NEWSLETTER A F o r u m o f T h e A m e r i c a n P h y s i c a l S o c i e t y • V o l u m e X • N o . 5 • F A l l 2 0 0 8 Report from the Chair: Using History of Physics in Education

By David C. Cassidy, Forum Chair

wenty-five years ago, in April 1983, the U.S. Depart- students and even well-educated adults still display a ment of Education published a landmark report titled disturbing lack of scientific literacy, gradual improvement T“A Nation at Risk.” The report sent shock waves rip- has resulted. One of the most important and influential fac- pling through American society, painting a bleak picture tors in this reform has been not a particular initiative but of American education and warning of dire consequences an educational approach. This approach originated most for the nation’s competitiveness. “Our concern goes well directly from one of the leading members of the commis- beyond matters such as industry and commerce,” the sion that produced “A Nation at Risk”—Gerald Holton. In report went on to say. “It also includes the intellectual, a fitting coincidence, almost exactly on the 25th anniversary moral, and spiritual strengths of our people which knit of this report, Holton received the 2008 Abraham Pais Prize together the very fabric of our society.” for the History of Physics during the April 2008 APS meet- Many of the report’s assessments and warnings remain ing. As noted in the citation, “His writing, lecturing, and valid and are not limited to the United States. They leadership of major educational projects introduced history spawned a number of education reform efforts, especially of physics to a mass audience.” in science, that continue to this day. Although American We are delighted to be able to publish in this newslet- ter Holton’s elegant and insightful Pais Prize address, “Of What Use is the History of Science?” (see p. 5). Without giving too much away, I would like to underscore what has been a hallmark of his reform approach, as presented in this address. He argues that one of the most important uses of the history of physics is in physics education, by provid- ing students with a unifying perspective on the discipline and a sense of the grand adventure—the human drama of

Continued on page 2

In s i d e Th i s Is s u e General Forum Affairs 3

Departmental Histories 4

Pais Prize Lecture 5

Annual APS Meetings Reports 8

Student Presentations 8

New Books of Note 14 General Leslie R. Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer, leaders of the Manhattan Project (see pages 9, 14–15). Report from the Chair: Using History of Physics in Education

Continued from page 1 struggle and success—that has brought Association for the Advancement of useful and accessible. us to our current understanding of Science, the National Science Founda- Our sessions at the March and nature. Without distorting or oversim- tion, and the National Academy of April APS meetings continue to draw plifying the past, history can lend an Sciences. I congratulate Gerald Holton excellent speakers (both contributed excitement and a purpose to the study warmly on this award. and invited) and large audiences, as of physics, while uniting into a mean- you will see from the meeting reports ingful whole the isolated technical I am also pleased to report a num- on pp. 8-13 of this newsletter. Please details of problem-solving, individual ber of exciting developments. For the plan to attend the 2009 March meet- principles and diverse topics. first time in Forum history, the Execu- ing (March 16–20 in Pittsburgh) or the Together with other ongoing phys- tive Committee, after careful consid- “April” meeting (May 2–5 in Denver), ics education initiatives, the historical eration and a unanimous vote, will and perhaps contribute a paper to approach pioneered by Holton for welcome an elected student among its our contributed sessions (see p. 8). half a century has proved enormously members. This is the result of changes Students are especially encouraged to influential and successful in such in our membership. According to the offer contributed papers; limited travel efforts as the famous Project Physics most recent count, the Forum has 3929 support for them is available. In this Course as well as in nearly every recent members, constituting 8.5 percent of regard, the Forum continues to solicit standards initiative in science educa- APS; of these members, 26.4 percent donations in memory of physicists to tion, such as those by the American are students. We are very pleased to be used in support of students giv- welcome students of all levels to the ing contributed papers and of invited Forum, and I would like to emphasize lecturers. For more information, please that we strongly support and encour- contact Secretary-Treasurer Thomas age a greater voice for students and Miller ([email protected]). young people in Forum affairs. In view Zimmerman and Robert Arns The Forum on History of Physics of my above remarks, we are of course ([email protected]) are continuing of the American Physical Society delighted at this student interest in the effort initiated by David Jackson publishes this Newsletter semian- the history of physics. The Executive to encourage physics departments to nually. Nonmembers who wish Committee has asked the Nominating help foster the history of physics by to receive the Newsletter should Committee (chaired by Bill Evenson) recording their histories, preserving make a donation to the Forum of to put forth student candidates for one important documents, and asking retir- $5 per year (+ $3 additional for of the two open three-year Member- ing scientists to provide a short record airmail). Each 3-year volume con- at-Large positions in the spring 2009 of their work and future plans. Copies sists of six issues. election. The Nominating Committee of these materials will be deposited at welcomes recommendations of gradu- the AIP Center for History of Physics. The articles in this issue represent ate students suited for this position. For more information, see the article the views of their authors and are It also welcomes nominations for the on p. 4 or contact either of these two not necessarily those of the Forum other Member-at-Large position, as physicists. or APS. well as for Vice Chair and for Forum Please consider nominating a Editor Councilor. Self-nominations are wel- deserving colleague for the Abraham come, too. Pais Prize and for APS fellowship Michael Riordan While student numbers have grown, through the Forum. Female candidates Institute of Particle Physics membership in two other categories is are especially welcome. Currently only University of California below desired levels: female members, 29 of the 602 fellows in the Forum are Santa Cruz, CA 95064 who represent only 9.8 percent of women. More information on either [email protected] Forum members for whom gender is distinction may be found on p. 3 of (831) 459-5687 known; and working historians and this issue and on the Forum website. philosophers of physics. Suggestions Special thanks are due Past Chair Associate Editors of ways to encourage either or both Bill Evenson for his excellent leader- Robert H. Romer are welcome. ship and smooth running of Forum Physics Department The Forum website at http://units. affairs. And a warm welcome to those Amherst College aps.org/units/fhp is a valuable source of who were elected to the Executive Amherst, MA 01002 information on members and activities. Committee (whose terms began after [email protected] George Zimmerman ([email protected]) has the April 2008 APS meeting): the new volunteered to help us realize its full Dwight E. Neuenschwander Vice Chair Daniel Kleppner (MIT); and potential. As our first Webmaster, he is Department of Physics Francis Everitt (Stanford University) working closely with APS staff on giv- Southern Nazarene University and Robert Arns (University of Ver- ing the site a needed facelift, enhancing Bethany, OK 73008 mont), both elected to three-year terms it with multimedia materials from our [email protected] as Members-at-Large. n program sessions, and making it more

