A FORUM OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY • VOLUME XII • NO. 3 •FALL 2013 News of the Forum: David C. Cassidy Wins 2014 Abraham Pais Prize By Gloria B. Lubkin, Chair, 2014 Selection Committee he 2014 Abraham Pais Prize is awarded to David C. Cassidy “for his foundational studies on the history Tof quantum mechanics and his nuanced examinations of physics in Germany and the United States with special attention to the scientific work, personalities, and dilemmas of Heisenberg and Oppenheimer.” David Cassidy, a professor at Hofstra University in Hemp- stead, NY, has written two scientific biographies of Werner Heisenberg. The first, more scholarly volume, Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg (W. H. Freeman, New York, 1993), grew out of his doctoral dissertation and subse- quent years of research in Germany and other countries. That highly celebrated volume won both the 1993 Pfizer Award of the History of Science Society and the AIP Science Writ- ing Prize. The second volume, Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and the Bomb (Bellevue Literary Press, New York, 2009) was written for a broader audience, and includes fewer details of the development of quantum mechanics. However, the newer book includes information from the “Farm Hall” transcripts, which were only released in 1993. Cassidy also maintains a website on Heisenberg, http://www. aip.org/history/heisenberg/p01.htm. David C. Cassidy, 2014 Pais Prize recipient. Cassidy’s biography of Oppenheimer, J. Robert Oppen- heimer and the American Century (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2009) provides a rich sense of the cultural and historical contexts in which Oppenheimer lived. Cassidy In This Issue also wrote A Short History of Physics in the American Century 2014 Pais Prize Winner 1 (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2011). With Gerald Holton and James Rutherford, Cassidy also wrote the under- graduate textbook Understanding Physics (Springer, 2002). Events at 2014 APS Meetings 3 Cassidy’s play, Farm Hall, based on the transcripts made of the captured German nuclear scientists in 1945, received a staged reading at the March 2013 APS meeting. Events at History of Science Society 4 Cassidy received BA and MS degrees from Rutgers and a PhD in physics from Purdue in 1976 in conjunction with the Crowdfunding Effort 4 Department of History of Science at the University of Wiscon- sin in Madison. He did a postdoc with John L. Heilbron at the University of California, Berkeley and then was a Humboldt Maria Goeppert Mayer 5 Fellow with Armin Hermann at the University of Stuttgart. He then became an assistant professor in history of science Pais Prize Lecture 6 at the University of Regensburg. Cassidy was Associate Edi- tor of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume I (“The Early Years”) and Volume II (“The Swiss Years: Writings”). He Daniel Kleppner Awarded Medal 12 has been at Hofstra University since 1990, where he is now professor of natural sciences. He has served FHP as secretary- treasurer (1995) and as chair (2008). New Books of Note 13 From the April 2013 APS Meeting FHP Chair Don Howard, Past Chair Peter Pesic, and APS Executive FHP Chair-Elect Brian Schwartz introducing staged reading of Officer President Kate Kirby at the FHP Executive Board meeting. “And the Sun Stood Still,” by Dava Sobel, a play about Nicholaus Copernicus. Forum on History of Physics The Forum on History of Physics OFFICERS & COMMITTEES 2013–2014 of the American Physical Society Forum Officers Program Committee publishes this Newsletter biannually at http://www.aps.org/units/fhp/newsletters/ Chair: Don Howard Chair: Brian Schwartz, Chair Chair-Elect: Brian Schwartz Co-Chair: Catherine Westfall index.cfm. If you wish to receive a Vice Chair: Catherine Westfall printed version of the Newsletter, Appointed: Past Chair: Peter Pesic please contact the editor. Each 3-year Fabio Bevilacqua Secretary-Treasurer: Cameron Reed Clayton Gearheart volume consists of six issues. Denis Weaire Forum Councilor The articles in this issue represent the Adrienne Kolb Michael Riordan views of their authors and are not necessarily those of the Forum or APS. Ex-officio: At Large Gregory Good on behalf of AIP Robert Crease Diana Kormos Buchwald on behalf of EPP Editor Danian Hu Peter Pesic on behalf of PIP Robert P. Crease Joseph Martin Catherine Westfall both co-chair and ex Department of Philosophy Paul Halpern officio on behalf of HSS FPS Stony Brook University Diana K. Buchwald Richard Staley Stony Brook, NY 11794 Fellowship Committee: [email protected] Director-CHP Chair: Catherine Westfall (631) 632-7570 Gregory Good Fred Goldhaber Michel Janssen David Kaiser Book Review Editor Newsletter Editor Allen Needell Michael Riordan Robert Crease [email protected] American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 2 Volume XII, No. 3 • Fall 2013 • History of Physics Newsletter Upcoming Events at the 2014 APS March and April Meetings APS Meeting, March 3-5, Denver, Colorado: Women and the Manhattan Project