breeding it syntheti- , graduating ideal as the alpha-emitter because of cally via neutron bombardment of in 1920. He then went on to graduate its short (138-day) half-life; a mere 0.24 bismuth within a reactor. In the latter school at MIT, from which he gradu- milligrams of Po emits as many alpha case, nuclei of Bi-209, by capturing neu- ated with an MS in 1924. Through a particles per second as a full gram of trons, become nuclei of Bi-210, which classmate who was a member of the radium (which defines 1 Curie). More transmute to Po-210 via beta-decay DuPont family, Thomas landed a job at recently, polonium was the poison with a half-life of about 5 days. The the Ethyl Corporation (a subsidiary of involved in the infamous murder of for- cross-section for this process is small, ) in Dayton, where he mer KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in however, so it is necessary to irradiate researched motor fuels. Popular, extro- 2006. Manhattan Project initiators were hundreds of pounds of bismuth to pro- verted, and a natural leader, he began of the so-called “Po-Be” type, which duce Curie-level amounts of Po. Man- to move easily in upper-crust Dayton meant that they contained polonium as hattan Project initiators each used about social circles, and in 1926 married into the alpha-emitter and as the 50 Curies of Po, equivalent to about the very wealthy Talbott family, whose light element. The two elements were 10 milligrams. The task of the Dayton patriarch, Harold Talbott, was a part contained within the initiator but were project was to research and develop the owner of GM. At about this time, GM

12 Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter decided to move Ethyl operations to him away from home for two weeks of retirement in 1970. He passed away in Detroit; not wishing to move, Thomas every month. 1982, having never spoken to his fam- and a co-worker, Carroll Hochwalt, In May 1943, Monsanto was award- ily of his connection to the Manhattan decided to start their own chemical ed a contract to produce polonium, and Project. The cost of the Dayton project consulting business, Thomas & Hoch- Thomas set up operations in Dayton. ran to about $3.9 million, a fraction of walt Laboratories. Their first major This work was regarded as so sensitive a percent of the Project’s overall cost product was a revolutionary new fire that materials could not be ordered of about $2 billion, but without it there extinguisher; during Prohibition they through normal Manhattan Engineer would have been no functioning bombs. devised a method to analyze the safety District procurement channels; rather, As the need for polonium produc- of bootleg liquor and also developed a they were sourced through existing tion grew during the Cold War, the means of artificially ageing raw liquor Monsanto contracts. From an original Dayton Project outgrew its facilities, in anticipation of Repeal. estimate of requiring only 12 chemists, and the Atomic Energy Commission As Thomas and Hochwalt were build- the Dayton project grew to a staff of 200 established the Mound Laboratory, a ing their business, Thomas’s mother-in- spread among four buildings by the purpose-built facility about 10 miles law, Katherine Talbott, built a recreation end of the war. Many of these people southwest of Dayton, to take on the center for social and sporting events were be involved in developing new work. Mound began processing opera- dubbed “Runnymede Playhouse” on radiation-counting instruments and in tions in February, 1949; work there also the grounds of the family estate. The staffing an extensive pro- included preparing radioisotopes to glass-roofed structure, built at a cost gram. One of the health physics staff power satellites. The Mound Labora- of $100,000, was at the time the largest members, , would later be tory was decommissioned in 1993. free-standing private hall in the country, revealed as a Soviet agent. Operations at the Playhouse continued boasting a stage, dressing rooms, tennis Chemists will enjoy Thomas’s until late 1948; early the next year, the and squash courts, a greenhouse, and a descriptions of the processes involved Playhouse, which had become con- swimming pool; the main dining area in extracting minute amounts of polo- taminated, was dismantled and the site could accommodate 1200 bridge play- nium from ores and bismuth slugs. remediated and returned to the family. ers at once. Runnymede would play a The scale of the ore work and the The book includes a number of photos crucial role in the Dayton project. need to handle 110-pound bismuth of the Playhouse as it was being cleaned Thomas & Hochwalt thrived; by slugs demanded an expansion of labo- up and dismantled. 