2 Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter Editor’s Corner Call for Nominations: Call for Fellowship The Abraham Pais Prize Nominations With this issue, we begin two important changes in the “History of Physics” newsletter. First, as approved The Forum on the History of Phys- The Fellowship Committee calls for by the Forum Executive Committee ics calls for the nomination of candi- the nomination of suitable candidates during its April meeting in St. Louis, dates for the 2010 Abraham Pais Prize for APS Fellow through the Forum on the newsletter will be mailed to all for the History of Physics, the purpose the History of Physics. These nomina- members in a print version once per of which is to recognize outstanding tions should be based at least in part year, generally in the fall. The spring scholarly achievements in the his- upon achievements related to the his- edition will be available only via the tory of physics. This Prize is spon- tory and philosophy of physics. The Internet and Web. The principal reason sored jointly by the American Physical Forum deadline for the receipt of all for this decision is cost. We save over Society and the American Institute of materials at APS is 15 May 2009. Pro- $6,000 per year, which can be better Physics. Awarded annually since 2005, cedures for nomination have recently spent for other Forum activities. And it includes $10,000 and a certificate cit- changed. The new procedures are now with the Internet and Web accessible ing the contributions of each recipient available at: to almost all our members, those who (as many as three), plus an allowance http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/ really need or want a print version (for for travel to an APS meeting to receive whatever reason) can easily download fellowships/index.cfm the prize and deliver an invited lecture (click on Nomination Instructions). and print their own copy from our on the history of physics. Past Prize web site (http://www.aps.org/units/fhp). winners are Martin J. Klein (2005), John According to these procedures, all Another option is to access the HTML L. Heilbron (2006), Max Jammer (2007), nominations are to be submitted to the version on the same site, which is and Gerald Holton (2008). APS via the online nomination pack- being upgraded to improve its acces- A nomination for the Pais Prize age provided at the indicated web site. sibility and ease of use. should consist of: The nominees must be APS members We will still be printing a limited in good standing, which may be con- edition, however, mainly for distribu- • a letter of not more than 1,000 words firmed through the above website. A tion to libraries and history or physics evaluating the nominee’s qualifica- sponsor (nominator) and a co-sponsor, departments that have requested such tions, in light of the Rules and Eligibil- both of whom must be APS members, print copies. This will continue to help ity for the Prize (see http://www.aps.org/ are required. Up to two supporting promote the newsletter’s availability programs/honors/prizes/pais.cfm), and letters from other individuals, who to potential readers outside the Forum identifying the scholarly and profes- do not have to be APS members, may who may be interested in its contents. sional achievements to be recognized; be also submitted by uploading to the If any members would like to continue as there is no official nomination form, site. Please visit the above web site for receiving paper copies, please contact this letter will constitute the formal further information and to obtain a list me ([email protected]), and I will nomination. of the required documentation. include your name on this list. • a list of the nominee’s most impor- Nominations will be forwarded to Finally, as approved by the Execu- tant publications; reprints of up to the Forum Fellowship Committee for tive Committee at the same meet- five of the nominee’s articles may be review. This committee will make its ing, we are adding Dwight E. (“Ed”) included. recommendation to the Forum Execu- Neuenschwander as an Associate tive Committee, and after that all nom- • at least two but not more than four Editor of the newsletter, effective this seconding letters. inations will go to the APS Council for issue. A faculty member at Southern approval. Fellowship nominations may Nazarene University in Bethany, OK, • an (optional) biographical sketch. be submitted at any time, but must be he brings many years of experience to received by 15 May 2009 for the next the task, having edited the magazines Five copies of the complete nomi- review. Radiations, the official publication of the nation package should be mailed For further information, please physics honor society Sigma Pi Sigma, to the next Chair of the Selection contact the chair of the Forum Fellow- and The SPS Observer, the magazine of Committee: ship Committee, Daniel Kleppner at the AIP Society of Physics Students. Ed Prof. Laurie Brown [email protected], or the APS fellow- will be learning the ropes on the job, 1500 Hinman Avenue #102 ship officer at [email protected] or by in preparation to replace me as Editor Evanston, IL 60201 telephone at (301) 209-3268. n a year hence, with the fall 2009 issue. Deadline for receipt of all materials I suspect I’ll still be involved with the Editor’s Note: As this issue went to is 1 May 2009. After three consecutive newsletter in one way or another, but press, Stephen Brush of the University review cycles that do not result in a he will then be in charge of its direc- of Maryland was named the 2009 Pais nominee being selected for the Prize, tion and publication. Prize winner “for his pioneering, in- a new, updated nomination package depth studies of the history of 19th and — Michael Riordan must be submitted for the nominee to 20th century physics.” be considered again. n

Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter 3 Preserving Departmental Histories By Robert Arns and George Zimmerman

he two of us, members of the materials and new entries as they are compiled by Vincent Z. Peterson Forum Executive Committee, produced to George Zimmerman, “Dirac and Heisenberg in Hawaii,” Thave taken over from retiring Physics Department, Boston University, by San Fu Tuan member David Jackson as the advo- Boston, MA 02215 (email: [email protected]). Both available at cates for writing and creating a register The materials themselves should be http://www.phys.hawaii.edu of institutional and departmental his- sent to the Niels Bohr Library at the University of Hawaii Institute for tories. The Forum renews its call (from above address. Astrophysics APS News, January 2007, ‘and “History The Forum congratulates those “Origins of Astronomy in Hawaii,” of Physics” newsletter, Spring 2008, departments with an up-to-date his- by Walter Steiger p. 5) to every physics department to tory on file in its library and at the “Astronomy in Hawaii, 1964–1970,” help preserve its history and record of Niels Bohr Library & Archives. If such by John Jefferies accomplishments by updating an exist- a history does not exist, please prepare Both available at ing history or preparing a new one. one! Forum members are encouraged http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/ifa/history.htm Such a coherent historical narrative to take the initiative in doing so. may be supplemented by specialized Michigan Technological University records and documents—for example, Register of Departmental “History of the Physics Department, annual faculty lists and course descrip- Michigan Technological University” tions from university catalogs. These Histories and Records http://www.phy.mtu.edu/alumni/history histories and records should be depos- Submitted January 2007 to July 2008 University of Notre Dame ited with the AIP Niels Bohr Library & American Physical Society “Seventy Years of Nuclear Physics at Archives and entered in the Forum’s “History of the APS Forum on Physics Notre Dame: 1937–2007” new Register of Departmental Histo- and Society” by Michael Wiescher ries and Records (see below). http://units.aps.org/units/fps/history.cfm “History of the Department of Physics” If an up-to-date historical record is “The Early History of Nuclear Physics Boston University not already on file at the Bohr Library, at Notre Dame” “History of the Boston University Phys- the Forum urges a physics department “The First Accelerator at Notre Dame” ics Department, 1906 to 1970” to prepare or update a history of its “Accelerator Memoirs,” by George O. Zimmerman department and any research labora- by Cornelius. P. Browne http://physics.bu.edu/history tories, and to send a copy (in what- “Early Days of Nuclear Physics at Notre ever form) to the Niels Bohr Library University of California, Berkeley Dame and the Manhattan Project” & Archives, c/o Joseph Anderson, AIP “History of the Physics Department, “The Nuclear Structure Laboratory at Center for History of Physics, One University of California, Berkeley, Notre Dame,” Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 1950–1968” by Michael Wiescher 20740-3843 (email: janderso@aip. org). by August Carl Helmholz, edited “Cornelius P. Browne, 1923–2005” Placing these historical documents on by John David Jackson (Berkeley, All available at http://www.nd.edu/~nsl/ the departmental web site would also CA: University of California, 2004), html/about_history.html give interested parties better access to 75 pages. Purdue University them. availability: UCB Physics Department; “History of the Purdue Physics The Forum has established a sepa- UCB Library; Niels Bohr Library Department” rate Register of Departmental Histories Case Western Reserve University Newsletter articles and other material, and Records, to be published peri- “Physics at a Research University: collected on a web site: http://www. odically in the “History of Physics” Case Western Reserve 1830–1990” physics.purdue.edu/about_us/history newsletter and on its web site. Entries by William Fickinger (Cleveland, Williams College should be standard bibliographic OH: Case Western Reserve Univer- “Williams College’s Hopkins Observa- citations, indicating availability in sity, 2006), 360 pages. tory: The Oldest Extant Observatory institutional or departmental libraries, availability: Library of Congress, Cata- in the United States” through web links, and (we hope) at log LCCN 2005933988; also at the by Jay M. Pasachoff, published in the Bohr Library. This Register will CWRU bookstore and on the web Journal of Astronomical History and provide another tool for obtaining at http://www.phys.cwru.edu/history information about past activities in Heritage 1:1 (1998), 61-78. n physics research and education, to University of Hawaii Physics serve as a starting point for more Department focused searches. Please send Register “History of the UH-Manoa Physics entries for existing histories, other Department,”

4 Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter Pais Prize Lecture: Of What Use is the History of Science? By Gerald Holton