Co-sponsored by FHP and CSWP Monday, March 3, 2014 11:15 AM Session Chair: Margaret Murnane, University of Colorado, Bolder and JILA “The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II,” Denise Kiernan, Author, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster “Women and the Hanford Site,” Michele Gerber, Gerber Group Consulting Women at Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion plant “After the War: What Happened to the “The Role of Living History in the “Some problems in the competition of Women Scientists of the Manhattan Communication of Science to the high-temperature superconductivity Project,” Ruth Howes, Professor Emer- Public,” Susan Marie Frontczak, research during the late 1980s,” Bing ® ita of Physics and Astronomy, Ball State Storysmith Liu, Tsinghua University University “The Historical Role of the New York “A brief history of the Institute of Theo- “Preserving the Manhattan Project: Times in the Communication of Science retical Physics in the Chinese Academy Women at Work,” Cindy Kelly, Direc- to the Public,” Dennis Overbye, The of Sciences since 1978,” Jinyan Liu, Chi- tor, Atomic Heritage Foundation New York Times nese Academy of Sciences “On the Ordinary Genius of Laura Fer- Twentieth-Century Chinese Physi- APS Meeting, April 5-8, mi,” Olivia Fermi, On the Neutron Trail cists and Physics Co-sponsored by FHP and FIP Savannah, Georgia: The History of the Communication of Thursday, March 6, 2014 Science to the Public 2:30 PM Co-sponsored by FHP and FOEP The Many Worlds of Leo Szilard Wednesday, March 5, 2014 Session Chair: Danian Hu, The City Co-sponsored by FHP and FPS 8:00 AM College of New York, CUNY “The Many Worlds of Leo Szilard,” Session Chair: Brian Schwartz, Brook- “Chien-Shiung Wu: An Icon of Physi- William Lanouette, author of Genius in lyn College and The Graduate Center, cist and Woman Scientist in China,” the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, CUNY Yuelin Zhu, Harvard University the Man Behind the Bomb “The Establishment of Science Com- “Chinese physicists educated in the “Leo Szilard in Physics and Informa- munication for the Public at the Royal Great Britain during the first half of the tion,” Richard Garwin, IBM Institution” Frank Burnet, Emeritus 20th century,” Xiaodong Yin, Capital Professor of Science Communication, Normal University “Leo Szilard: Biologist and Peace-Mak- University of West of England er,” Matthew S. Meselson, Harvard “Mao and physics research in China “Displaying Science: The Exhibits Rev- in the 1950s-1960s: the H-bomb project olution in Science and Natural History and the Straton model,” Tian Yu Cao, Museums, 1900-1990,Karen Rader, Vir- Boston University Continues on page 11 ginia Commonwealth University Volume XII, No. 3 • Fall 2013 • History of Physics Newsletter 3 Upcoming Events at the 2013 Crowdfunding History of Science Society Effort for a biography FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22 3:45–5:45 p.m. of Richard Garwin Session F37: Paleontology as an Inter- national Endeavour in the Nineteenth By Tony Fainberg, and Twentieth Centuries Institute for Defense Analyses Session F40: Natural History and Natu- ral Philosophy in the Eighteenth Cen- tury: Two Arts or One? FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22 8:45–10:00 p.m Workshop F4: The Past, Present, and THURSDAY, Future of the Physical Sciences NOVEMBER 21, 2013 3:00–5:00 p.m. SATURDAY NOVEMBER 23 9:00–11: 45 a.m. Session T2: The Materiality of Words in Chemistry and Pharmacy Session Sa43: Chemists and Chemistry in the Nineteenth Century: A Session in FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22, 2013 Honor of Alan J. Rocke 7:30–8:45 a.m. he last newsletter announced the Session Sa46: Interrogating the Cosmos preparation of a crowdfunding Physical Science Forum Business with Mathematical Imaginings and Teffort to be launched soon: the Meeting Physical Intuitions, 1880-1965: Bridg- goal is to support a completed, pub- ing Disciplinary and Cultural Practices lished biography of Dr. Richard Gar- FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22, 2013 win, designer of the first thermonucle- 9:00–11: 45 a.m. SATURDAY NOVEMBER 23 ar device and arms control advocate for (includes break from 10:00 to 10:15) 1:30–3:30 p.m. over half a century. Preparations to this end have been made on the indiegogo. Session F6: Rethinking the Cold War Session Sa61: Foundations at the Philo- com site: a 60-day campaign to raise Scientist: Advisers, Activists, and sophical Turning-Points: Chronicling funds to support this project is planned Archetypes from Sputnik to Star Wars Conceptual Turns in Theories of Mod- to “go live” on November 1. Members ern Physics of the Forum on the History of Phys- Session F13: Fields, Waves, and Parti- ics (along with others, of course) are cles: Debates in Modern Physics Session Sa67: Chymistry and Life in encouraged to visit the indiegogo site Early Modern Europe after November 1, to search for the FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22 campaign titled “Richard Garwin Biog- 12:00–1:15 p.m.