1935 it was the largest independent ratory space, and the Army Corps Appendices to this book include a consulting laboratory in the country, of Engineers seized Mrs. Talbott’s brief primer on the science underlying Book Review: “Polonium in the Playhouse, The Manhattan Project’s Secret ChemistryWork in Dayton, Ohio and the next year they were bought out Playhouse (she had died in 1935) and the bombs, a log of travels by Dayton by Linda C. Thomas” by Monsanto, which made the facility entered into a lease with the family to personnel among Project sites, and brief the nucleus of the company’s Central renovate the structure and use it as a biographies of several members of the Research Division with Thomas as production facility. The cover story for Dayton staff, a valuable contribution Director. When the National Defense neighbors was that it was a laboratory as these names would probably oth- Research Committee and later the Office for producing training films for the erwise be lost to history. Books on the of Scientific Research and Development Army Signal Corps. Manhattan Project can be notorious for were formed under The ore-extraction process was inef- reiterating technical or historical errors, and James Conant, Monsanto received ficient and was eventually dropped but only one such glitch caught my eye, numerous contracts for liquid fuels and in favor of the bismuth process exclu- a statement on page 99 that neutrons are synthetic rubber work. Thomas became sively, although it did contribute about emitted directly by polonium. well-connected to those agencies; at the 40 Curies of Po extracted from 37 tons of Polonium in the Playhouse brings time of the Japanese attack at Pearl Har- ore, enough for about one initiator. Fifty to light a little-known aspect of the bor he was deputy chief of the NDRC’s tons of bismuth would be processed; Manhattan Project, the work of Charles explosives division. by June, 1945, Dayton was sending 35 Allen Thomas, and the underappreci- When the Los Alamos Laboratory Curies of Po per week to Los Alamos, ated role of chemistry in the Project. was established in the spring of 1943, delivered by couriers driving trucks This book should be in the collection of it became clear that the Manhattan over a 53-hour route which deliberately any serious student of the Project. Project’s need for chemical and metal- circumvented cities. Thomas witnessed lurgical research, which was spread the Trinity test; his letter to his mother Cameron Reed is the Charles A. Dana among sites at Los Alamos, Berkeley, describing that event is worth the cost Professor of Physics at Alma College. He and the , was of this book alone. served as the editor of the American Physi- going to be much greater than initially After the war, Thomas served on cal Society’s “Physics & Society” news- appreciated, and required a experi- numerous corporate, academic, and letter from 2009-2013, and is currently enced science administrator. General government committees and boards, Secretary-Treasurer of the APS’s Forum Groves offered Thomas a position as including the one that drafted the 1946 on the History of Physics. His interests lie an associate Director of Los Alamos; Acheson-Lilienthal report, although he in the physics and history of nuclear weap- he declined the offer, but did agree later became skeptical of efforts by intel- ons; his text “The History and Science of to coordinate Project chemistry while lectuals to influence political events. He the Manhattan Project” was published by remaining in Dayton. Over the next two became President of Monsanto in 1951, Springer in late 2013. n years travel to Project sites would keep and remained at the company until his

Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter 13 In Memory of Martin M. Block

Continued from page 5

According to another version, quoted by Martin Gardner in “The Ambidextrous Universe. Left, Right and the Fall of Parity”, Feynman would later speak of making “a fifty dollar bet with a friend that parity would not be violated” [4]. At any rate, the idea, initially not quite understood, if not actually reject- ed outright, was developed by Lee and Yang, who presented it in a famous article [5]. Later on, the question posed by the Chinese-American physicists as to whether parity was preserved in the weak interaction was shown to have a negative answer. Madame Chien Shi- ung Wu of Columbia led a team that found experimentally parity violation in the of Cobalt 60 [6]. A number of other experiments on the subject were carried out near-simulta- neously. We recall one of the first papers in 1957 by an international collabora- tion: “Demonstration of Parity non Conservation in Hyperon Decay” [7]. The experiment was carried out thanks Block and Puppi at Durham Sept 23, 1960. (Martin Block is the first at left, then Mrs Puppi; to the collaboration of four groups of Professor Puppi is in the fifth seat) - Courtesy of Prof. Giovanna Puppi, Bologna (Italy) physicists, two Italian (Bologna and Pisa) and two from the US (Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University at Northwestern University. Financial Other work that deserved mention of Michigan), consisting of some twenty support allowed him to visit European include “Helicity of the from a physicists in all. This work contributed laboratories and universities occasion- Decay” [11], “Lifetime of the Lambda to the background of the award of the ally, including the Physics Institute at 0 Hyperon” [12], “The Decay Modes 1957 Physics Nobel Prize to Tsung- Bologna directed by Giampietro Puppi. of the He 4 Hypernucleus” [13], “The Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang for their Block carried out research in Italy, Lambda 0 Decay Asymmetry Param- theoretical analysis of the phenomena frequently with Italian colleagues of the eter and the Kappa-Lambda Parity” related to weak interactions. research group directed by Giampietro [14]. These works belonged to a pack- These two winners of the Prize did Puppi in Bologna, which was engaged age of papers worked out by groups not mention Martin Block. Nor was a in studies of elementary particle physics of authors who, besides Block and Nobel Prize was award to Madame Wu. with particular attention to the deter- colleagues at Bologna, also included The episode evidently weighed heavily mination of quantum numbers, spin, American physicists. on Block. During the years he spent in parity and isotopic spin of particles as After returning to Duke, where he Bologna he often used, in his accented well as of resonances. would remain for the rest of his career, Italian, the expression “Maledetti teo- Martin Block worked actively with Block widened his technical background, rici!” to dismiss theorists. Italian colleagues, aside from Puppi also and built large spectrometer counter Block’s activity as an experimental R. Gessaroli, L. Grimellini, L. Lendinara, and spark chamber systems. He had physicist was mainly characterized by L. Monari, S. Ratti. Among other things studied these while a member of the the set-up of advanced instruments this work achieved the observation Ford Foundation at CERN in 1964-65, for the research in elementary particles (perhaps the first) of the decay of the and in 1972-73, when he was a Fellow physics. In particular, he contributed Sigma Minus as well as the Lambda of the Giuseppe Cocconi’s laboratory. In to the realization of the magnet for the Zero, using for the first time a liquid this work, he made use of heavy liquid accelerator, then of the highest energy, helium bubble chamber [8]. Another chamber in order to measure neutrino the Nevis of the New York run of the same bubble chamber pho- interactions, the first experiment of this Columbia University. tographed 100.000 interactions of the kind. Block was also the first to measure Block remained at the Duke K minus [9]. A systematic study of K the relative parity of two strange parti- University until 1961, when he got a minus interactions in liquid helium fol- cles, determining that the parity of the professorship as professor of physics lowed in 1964 [10]. Lambda 0 and the Kappa 0 is odd. In