am deeply grateful for the honor Only rarely is a researcher interested extended to me, and rather over- in reading one of the publications I whelmed by it, especially as the on the history of science, or for that Prize is offered in memory of Bram matter in reading a physics paper or Pais, who was an extraordinary physi- volume published many decades in cist, and who also has no peer as a the past—as was done by I. I. Rabi. He historian of physics. His countless wrote that one day he happened to be essays and thirteen books helped to reading, for sheer pleasure, Maxwell’s define the field, and set the highest Treatise of 1873. That gave him a clue bar. I knew him quite well. We also for quickly measuring the magnetic served together on the committee that susceptibility of a crystal, a central helped turn out the first volumes of question in his research project at the the Correspondence of Albert Einstein. I time. It was for him not the only time am glad to say that in our extensive that history helped to transform a pres- correspondence he chose to be kind ent puzzle into a future solution. about my own work. He was, in a way, For Rabi, and for relatively few the modern conscience of the history 2008 Pais Prize winner Gerald Holton physical scientists today, such as Ste- of science; and it is in this spirit that ven Weinberg and Freeman Dyson, a I wish to make two points, both con- The faculty for this school consisted sense of the historical development cerning the fact that history matters, of a small group of physicists and leading up to their current physics especially in this somber time, for so historians of science. To our delight, preoccupation has been important for many in physics and beyond. Paul Dirac agreed to participate. We, a more comprehensive sense of self. If you heard or read Leo Kadanoff’s the faculty, all met before the school And, I maintain, it should be so for far Presidential Address to the April APS started, to synchronize our work. Dirac more scientists. For in truth, for each Meeting (published in APS News, July listened intently, and finally spoke up of us, the science research project of 2008), you know that this society and in his quiet way, saying “I don’t under- today is the temporary culmination of its members have a big task now to stand why there should be a history of a very long, hard-fought struggle by stem the decline in research funding, physics. Either a thing happened, or it a largely invisible community of our in status, in education, and in the gen- did not.” This remark produced panic ancestors. Each of us may be standing eral scientific literacy of the public— among the rest of us. on the shoulders of giants; more often not only for ourselves but also for our Near the end of the summer we stand on the unrecognized graves country. school’s term, Dirac gave a set of of our predecessors. To know nothing What I have to relate here may, I lectures to our students, saying at the about them is, to me, as limiting in do believe, give added conviction start: “I have learned a great deal here one’s self-regard as not knowing one’s and authority to those who want to at Varenna. . .I have learned to appre- actual parents. be effective in this difficult task. My ciate the point of view of the historian I was lucky to realize this simple first point concerns the sense of self, the of science. . .[By contrast,] the research fact as a Ph.D. student under P. W. intellectual identity, of each of us indi- physicist wants rather to forget the way Bridgman. He was not only a hard- vidually; and my second, related, point by which he attained this discovery. . .. driving experimental physicist, who will concern our opportunity, perhaps He feels perhaps a bit ashamed, dis- was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1946, even duty, to our students. gusted with himself, that he took so but he also eloquently wrote on what As to the first point: physicists and long.” was called the operationalist approach other scientists tend to be understand- “However, with the understanding to the methodology of science. The ably oriented above all to the future of what the historians of science are first thing a new student of his would of their field rather than to its past. concerned with,” Dirac continued, “I do was read his great text, The Physics Such are the characteristic identities have tried to think over the past. . . of High Pressure. And there his first of pioneers at a frontier, rather than of [and] how these things led me to the chapter is titled “Historical Introduc- scholars focusing on the past. style of work which I followed later in tion”—29 pages on the great sequence Let me illustrate this view, together life.” And then he gave a splendid set of prior high-pressure experimenters, with a rare conversion experience. In of three historical lectures, “Recollec- some 75 of them, starting with Hans 1972, the Enrico Fermi summer school tions of an Exciting Era,” which were Christian Oersted in 1823. This is one of physics was held in Varenna, Italy, published later. example of acknowledging the serious on Lake Como. The topic was “The To be sure, few scientists have History of 20th-Century Physics.” experienced a conversion like Dirac’s. Continued on page 6

Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter 5 Pais Prize Lecture: Of What Use is the History of Science? debt any advance pays to its genetic had put to use: for example, tools for unity in science and technology, not forebears. standard observation techniques that a unity found by one grand synthesis, To illustrate further, let me refer to are no longer referred to explicitly, but a different unity, an operational one, work I did with two research associ- such as x-ray diffraction (Max von in which the interlinking parts of sci- ates some time ago, published under Laue), or the criteria for identifying ence and technology help one another. the title “How a Scientific Discovery superconductivity, namely zero electri- The lesson here is that Dirac was is Made.”* As you know, in 1986 and cal resistance (by Heike Kamerlingh- correct in his advice in his Varenna lec- 1987, there appeared out of the blue Onnes in 1911), and the Meissner effect, tures. Indeed, every advance reported several papers on high-temperature implicitly referring to a 1933 publica- in an APS meeting or publication is a superconductivity by the Swiss physi- tion by Walther Meissner and Robert new fruit on an old family tree, one cist Alex Müller, formerly a student Ochsenfeld. Similarly, the platinum with many branches, near and far. of Wolfgang Pauli’s, and by Müller’s thermometers that Müller’s team used Moreover, these long-gestated fruits of former student, Johannes Georg Bed- imply references to an 1887 publica- science have nourished not only cur- norz. Starting in 1983, at the IBM lab tion by one Hugh L. Callendar of the rent physicists, but were, and continue in Switzerland, they worked rather Cavendish Laboratory, which ushered to be, crucial aid for other sciences, secretively, in order that if they failed, in the platinum-resistance thermom- for applications—and for the forces they could, as Müller told me, give eter as a practical means of measuring working on behalf of enlightenment, of their work a “burial in very restricted temperature. reason and sanity, and potentially for family circumstances, so as not to The origins of the apparatus Mül- upgrading the human condition. jeopardize Bednorz’s career.” Yet they ler’s team used to liquefy helium In this recognition lies a large part caused a great sensation when they stems of course from the principles of the moral authority of the scien- announced their findings. They had of cooling, laid out first by the British tific profession. And when not enough broken through a long-standing barrier, physicists William Thomson and James scientists assert it, others rush in, to reaching superconductivity at about 30 Joule in the 1850s, and by the French define it in their destructive ways, as K by the completely unconventional chemists Nicolas Clément and Charles- they have done again and again. I dare use of a ceramic compound with a Bernard Desormes in 1819. And so to confess frankly that a good part perovskite structure. Others quickly forth. Unwittingly but documentably, of the reasons for my doing some of converged on this new field, and the stage for Müller and Bednorz’s the things the award citation asserted pushed the transition temperature to discovery in the 1980s had been set by about my activities has been largely over 130 K. earlier scientists—many long dead, if motivated by the view that our physi- I became interested in just how not forgotten. cal sciences, when seen through the Müller and Bednorz made their dis- And there was one special ances- twin lenses of the achieved present covery. Specifically, what had been the tor of Müller’s work: Johannes Kepler. and the painful development over cen- historic treasury of intellectual and Müller told me that he had an unusual turies, are at least as important a part material resources that were avail- fascination with perovskites, which of humanity’s culture and long-term able to them and were used by them? have a very high degree of symmetry, health as any other enterprise. Happily, both men cooperated with us and which he had used with great Of course, at this point I hear some in giving interviews and exchanging success in many other research proj- skeptical voices. For many scientists, letters. I especially wanted to know ects. This fascination had originally the adrenaline of the day-to-day excite- how they fitted into the grand, age-old stemmed from his having been a stu- ment in the lab is quite enough to feel network of available knowledge on dent in Pauli’s class, when Pauli was utterly secure within themselves. Oth- the way to the new knowledge. How sharing his ideas on an essay he was ers make do very well with a combina- did their work fit into the big jigsaw writing on Kepler and his archetypes, tion of good work at the bench or desk, puzzle whose pieces were prepared by especially those five Platonic, highly plus important public service, like previous advances? symmetrical bodies. So it turns out many of our role models, or those who So we traced, in their own key that Kepler had helped Müller and battle the tone-deaf administrators and publications, the explicit and implicit Bednorz discover high-temperature the scientific deniers of our time. serious citations. Then we looked at superconductivity! Assuming these roles is of course the explicit and implicit citations in the From these and many other exam- needed, too—and is fulfilling for those publications of those immediate ances- ples we can generalize that any sig- who do, and crucial for the rest of us. tors; and in fact we went further back nificant advance relies, not vaguely but But there is at least one role that seems in this way for a total of about four documentably, on a large, international, to me to require from the scientist a intellectual generations. identifiable set of earlier contributions, living sensitivity and witness to serv- Analyzing the original five papers all serving the emergence of new sci- ing as a link in a grand chain of being. that comprised the announcement ence or technological achievement. This role is that of educator. of their breakthrough revealed the This fact also supports the old assump- And so I come to my second point: number of silent resources that they tion that there is some underlying how best to attend to the opportunity, *American Scientist, Vol. 84, No. 4 (July–August 1997), pp. 364–375. 6 Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter Pais Prize Lecture: Of What Use is the History of Science? Physical Review Letters Turns Golden perhaps duty, that we may have to our self-education included reading Gustav students. Kirchhoff and Hermann Helmholtz, ll this year our beloved journal If you accept the suggestion that especially on Maxwell’s theory. Indeed, of letters PRL has been celebrat- many working scientists deserve a he referred to his own approach to Aing its 50th anniversary. In July larger, more secure sense of identity, physics as the Maxwellian Program. 1958 Physical Review Editor Samuel being confident beneficiaries of the Now that we have begun to make Goudschmidt began this new journal past and contributors to the present the student aware of some of the steps, as a tentative experiment, taking what culture and civilization, it follows that so to speak, of a ladder up through would have been brief letters to the they have also an opportunity to help which relativity came into being in Editor and publishing them separately their young colleagues and students Einstein’s mind, we can stop at this in their own volumes in order to make at least to glimpse their own role in important point to explain what in important results available quickly. this great venture. This can be done Einstein’s view is that Maxwellian pro- It became an enormously successful easily when one is teaching physics, gram. It is of course an exemplification journal in its own right, and is now where we convey to students many and realization of the oldest motivating emulated by scores of similar letters of the great breakthroughs, from Gali- force in physics, namely, the attempt at journals worldwide. Thus it is indeed leo to Richard Feynman, and today’s a grand synthesis, at a unification of fitting to look back and review the favorite topics. What I am about to disparate elements—a tradition I have course of its publishing history. suggest applies to any of these, but let liked to call the Ionian Enchantment, Since January 2008 PRL has been me concentrate for a moment on the going far back in time. republishing important editorials and opportunity to teach relativity theory In a way, some of the most recent letters on a special golden-anniversary in this mode, as one example. works being presented at this APS web site, Students usually look forward to meeting are children of that great http://prl.aps.org/50years. being introduced to this topic, and family dynasty: the movement toward there are by now hundreds of ways unification within a branch of science, Compiled by former APS Editor-in- to present the main concepts and going back to (among others) the Chief Martin Blume (who recently ran equations, and their uses. That must Vienna Circle for the Unity of Science, for Forum Vice Chair), this site features be done. But many instructors have then further back to the syntheses a few milestone letters from each year, found that there is in addition even worked on by Maxwell, by Faraday, including short essays on their con- more excitement and result, by making by Oersted, by Kant and the nature tents and significance. There is also a a little room to give students a glimpse philosophers. This takes us all the way web timeline highlighting important of why and how this theory came back to Newton, who in his preface to events in the history of the Physical about, and thus became a key part of the Principia Mathematica said he hoped Review journals. physical science. that by mechanical principles one In recognition of this anniversary, Even in Einstein’s own writings, it could “derive the rest of the phenom- the Forum sponsored special invited is easy to find what he regarded as the ena of nature,” and ultimately back to sessions at the March and April APS immediate antecedents of his theory. Thales of Miletus in ancient Greece. meetings devoted to PRL and its his- I would recommend turning to one And then we can go forward to what tory. The March meeting featured of Einstein’s early love letters to his Einstein initially called the generalized talks by Marvin Cohen, Saad Heb- future wife, Mileva Maric. Writing relativity theory, and on to today’s boul, Jack Sandweiss, Charles Slichter, in August 1899, he says he has been ideas of a theory of the synthesis of all and Eugene Stanley (see the article reading Heinrich Hertz on Maxwell’s forces. Giving some idea of this grand by George Zimmerman, p. 9). At the theory, and he presents to Mileva his arc is showing science as a living being, April meeting, Associate Editor Robert conclusion: “The introduction of the with huge energy, struggles, despair, Garisto spoke about “Half a Century word ‘Ether’ in the electric theory has visions, vexations, and victories. of PRL,” while Michael Peskin and led to the conception of a medium of In short, when students are deal- Michael Turner addressed the impact whose motion one can talk, without, I ing with the work of any of those who the journal has had on particle physics believe, connecting with that assertion helped our current science to be born, and cosmology. a physical sense.” they should see that physics, through One brief but touching event So, in 1899, six years before his the centuries-long application of ratio- occurred at the April meeting, where 1905 paper, he already had the audac- nality, intuition, and skill, has achieved a large group of referees were recog- ity to dismiss the ether. Later, Einstein a high degree of organic coherence, nized for their outstanding service to added that the Fizeau experiment of rather than being just one detail after the journal. Without their dedicated, 1851, stellar aberration, and Michael another, like those separate chapters self-effacing efforts, PRL would not be Faraday’s induction experiment were in so many textbooks. So, should not the preeminent journal of physics it has the critical antecedents to his own at least some of us, when teaching, indeed become. n work. And in his autobiography, writ- for example, about Einstein’s work ten in 1946, he added that his early Continued on page 13

Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter 7 Reports from the Annual APS Meetings Student Presentations at the 2008 Forum Sessions

By Virginia Trimble and George Zimmerman

n recent years, the Forum has begun and the phase-integral method. In 1948 of names than he had planned, and attracting some of our younger Wentzel began a professorship at the with some extraordinarily interesting Icolleagues interested in the history University of Chicago, retiring in 1970 details. of physics to present papers on their after a distinguished career. Fletcher cited the 1999 book Their work at APS meetings. Since 2005 we Modi was born in India and at Day in the Sun by Ruth Howes and have been offering awards of $600 for age 13 came to the United States, Caroline Herzenberg, about the wom- partial travel support to graduate or where most of his education occurred. en of the Manhattan Project, and its undergraduate students who have sub- He attended Embry-Riddle College review by Margaret Rossiter. Of about mitted abstracts accepted for our con- and took part in programs of the 130,000 people involved, only about tributed sessions at the March or April Aeronautical University in Daytona 300 were women at Los Alamos, and meetings. These awards honor dis- Beach, Florida, where he studied space another 100 or so at Hanford. There tinguished physicists no longer alive, systems engineering; he also was a were also at least a few women work- as selected by the donors, beginning summer intern at the Kennedy Space ing under the bleachers in Chicago. with the Bardeen student awards in Center and Fermilab. His thesis con- To a considerable extent, all were 2005. Two graduate students and one cerns unstable quantum systems, open employed because of the wartime undergraduate student received such quantum systems, and quantum optics. labor shortage, though some of the awards at the 2008 APS meetings. Modi’s presentation, “The Stolen Brain women (Leona Marshall Libby is the The two students at the March of Einstein” describes the long journey one you will most probably have heard meeting were Cesar Rodriguez-Rosario this brain has taken in the last 52 years. of) were every bit as qualified as many and Kavan Modi, who were both It was removed by pathologist Thomas of the men. They were, of course, usu- about to defend their Ph.D. disserta- S. Harvey, who did not really have ally paid less. tions at the University of Texas, Austin. permission to do so. Only later did Many of the technically trained, They presented their work in both the he convince Einstein’s son Hans that though non-Ph.D., women worked as Forum and general theory sessions. this was done was for good purposes. “computers,” processing numerical data The award citations, checks, and brief Modi’s award honored Rolfe Eldridge according to algorithms laid down by biographies of the physicists being Glover III (1924–2004), a professor at others. The extent to which various honored were presented at the outset the University of Maryland, one of women were provided with household of our contributed session. the researchers to find evidence for help, including child-care, displayed Rodriguez-Rosario was born and the energy gap in superconductivity, an ambiguous (though not necessarily did his undergraduate work in Puerto which was a fundamental idea used unfair) attitude toward their multi- Rico. His Ph.D. thesis is on theoreti- in formulating the Bardeen-Cooper- tasking, highest priority going to those cal quantum mechanics, focusing on Schrieffer theory of superconductivity. who worked full time and had chil- quantum information, open quantum dren. (The Los Alamos birthrate was systems, and decoherence. His pre- At the April meeting, Princeton remarkably high, presumably for other sentation, entitled “The Increasingly undergraduate Samuel Fletcher was reasons.) In a gross generalization of Disordered History of Entropy,” traced the student awardee, sponsored by what Fletcher said, participation in the the long debate about entropy from Donat G. Wentzel in honor of his late Manhattan Project was not the career- the mechanics of Lucretius to mod- mother-in-law Maria Goeppert-Mayer booster for women that it became for ern information theory, with illustri- (1906–1972). Fletcher spoke about “The many of the men, who returned to ous contributors such as Boltzmann, Manhattan Project and its Effects on civilian life with job offers at multiple Carnot, Clausius, Laplace, Maxwell, American Women Scientists,” display- prestigious institutions. von Neumann, Prigogine, Shannon, ing extraordinary grace under pres- We are particularly pleased to note and Szilard. The award was given to sure. His prepared talk had somehow that Fletcher plans to pursue graduate honor Gregor Wentzel (1898–1978), vanished in the Chicago airport, but work in philosophy of science at UC who earned his doctorate in 1921 as he reconstituted it the night before Irvine next year. a student of Arnold Sommerfeld at the Manhattan Project session (see Please contact Forum Secretary- the University of Munich. Wentzel, pp. 12–13) as a PowerPoint presenta- Treasurer Thomas Miller (millertf@ Hendrik Kramers, and Léon Brillouin tion. And then the projector failed bc.edu) if you would like to honor a independently developed what was completely! (It was later discovered physicist in this way at the 2009 meet- known as the Wentzel-Kramers-Bril- that a critical component had not been ings, and urge interested students to louin approximation, also known as plugged in.) But the speaker carried apply for support next year as well. n the WKB method, classical approach, on, with fewer exact numbers and lists