14 Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter 1970, his interests moved towards the papers. The Aspen Centre for Physics Physics 1942-1962”, published for The technique used for measuring cross announced the death of Martin Block, Nobel Foundation by the Elsevier Pub- sections of high energy scattering that at the age of ninety, in Los Angeles on lishing Company, New York, (1964) he studied at Brookhaven National July 22, 2016. 393-405, 398 Laboratory. [3] R. Feynman, R. Leighton, Surely Concluding Considerations You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, W.W. Nor- Recognitions The list of discoveries and results ton, New York, (1985); tr. it. Zanichelli, In 1985, in Block’s honor, Pavia obtained by Block in several years with Bologna, (1988) University organized a symposium, bubble chambers and other instru- [4] M. Gardner, The Ambidextrous “On Weak Interactions,” and that same ments, is truly considerable: new Universe. Left, Right and the Fall of Par- year awarded him for his contribution particles, new resonances, high energy ity, Basic Books Inc., New York, (1964); to the particle physics the “Medaglia hadronic interactions, neutronic inter- tr. It. L’universo ambidestro, Zanichelli, Teresiana,” which was only the third actions, and so forth, not to mention Bologna, (1984) time it had been given out since the end his remark about parity violation in [5] T.D. Lee, C.N. Yang, “Question of the Second World War. In 1985, Block weak interactions. of parity conservation in weak interac- obtained the medal of the Italian Physi- Grateful Acknowledgments: par- tions”, Physical Review, 104, 1, (1956) cal Society, for his researches in high ticular thanks to Professor [Mrs] Lella 254-258 energy physics. That same year as well, Grimellini, who gave us the Bologna [6] C.S. Wu et al., “Experimental test Block initiated, in Aspen, a Winter Con- Martin Block papers and Professor [Mrs] of parity conservation in beta decay”, ference at the Aspen Center for Physics Giovanna Puppi for giving us photo- Physical Review 105, 4, (1957) 1413-1415 in elementary particle physics. The first graphic images of Block together with [7] Eisler, F. et al., “Demonstration conference was so well received that it Gianni Puppi. We also thank for useful of parity non conservation in hyperon has been repeated annually ever since, suggestions Professor Attilio Forino of decay”, Phys. Rev. 108 (1957) 1353; we with topics including astrophysics, bio- the Bologna Department of Physics and remind that among the usual “et al.” physics, and condensed matter physics. Astronomy and the friend Doctor Paolo were included various italian physicists: Ten years after its founding, the Center Cinti of the same Department Bassi, Conversi, Puppi… celebrated Block for these specialized [8] L. Grimellini, T. Kikuchi, L. conferences, including a public event at Lendinara, L. Monari, M. M. Block, the Wheeler Opera House. ”Observation of the Decay Sigma-“, Giorgio Giacomelli and others orga- Proceedings of 1962 Int. Conf. on High- nized a meeting entitled, “Thirty Years Energy Physics at CERN, Ginevra, of Bubble Chamber Physics” (Bologna, (1962) 457 Italy, 19 March 2003 at the Science Acad- [9] M.M. Block, C. Meitzer, S. Ratti, emy) attended by Block himself. Block L. Grimellini, T. Kikuchi, L. Lendinara, was also honored by the dedication of L. Monari, “Lifetime of the Hyper- a symposium in 1996 for his forty-five nucleus H3”, Proceedings of 1962 Int. years of physics at the Northwestern Conf. on High Energy Physics at CERN, University (Evanston-Chicago), where Ginevra, (1962) 458-459 he was named Emeritus Professor. [10] L. Grimellini, L. Lendinara, In 2005, to celebrate his eightieth L. Monari, M. M. Block, R. Gessaroli, birthday, Block and others founded the “Interazioni di K- a riposo in He 4”, Block Prize to be awarded to promis- Supplemento al Nuovo Cimento, 2, 1, ing young physicists on the occasion of (1964) 735-736 the Aspen Winter Conferences. Block [11] J. Leitner, L. Gray, E. Harth, S. subsequently retired from academic life Lichtman, J. Westgard della Syracuse and remained with his wife Beate in a University di New York; M. Block, B. lodge in his beloved Aspen. Notwith- Brucker, R. Gessaroli, A. Kovacs, T. standing this retirement, he continued Kikuchi, C. Meltzer of the Duke Uni- to produce several important scientific versity, Durham; H. O. Cohn, W. Bugg, contributions. Martin Block dell’ Oak Ridge National Laboratory, In 2010 he gave rise to a series of Oak Ridge; A. Pevsner, P. Schlein, M. papers of which one, “Hadronic cross Meer of the , sections: from to colliders Bibliography: Baltimore; N. Tomasini Grimellini, L. to cosmic rays,” was presented at the [1] D. Kaiser, How the Hippies Lendinara, L. Monari, G. Puppi of the International Symposium on the high saved Physics, W. W. Norton & Com- Bologna University in Physical Review energy cosmic rays at the Fermilab. He pany (2011); tr. It., “Come gli Hippies Letters, 7, n°6, 15 (1961) 264-268 also wrote a brief note on the high ener- hanno salvato la Fisica”, Castelvecchi [12] M. M. Block, R. Gessaroli, S. gy scattering of neutrinos that appeared Ed., Roma, (2012) Ratti, Nothwestern University, Evanston; on Physical Review D. In 2011, he pub- [2] C. N. Yang, “The Law of Par- L. Grimellini, T. Kikuchi, L. Lendinara, lished two other articles, about sixty ity Conservation and other Symmetry L. Monari of the Bologna Universi- years after the publication of his first Laws of Physics,” in Nobel Lectures, ty; E. Harth, W. Becker della Syracuse

Volume XIII, No. 5 • Fall 2017 • History of Physics Newsletter 15 University, New York; W. M. Bugg, H. L. Grimellini, T. Kikuchi, L. Lendinara, M. Block, R. Gessaroli, T. Kopelman, Cohn del Oak Ridge Natiional Labora- L. Monari, Physics Institute, Bologna; E. S. Ratti, Northwestern University; L. tory, Oak Ridge in Physical Review, 150, Harth, Syracuse University, Syracuse, Il Grimellini, T. Kikuchi, L. Lendinara, L. 2, (1963) 766-768 Nuovo Cimento, 10, 28, (1963) 299-308 Monari, Physics Institute, Bologna in Il [13] M. M. Block, R. Gessaroli, s. Rat- [14] L. Gray, E. Harth, J. Leitner, Nuovo Cimento, 10, 28 (1963) 179-183 n ti, Northwestern University, Evanston; Syracuse University; J. Auman, M.

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