8 Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter Forum Sessions at the March Meeting Los Alamos and

By George Zimmerman the Manhattan

he APS March 2008 meeting ranging from microchip development Project in New Orleans featured two to the self-assembly of microcircuits to invited sessions sponsored by modeling of geological water cycles. T By Don Howard the Forum. The first, celebrating the He was followed by James Hollen- Fiftieth Anniversary of Physical Review horst (Vice President and Director of Letters, chaired by Reinhardt Schuh- Molecular Technology at Agilent Labs), iving history in the form of per- mann (Managing Editor, PRL), and with a talk titled “Reflections on Three sonal memoirs was a delightful organized by the PRL editors, was held Corporate Research Labs: Bell Labs, Lfeature of one of the engaging on Tuesday, March 11. The second, HP Labs, Agilent.” He recounted the Forum sessions at the April APS meet- held on Thursday, March 13, focused cultures of—and the relationships and ing in St. Louis. It focused on the Man- on Industrial Physics History. This clashes between—the research and hattan Project, on the occasion of the th session was chaired by Gloria Lubkin. industrial departments of these three 65 anniversary of the Project’s launch Both of these well-attended sessions corporations. in early 1943. included five speakers, whose topics The John Bardeen Lecture was Cynthia Kelly began the session ranged from a historical overview to a delivered by Robert Frosch (currently with a talk, “A History Worth Preserv- personal reminiscence. at the Kennedy School of Govern- ing,” reporting on the exemplary work At the PRL session, Saad Hebboul ment at Harvard), whose positions of the Atomic Heritage Foundation, of PRL, whose talk was entitled “PRL have included NASA Administrator which she founded and directs, in at 50: A History of Moving Physics For- (1977-1981) during the Carter Adminis- identifying and preserving physical ward,” recounted its early history from tration, Assistant Secretary of the Navy sites important in the Manhattan Proj- its beginnings as a section in Physical for Research and Development, and ect and the history of atomic physics Review to a full-fledged journal in its Vice President for Research at General more generally. A principal focus of own right fifty years ago, and since Motors Research Laboratories. His talk, this talk was the success in salvaging then, to its current significance. The which was titled “Application Oriented the V-site at Los Alamos, the facility next three talks concerned major topics R&D: Aphorisms & Anecdotes,” cen- where the Trinity device was assem- typically discussed at March meetings: tered on his long experience in trying bled and one of the few remaining Eugene Stanley (Boston University) dis- to develop and manage systems that original structures at Los Alamos. Kelly cussed “Phase Transitions and Critical have relevant and useful applica- also discussed examples of at-risk sites Phenomena.” Marvin Cohen (Universi- tions for solving the problems and at Oak Ridge and elsewhere. ty of California, Berkeley) spoke about reaching goals of the pertinent (client) Next came Anthony P. French “Condensed Matter Theory: From organizations. sharing his recollections of work as “A Models to First Principles.” Charles David Bishop (former head of the Very Junior Physicist at Los Alamos, Slichter (University of Illinois, Urbana- Micromechanics Research Department, 1944–1946.” He worked there as part Champaign) then delivered a talk Bell Labs), in a talk titled “The His- of the British contingent, serving under entitled “NMR and the BCS Theory,” tory of Science and Technology at Bell the direction of Egon Bretscher in Fer- in which he recounted the experimen- Labs,” described the many accomplish- mi’s “F Division,” where the “Super” tal as well as theoretical implications ments of Bell Labs since its establish- or hydrogen bomb was the main focus of work in the 1950s. He emphasized ment in 1925. The final speaker was of research. In his talk French focused the measurement of the spin-lattice Robert Doering (now Senior Fellow on his personal odyssey from Britain to relaxation time and the isotope effect in Silicon Technology Development at New Mexico, saving comments about in superconductors, which formed the Texas Instruments). In a talk titled “50 his Los Alamos experiences for the experimental foundations for the BCS Years of ‘Scaling’ Jack Kilby’s Inven- ensuing panel. theory. In the final talk, titled “The tion,” Doering discussed the develop- The session concluded with a panel Future of Scientific Publishing,” Jack ment of integrated circuits and the discussion organized by Ben Bederson Sandweiss (Yale University and PRL) prospects for future developments once and Clayton Gearhart, and hosted discussed various possible scenarios miniaturization encounters the limits of by David Cassidy, featuring seven for future developments in both print fundamental physics. Manhattan Project veterans. Besides and electronic publications. The well-attended contributed French, they included Albert Bartlett, The speakers at the Industrial Phys- paper session on March 12 featured E. Leonard Jossem, Howard Kratz, ics History session all have held or still several speakers and the presentation Nathan Melamed, Murray Peshkin, hold leadership positions in industrial- of Forum Student Travel Awards. All and Julius Tabin. Former Forum Chair research labs. Paul Horn (recently the Forum sessions were audiotaped; and “History of Physics” Editor Bed- retired as Director of Research at IBM these tapes will be combined with erson closed out the panel and session and now at New York University) the visual presentations on a DVD with his recollections of service at Los gave a talk titled “Industrial Research given to the AIP Center for History of Alamos in the Army Special Engineer at IBM” in which he described the Physics.n Detachment. n lab’s many research achievements,

Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter 9 Triumphs of 20th-Century Astrophysics I: Telescopes and Observations

By Virginia Trimble

t the April APS meeting in history, focusing on the growth of what future, especially the Thirty-Meter St. Louis, the Forum and the was the biggest in each generation, Telescope (a collaboration of Caltech, ADivision of Astrophysics co- changes in basic designs, and some of the University of California, and Cana- sponsored two invited sessions on the science enabled thereby. dian universities), the Giant Magellan “Triumphs of 20th-Century Astrophys- Mario Livio (Space Telescope Sci- Telescope (involving about ten institu- ics.” Organized by Virginia Trimble, ence Institute) showed some of the tions and to be sited at Las Campanas they were each meant to feature three glorious HST images that we have all Observatory in Chile), and the Large speakers focusing on the past, pres- gradually come to expect and described Synoptic Survey Telescope (a still larg- ent and future of stellar astrophysics. what he regards as Hubble’s top seven er collaboration including UC Irvine). Both sessions were expertly chaired by scientific achievements, many done in The first two have roughly equivalent Ramanath Cowsik (Washington Uni- partnership with ground-based and collecting areas (seven 8-meter circular versity, St. Louis), who set a standard non-optical facilities, and—he was mirrors for GMT versus a Keck-style of dress matched by few audience quick to say—not necessarily in order filled aperture of many hexagons for members or speakers. of importance. These were: (1) evidence TMT, 492 at last count) and relatively For the first session, three knowl- for the acceleration of cosmic expan- small fields of view. By contrast, the edgeable speakers had agreed to dis- sion and existence of dark energy; LSST has a single 8-meter mirror with cuss one important observatory from (2) an accurate measurement of the a much larger field of view that will the recent past (Lick Observatory), one cosmic distance scale and the Hubble survey the entire visible sky every currently at peak productivity (Hubble constant (currently with 10 percent three nights. TMT and GMT will both Space Telescope), and a suite of future error bars, like Edwin Hubble’s, but make use of adaptive optics, initially plans for 30-meter class telescopes and 72 ± 8 rather than 536 ± 50 (km/sec)/ in the near infrared, and their science associated surveys. Unfortunately, the Mpc); (3) the evolution of galaxies goals are somewhat similar: to see stel- first speaker, Joseph Miller, a former and the history of star-formation rates lar and planetary systems in formation; Lick director, was forced to cancel on as revealed by sources in the Hubble to detect the “first lights” (probably about 12 hours notice, due to a death Deep Field, whose shapes are more stars but perhaps black hole accretion) in his family. His abstract indicates that like train wrecks than like the classic that began to reionize the Universe he intended to address three significant sequence of ellipticals and spirals; (4) between redshifts of about 20 and 6; aspects involved in the development of the existence and characterization of to characterize the stellar populations Lick and other observatories (Mt. Wil- extra-Solar-System planets, including in galaxies from the earliest times to son, Palomar Mountain) that shifted the presence of sodium, carbon, oxy- the present; and, just possibly, to learn the focus of world-wide observational gen, and hydrogen in one planetary more about more-nearly-earthlike astronomy to California between about atmosphere and methane in another planets. The amount of information 1900 and 1965. The first is location. (from absorption features as the planet available from a mirror of diameter D Relatively dry mountain tops are passes in front of its host star); (5) the scales at least as D2, as D4 when sky much better telescope sites than the existence and non-dissipative nature noise is comparable with signal from low-lying, near-urban environments of dark matter in the so-called “bullet target sources, and even as D6 with that had been common in the past. cluster,” where the gas has been left adaptive optics in crowded fields. Second is the improved technology of behind while two clusters of galaxies There is also a European Extremely the telescopes themselves and of their and dark matter (revealed by gravi- Large Telescope, intended to be 42 focal-plane instrumentation (cameras tational lensing) passed through each meters in diameter and having similar and spectrographs). Third is a particu- other; (6) the stellar populations in science goals as these two American lar sort of community of users, rela- M31 and other galaxies, and how they projects. The LSST will map out dark tively small (permitting both extended differ from Milky Way populations; matter via gravitational lensing and surveys and speculative projects) and (7) the presence of supermassive identify a wide range of transient and closely coupled to development black holes in the nuclei of virtually sources ranging from near-earth aster- of instrumentation (permitting more every large galaxy. oids to supernovae, which can be used effective use of it). In his stead, Trimble Elizabeth (Betsy) Barton (University to study dark energy. The TMT site is spoke for a slightly shorter time on of California, Irvine) summarized plans still to be determined, with candidates these and other aspects of telescope for some of the large telescopes of the in Hawaii and Chile. n

10 Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter Triumphs of 20th-Century Astrophysics II: We Master the Stars

By Virginia Trimble

s in session I on observatories Payne); the concept of barrier penetra- Mark McCaughrean (University of and telescopes, three experts tion (R. Atkinson and F. Houtermans, Exeter) was the Kenneth Greisen Lec- Awere asked to address the past, G. Gamow); and detailed nuclear- turer. Greisen is the G of the GZK cut- present, and future of stellar astrophys- reaction sequences devised by von off (the others being Georgiy Zatsepin ics. All were present at this second Weizsäcker and Bethe. Stanley ended and Vadim Kuzmin), and the lecture session. by noting that Rutherford had spoken was sponsored by his astrophysicist Matthew Stanley (Michigan State in St. Louis at the 1904 World’s Fair. son Eric and by former students Irwin University, but soon to be at New York Stirling Colgate (Los Alamos Shapiro, Alan Bunner, and Donald Gil- University) presented the intriguing National Laboratory) had been asked man. McCaughrean addressed what tale of how we learned that stars run to address current issues in stellar is surely the single most important on nuclear energy, particularly the p-p astrophysics, especially high-energy unsolved problem in stellar physics— and CNO (carbon-nitrogen-oxygen) ones like supernovae and gamma ray how they form—and he entitled the cycles. He divided it into three pieces. bursters. In the session he gave a typi- talk “Standing on the Shoulders of First came establishing that there was cal Colgate talk, which is to say that I Giants,” meaning the giant telescopes a problem, after Joule demonstrated do not feel I understood it very well that, in the next decade or two, may conservation of energy as a general but nevertheless came away suspecting enable us to answer some of the major principle, with ideas from Kelvin and that he was probably right about many outstanding questions about the birth Helmholtz about the in-fall of meteoric issues. He began by focusing on the and early evolution of stars, brown material or gravitational contraction formation of supermassive black holes dwarfs, circumstellar disks, outflows, as a solution, in good accord with the in the early Universe (temporally and and planetary systems. The contribu- Kant-Laplace model of Solar System logically prior to galaxies and stars, in tors will include X-ray and millimeter formation. Then came the discrepancy his view, and not assembled hierarchi- telescopes, and the James Webb Space between the time scale of a few times cally). The resulting free energy is in Telescope (mostly infrared)—as well as 107 years permitted by gravitational excess of 1060 ergs, at least as much the large ground-based optical facilities processes according to Kelvin (who as will come from supernova kinetic discussed by Betsy Barton in session I. found a similar time for the cooling energy over the rest of the life of a Three of the major questions are the of the Earth) and the 108 to 109 years typical galaxy, and he drew an analogy importance of feedback (for instance, required by Darwin and others for with the enormous shock wave of the once a massive star has formed in geological processes and biological 11 February 1954 BRAVO hydrogen a region, do you get more or fewer evolution to occur. Giant stars, espe- bomb test. Forming these enormous stars there?); the processes responsible cially Cepheids, also seemed to require black holes from an initial perturbation for the initial-mass function (N(M) of a longer-lasting energy source than spectrum is awesomely complicated— stars when they form) and whether it just contraction, as did some stellar transcended by the even greater com- is universal; and the formation, evolu- dynamical processes. Resolution of this plexity of transforming this energy into tion and significance of disks around discrepancy required the concept of the magnetic fields, jets, radio lobes, young stellar objects. In common with mass-energy equivalence; consideration and the extragalactic cosmic rays we the objects and processes advertised of either transmutation of elements or observe. Angular-momentum trans- by Colgate, angular-momentum trans- proton-electron annihilation (by Jeans port and large-scale coherent dynamos port and magnetic fields must also be and Eddington); accurate measure- are essential processes that probably important here. Resolved imaging of ments of nuclear masses (F. W. Aston get missed by computer simulations disks in the infrared will be particu- and others); analysis of how an energy of structure formation. He concluded larly important to understanding how source could be distributed through a that emission of 100 MeV photons and they change as young stellar objects star and remain stable (by T. G. Cowl- 1030 eV or more cosmic rays should be age and if, how, and when they can ing, for instance); demonstration that possible. form planets. n stars had a large hydrogen content (C.

Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter 11 Eighty Years of Quantum Mechanics April Contributed-

By Don Howard Paper Session I

high point among the Forum rule, while Slater introduced the idea By David C. Cassidy events at the April APS meet- of a virtual oscillator between each two A ing was the session titled “80 electron orbits. Also underappreciated t St. Louis, seven speakers Years of Quantum Mechanics: A New is how this work stimulated the genesis enlightened a standing-room International Project,” reporting on of matrix mechanics, for Slater’s oscil- Aonly audience on a wide range the work of a major new collabora- lators survived the demise of the Bohr- of topics surrounding “The Manhattan tive project on the history of quantum Kramers-Slater theory and became Project and Beyond.” mechanics. With a distinguished advi- associated with the transition ampli- Project veteran E. Leonard Jossem sory board, it includes a wide array tudes that form the matrix elements in opened the session with “Remember- of participating institutions such as Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics. ing Los Alamos.” He arrived there the Einstein Papers Project, the Niels Under the title “Creative Confu- in July 1945 and began work in the Bohr Archive, the Perimeter Institute, sion: Quantum Theory on the Way to Experimental Physics (P) Division, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Wave Mechanics,” Lehner spoke about designing and constructing special- This project is led by six primary complementary work on the genesis of ized equipment. He later switched to institutions: the Max Planck Institute Schrödinger’s wave mechanics being F-Division where he worked on the for History of Science and the Fritz carried out in Berlin. Interesting and “Super” or H-bomb. Jossem was a Haber Institute (both in Berlin), The novel in this work is the emphasis on founding member of the Association of Johns Hopkins University, University the role of continuing worries after Los Alamos Scientists, which sought to of Notre Dame, University of Min- 1910 about the proper physical inter- prevent future wars through the inter- nesota, and University of Pittsburgh. pretation of particle indistinguishabil- national control of nuclear weapons. The overall project goal is to develop ity in quantum statistics. This problem Among the ALAS initiatives was a a deeper understanding of the genesis engaged the attention of Debye, Ehren- packet sent to the mayors of major US and development of quantum phys- fest and Einstein, among others. But it cities containing a letter and a piece ics; it will be achieved by sponsoring was Schrödinger who achieved the cru- of fused sand from Alamogordo as a individual and collaborative scholar- cial insight in the summer of 1925 dur- warning of what could happen to their ship; through organizing conferences, ing the immediate run-up to the devel- cities in a nuclear war. An important workshops, and symposia; and by opment of wave mechanics—an insight success of the scientists’ movement the design and establishment of new, reflected in the fact that N-particle was the achievement of civilian control mainly online, research tools and Schrödinger wave functions live not in of nuclear energy under the Atomic information sources. Two major inter- physical space but in 3N-dimensional Energy Commission. national conferences have occurred to configuration space. Harry Lustig (City University of date, one in Berlin in summer of 2007 Finally Kojevnikov spoke about NY, emeritus), addressed the question and one in Utrecht this past July. The “‘Knabenphysik’: The Birth of Quan- “Did the Allies Know in 1942 about third such conference will be hosted by tum Mechanics from a Postdoctoral Nazi Germany’s Poor Prospects for an the University of Minnesota in 2010. Viewpoint.” While the concept of a Atomic Bomb?” The probable answer The April APS session featured pre- “postdoc” hadn’t really crystallized is that British intelligence knew about sentations by two of the project direc- in a formal sense by the mid-1920s, these prospects “well before 1945” but tors, Michel Janssen of the University the comparative professional youth did not inform their US counterparts of Minnesota, and Christoph Lehner of the founders of the new quantum until very late. According to Arnold from the Max Planck Institute for mechanics is a striking sociological Kramish, in The Griffin (1986), Ger- History of Science, each reporting on fact. Of the 80 authors of the 200 most man physicist Paul Rosbaud informed major research initiatives it has spon- important papers published from the British that the German effort had sored, and one by Alexei Kojevnikov of mid-1925 through early 1927, the “ground to a halt” in 1942, but it is not the University of British Columbia. majority were under 30 years of age, firmly known when he delivered his Janssen spoke on “Van Vleck and and that subgroup authored 65 percent report. British Scientific Intelligence Slater: Two Americans on the Road of the papers. Moreover, 60 percent of officer R. V. Jones allowed that his to Matrix Mechanics.” These theorists these authors had received their PhDs agency was convinced of this fact by played a prominent role in the devel- after 1920. Heisenberg is typical of 1943. Because the official information opment of American physics starting in these young physicists. Their marginal about Rosbaud’s work is still buried in the mid-1920s. Not well appreciated is professional status raises important secret British and American files, Kra- the role they played early that decade questions about intellectual indepen- mish had to base his account on largely in recasting classical dispersion theory dence, and restrictions on where they undocumented sources. General Leslie into a form adapted to the new quan- could use their funding helps explain Groves was not briefed on the German tum theory. Van Vleck and Max Born why Bohr’s institute in Copenhagen status until May 1944 but refused to provided the first explicit derivation became such an important center for believe it. By then the project could not of Kramers’ new dispersion formula research in the field. n be stopped, nor probably could it have employing the (Born) correspondence been in 1943. The full truth of what

12 Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter April Contributed-Paper Session I happened will not be known unless University), recipient of the Maria years following Alamogordo, and with and until the Rosbaud files are declas- Goeppert-Mayer Studentship, spoke on attention being drawn to the spread sified. Editor’s( Note: See Lustig’s letter “The Manhattan Project and Its Effects of radioactive fallout by Adlai Steven- on this subject on p. 15.) on American Women Scientists.” Like son’s 1956 presidential campaign, the Christine Hampton spoke on most histories, Manhattan Project histo- Greater St. Louis Citizens Committee “Revisiting the 100-Year-Old Radioac- ries have been concerned with only the for Nuclear Information was formed tivity Lectures of Frederick Soddy.” In leading scientists, who were in most in March 1958. It pursued an active 1908 nuclear researcher Soddy (Nobel cases men. Not until Ruth Howes and campaign to educate the public on Prize in Chemistry, 1921) gave six Caroline Herzenberg wrote Their Day nuclear radiation and on the dangers experimental lectures at the University in the Sun (1999) have the contributions of fallout. Linus Pauling’s petition plus of Glasgow for his wealthy patrons of many of the women scientists to the Committee lectures, press information, and the general public. They were pub- Project been described. Women made and Congressional testimony helped lished a year later as The Interpretation up about 30 percent of the scientific to bring about the Limited Test-Ban of Radium. Since many academics still and technical staff. Yet a comparison Treaty of 1963, which may be regarded doubted the existence of atoms, Soddy of salaries and other aspects of their as the direct result of public concern in these lectures showed that “radium lives and work indicated that cultural over fallout. Likewise, criticism by the emanation” (radon), which is produced values about women in science did not Committee and Alaskan scientists of by a series of decays, not only exists change, although they were accorded the plan to excavate an Alaskan har- but is a true, compressible gas, even sufficient support in their work. As in bor using nuclear explosions inspired though it could not be weighed by other areas of the economy, they were public opposition and led to cancella- standard balances of the day. Soddy regarded as substitutes for men, and tion of the plan. These examples dem- also foresaw the potential dangers of many lost their jobs as soon as the war- onstrate that scientists’ warnings can the energy released in radioactivity. In time labor shortage ended. This study have public impact when the scientists 1908 he wrote that it would become suggests that significant social change stick to the facts and to their expertise, a question “of life and death to the is not possible without change in the especially when they translate their inheritors of our civilization.” Among culture at large (Editor’s note: See also technical knowledge of a problem into the original group of radioactivity the related article on p. 8 by Virginia terms the general public can readily researchers, Soddy was the only one Trimble and George Zimmerman.) understand. n to witness the effects of the Manhattan Matthew Geramita (University Project and its aftermath. of Michigan) then spoke on “X-Ray Pais Prize Lecture Cameron Reed (Alma College) Spectroscopy, the Ellen Richards Prize, Continued from page 7 examined “Arthur Compton’s 1941 and Nuclear Proliferation: The Inspir- Analysis of Explosive Fission in U-235: ing Life of Katherine Chamberlain.” as reflected in his equations, let it be The Physics.” Compton’s analysis did Chamberlain earned her doctorate at known also that Einstein himself noted not mention the British MAUD Report, the University of Michigan and con- (in “Motive des Forschens,” 1918) that which covered the same ground; it tinued work there with George Lind- “the supreme task of a physicist,” as of may be seen as a precursor to Robert say on X-ray spectroscopy during the any intellectual, is to form “a coherent Serber’s later Primer. Compton’s cal- 1920s. When she explained a second- and lucid world picture”? culation of the critical radius was quite ary absorption line observed by Dirk And, for that matter, should it not accurate, but that for the critical mass Coster, she was awarded the Richards be known also that Einstein urged a was roughly half the actual value. Prize for outstanding young women fierce defense of science, as well as Neglecting the dependence on initial scientists, which enabled her to work upgrading the conditions of man- conditions, his results for the time of with J. J. Thomson at the Cavendish kind? Would that not add greatly to core expansion to non-criticality for a Laboratory. Returning to the States, the sense of self of future scientists, a bomb of two critical masses of fissile she taught photography at Wayne sense that may be diminished if they material was very close to the modern State University in Detroit and wrote see their main purpose only to do yet value, but the calculated efficiency of a widely read textbook on the subject. another narrow set of assigned tasks? 1.4 percent was far short of the mod- The atomic bomb inspired her support And, just possibly, given this larger ern value of 5.4 percent. Since most of efforts to control nuclear weapons self-confidence as sons and daughters of the calculations were not especially through the popular movement for a of an extraordinary family, would that difficult and are at the level of under- world government. Despite the failure not allow them, in this era of unrea- graduate physics today, one wonders of that movement as the Cold War son and neglect, to act when neces- why Heisenberg fumbled them at deepened, she remained undeterred in sary, on behalf of our profession—and Farm Hall in his calculation there, and the effort to control these weapons. beyond? perhaps earlier. Reed’s full paper on Michael Friedlander (Washing- Dear friends and colleagues, hav- Compton’s analysis was published in ton University, St. Louis) took the ing shared a call of conscience in Bram the December 2007 issue of American audience “From Alamogordo to the Pais’ spirit, I thank you again for this Journal of Physics. Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.” As nuclear honor, and for your attention. Samuel Fletcher (Princeton weapons testing continued during the —St. Louis, Missouri, 15 April 2008. n

Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter 13 New Books of Note The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians Edited by Cynthia C. Kelly, with an Introduction by Richard C. Rhodes New York: Black Dog and Leventhal, 2007, photographs, illustrations, xiv+495 pp. , $24.95

Reviewed by David C. Cassidy Essentially all the documents are presented in excerpts from a paragraph The Manhattan Project to build the to several pages long, encompassing atomic bomb during World War II has some of the key writings on each of become the paradigm of Big Science. the above topics. This approach works Everything about it was big: the record well, as each section provides readers funding; the 125,000 people from all with a broadly rounded introduction to walks of life devoted to the effort; the the subject that they could not obtain unparalleled mobilization of industry, from a single source. (Those wishing government, and science in the midst to consult the complete works will find of a world war; the stupendous power them listed by section in the credits.) and destruction unleashed by the For example, the section on life in the weapons produced; and the legacy of secret cities provides a good sense of profound human, historical, security, the “excitement, devotion, patriotism” and political questions that remain to (Oppenheimer) of the people involved. this day. The section on the various people rep- The discovery of nuclear fission, resented extends far beyond the senior the prospect of a bomb, the outbreak scientists to stories of the many women of war in Europe, and the start of a workers, the male workers’ wives, German military research effort had the children, a pipe fitter, the owner all occurred by 1939. But not until of a tea house, the southern blacks 1942 were the Manhattan Project, anthology” to the 65th anniversary of recruited to work at Oak Ridge, and a Enrico Fermi’s first nuclear reactor, the project’s birth. wonderful account of the “Tennessee and the administrative apparatus for The 129 items included in this Girls” hired as machine operators. (I the project in place. And not until anthology are divided into nine sec- wish there were more about the Native the following year, with the arrival of tions, beginning with early thoughts Americans of the Los Alamos region, General Leslie R. Groves and J. Robert about a fission bomb. This section is many of whom were hired as maids Oppenheimer (see photo on p. 1) in followed by others on the administra- and nannies.) Even more, this section Los Alamos, did the Manhattan Project tive maneuvering of 1942; the selection provides a sense of the engagement begin in earnest. By mid-1945 it had and collaboration of the “odd couple,” and the nostalgia many later felt for produced the uranium and plutonium Groves and Oppenheimer; the experi- that unique moment when people of bombs. Two years later the project was ences of workers at Los Alamos, Oak all types and from many backgrounds disbanded upon the founding of the Ridge and Hanford; the problems of joined together to achieve success Atomic Energy Commission. secrecy, spies, and counterintelligence; in an exciting cause—a generation- Cynthia C. Kelly, president of the the Trinity test of July 1945; the drop- defining event reflected perhaps in Atomic Heritage Foundation, and her ping of bombs on Japan; reflections of a similar way in later events such as advisory staff have assembled in one scientists, politicians, and later histori- Woodstock. It was, as Rhodes titles his large volume an amazingly broad and ans on the use of the bomb; and efforts introduction, “a great work of human inclusive array of eyewitness accounts, since the 1950s to counter the threat of collaboration.” documents, reports, and interviews nuclear war. The only topics I regret But the project also took place covering nearly every aspect of the not finding here are the science and within the darker context of war and Manhattan Project, from the early the technology of bomb construction. the likelihood that participants were inklings of nuclear energy, to the work A broadly accessible excerpt from an in a race with the Germans for the of building the bombs, to contempo- available source, or an appendix on the most powerful weapon ever devised. rary efforts in both art and history to physics and its application, would have Only rarely in the early years does the comprehend the legacy of this trans- given readers fuller insight into what broader goal of the project, the creation formative undertaking. The Manhat- the project was all about and why such of a new weapon of war, intrude into tan Project is indeed, in the words of a massive undertaking was required to Richard Rhodes, a fitting “memorial achieve its goal. Continued on page 15

14 Volume X, No. 5 • Fall 2008 • History of Physics Newsletter Continued from page 14 the thoughts and sensibilities of those Alamos seminars questioning the aims to drop the bombs, the necessity of who knew its ultimate aim. “It was a of the project; the letter transmitting using them to end the war before the very good idea,” writes Richard Feyn- the Franck Report in which, as histo- planned ground invasion, and the man, “although my conscience both- rian William Lanouette points out, the early-1990s controversy over the Smith- ered me a little bit.” In effect, the joy physicists attempted to regain respon- sonian’s Enola Gay exhibit. These con- and excitement and challenge of the sibility for their work; Leo Szilard’s troversies, like those surrounding the work transcended its goal. For many, petition to President Truman against German effort, will likely remain with the Manhattan Project as a great cause use of the bomb, signed by 155 physi- us for a long time. The threat of nucle- was decoupled from its horrific goal, cists; and the government report by ar war between nations—or unleashed becoming not only the icon of Big Oppenheimer, Fermi, Ernest O. Law- by terrorists—will likewise remain. Science but, in the words of George rence, and Arthur H. Compton finding Perhaps, as Santa Fe Institute founder A. Cowan, the symbol for success no viable alternative to immediate use Cowan proposes in his concluding “in achieving seemingly impossible of the bomb without warning. contribution, a new Manhattan Project national objectives.” The last two sections of the book is needed “to explore other forms of Only as the project approached its contain physicists’ reflections on the power and paths to peace.” goal and the threat of a German bomb dropping of the bombs, with excerpts The Manhattan Project is an excel- dissolved, did scruples begin to arise from Oppenheimer’s farewell to Los lent book about a defining event of about the work. The second half of the Alamos and efforts by Niels Bohr, our times, as well as of contemporary book provides an excellent introduction Albert Einstein, and Bertrand Russell physics. It deserves wide attention. to the dilemmas some of the scientists to achieve international control over faced in the midst of the continuing the accelerating arms race. Included in David C. Cassidy teaches and writes war. Included here are Joseph Rotb- these sections are excerpts from recent at Hofstra University. He is author of lat’s striking four-page explanation of controversial research that raises ques- Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Wer- his decision to resign from the project; tions about the traditional understand- ner Heisenberg and J. Robert Oppenheimer an account of Robert Wilson’s Los ing of such topics as Truman’s decision and the American Century. n

To the Editor:

At the April 2008 meeting of the attorneys argued that the family had the information—is of substantial his- American Physical Society I delivered a right to this knowledge and that— torical and public interest. Members a paper about information received by more than 60 years after the war’s of the Forum and historians in general British intelligence, MI6, during World end—the material cannot be properly may therefore wish to consider what War II that Germany had given up on withheld. The lawyer for MI6 respond- they might do to help obtain release building an atomic bomb. (See sum- ed that the agency never releases any of this information. As David Cassidy mary on pp. 12-13.) information unless it furthers British reported in his introduction to Hitler’s The principal informant, according national interests. Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at to the book The Griffin by Arnold Kra- At the time of my presentation, Farm Hall, by Jeremy Bernstein, it took mish, was the German science editor I was not aware that a decision had the concerted and energetic action Paul Rosbaud. His role was confirmed actually been rendered a week earlier. of British scientists and historians to and praised by Samuel Goudsmit, the Following a closed hearing on 4 April obtain the 1992 release of the until-then scientific head of the American ALSOS 2008, at which only MI6 and its law- secret records of the surreptitiously mission in Germany during the last yers were present, the Court rejected recorded conversations of interned months of the war, and by the British the complaint in a one-line decision German nuclear scientists. wartime intelligence officer, physicist R. that gave no reason. The dismissal A similar initiative, joined by Amer- V. Jones. While there is good evidence had been foreshadowed in a finding ican (and other) historians, could again that Rosbaud’s revelation came in 1942, on February 26 that held it was proper lead to a positive result. Anyone who official confirmation and details are for MI6 neither to confirm nor deny wishes to comment on this letter or still being kept secret by MI6, the Brit- that such a file exists, whether or not who has a suggestion about how to ish intelligence-gathering agency—as is it does. The ruling cannot be appealed proceed to try to obtain release of the any disclosure of what was done with in court. Rosbaud file can contact me by email the information. Even if the timely knowledge that at [email protected], or by writing I reported that Rosbaud’s nephew, Germany was not in fact building an me at 304 Chula Vista Street, Santa Fe, Dr. Vincent Frank-Steiner, had filed a atomic bomb would not have deterred NM 87501. complaint in a British court request- the Anglo-American Manhattan Proj- ing MI6 to confirm (or deny) that a ect, official confirmation of who knew —Harry Lustig, Santa Fe, NM file exists and to put the content in what and when—and the disclosure the public domain. Frank-Steiner’s of how British intelligence handled

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