The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner as told to Andrew Szanton The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner as told to Andrew Szanton Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Llbrary of Congress Cataloglng-ln-Publlcatlon Data Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902- The reeolleetlons of Eugene P. Wigner as told to Andrew Szanton I Andrew Szanton. p. eil. Ineludes blbllographleal re fe rene es and Index. I. Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902- 2. Physlelsts--Unlted States- -Slography. 1. Szanton, Andrew. 11. Tltls. QC16.W55 1992 530 ' • 92--d e20 [sI 92-17040 CIP ISBN 978-0-306-44326-8 ISBN 978-1-4899-6313-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-6313-0 © 1992 Andrew Szanton Originally published by Plenum Press in 1992. Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1992 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, rnicrofilrning, recording, or otherwise, without written perrnission from the Publisher q-~tkJod d-fi'~~J~ rz first met Dr. Eugene Wigner while working on an oral J history project at the Smithsonian Institution in Wash­ ington, D.C. Funded by the Sloan Foundation, the Smithson­ ian's Museum of American History was building a video ar­ chive of the personal recollections of those who had worked on the Manhattan Project during the Second World War, building the world's first atomic bomb. I was introduced to Dr. Wigner at a Smithsonian panel in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A few months later, I spent two days in Princeton, New Jersey, and interviewed hirn twice, at length. Eugene Wigner's head is large, with gray hair on the sides and a few stray wisps on top, a prominent nose, large ears, and watery blue eyes that sparkle. He dressed with a casual formal­ ity. His voice was wonderfully rich, heavilyaccented, full of humor and regret. Dr. Wigner was extremely polite. Inside his own office, he asked my permission before removing his suit jacket. His v brief coughing fits, he assured me, were involuntary. "lt is my fauIt," he said. "But not my conscious fault." But the polite­ ness was not distancing. He offered his attention with a shy sincerity that I found affecting. By the end of the second interview, I was struck by how much vivid material was in tbis life-the political and intellec­ tual tensions ofturn-of-the-century Budapest; the inspiration of Albert Einstein; the tense, foreboding work on the atomic bomb. I knew that no major book had ever been written about Dr. Wigner, and I urged him to write his memoirs. To this, Dr. Wigner gave a very firm "no." For the scien­ tist, he said, one's work is all that should remain. The Ameri­ can notion of celebrity he found distasteful. He was quite content with his niche in the bistory of physics, and wanted no part of a memoir. Or so I thought until one day around June 1988, when he wound up a routine telephone call by asking politely when I planned to come up to Princeton and help bim write bis memoirs. I was taken aback. But I managed to say that I would like to do that very much and would begin planning immediately. At the end of August 1988, I said a fond goodbye to the Smith­ sonian and moved up to Princeton. I conducted over 30 interviews with Eugene Wigner that fall of 1988, most ofthem in bis office, on tape. When we met at bis home, he seemed to dislike the recording apparatus. I took notes. Our very first interview was in his office. I asked Dr. Wigner what he wanted from bis memoirs. He spoke impre­ cisely, but at length and with feeling. It was dear that he wanted the book to convey the love of science that he and his colleagues had feIt. He expected the book to evoke the spirit of bis principal mentors and colleagues and of their scientific work. Dr. Wigner was troubled that bis memoirs would inevi­ tably center on bimself. He said repeated1y: "I do not want fame." The transitory quality offame was a favorite theme ofDr. Wigner. In bis own ease, he seemed pleased enough that he would soon be forgotten. But that many ofbis scientifie peers would also be forgotten he c1early regarded as a great tragedy. Undemeath a11 ofthe modesty, the eontinental manners, the deep reservoirs of politeness, I sensed that Eugene Wigner feIt that he had never been fully understood. His passion for science, bis personal experience, and bis thoughts on the politi­ cal side ofhuman nature had nowhere been put on the record. "Who is Eugene Wigner, and why should I read a book about him?" I have heard those implicit questions many times over the last few years. Here I will try briefly to answer them. Eugene Wigner is one ofa generation ofphysicists ofthe 1920s who remade the world of physies. It was a generation that extended from Berlin to London to Pisa to Zurieh-and to Budapest, though not quite yet to New Y ork or Cbicago. The first physicists in this generation-Wemer Heisen­ berg, Erwin Sehrödinger, and Paul Dirae to name three---cre­ ated quantum meehanics, throwing open dozens of funda­ mental questions. The ones who eame just after scrambled to answer them and to pose further, more eomplicated ques­ tions. Eugene Wigner was in the seeond group. He has posed and answered some of the fundamental questions of twen­ tieth-century physies. Dr. Wigner would be an important historieal figure for bis eontribution to physies alone. And since he was too mod- est to describe them much in the heart of the book, I should summarize them here. In the late 1920s, Dr. Wigner laid the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics. In 1933, he was probably the first to find that the force between two nucleons-very weak ordinarily-becomes very much greater when the nucleons are brought quite close to­ gether-a million times greater than the electrica1 forces be­ tween the electrons in the outer part of atoms. Dr. Wigner showed that the most essential properties of the nuclei follow from widely recognized symmetries of the laws of motion. And he proved that his laws of symmetry apply equally to both protons and neutrons. He extended his research into atomic nuclei in the late 1930s. These researches have shaped more than nuclear phys­ ics; they help to explain much of elementary particle physics. Wigner also developed an important general theory of nuclear reactions. He contributed greatly to the practica1 use of nuclear energy. Much of his work in solid-state physics is still central to that field. In physics, Dr. Wigner has shown a rare array oftalents: brilliance in theoretical matters; brilliance in the laboratory; and a superb grounding in engineering. Between 1939 and 1945, apart ofthis great generation of physicists remade the world again. This time it was a far larger world that they changed-one of nations, armies, and peo­ pIes. They did it first by understanding that an atomic bomb could be bui1t; then by arguing that it must be built in the United States, immediately; and finally by learning how to build it, on the fly, and under terrible pressure. Eugene Wigner was a giant of this undertaking as well. It tumed out that Dr. Wigner also played the game of politics, and rather skillfully for arecent emigre and a pro­ fessed politica1 amateur. In 1939 and 1940, he played a crucial political role in agitating for a Manhattan Project, a federal response to the splitting of the atom. During the war, Dr. Wigner directed theoretical studies at the Metallurgica1 Laboratory in Chicago, creating a working nuc1ear pile for the production of plutonium, which yields atomic energy when it is induced to fission. Dr. Wigner was crucial to the Met Lab's success in under­ standing plutonium production and developing plans for a water-cooled atomic pile. He promoted construction of a large-scale atomic pile to produce plutonium and developed superb engineering designs used by the DuPont Company to construct an air-cooled atomic pile. And in the years since the war, Eugene Wigner has been a national figure in promoting the adoption of a major civil defense program. The war ended almost 50 years ago. Eugene Wigner is nowan old man, but still a Hungarian. I am an American two generations younger. We have speilt many hours together without c10sing much ofthe gulfbetween uso More than once, he has looked at me at the start of an interview and asked with real curiosity: "How old are you?" Eugene Wigner himself does not look 89. He is about 5 feet 7 inches ta11 and 150 pounds, slightly stooped with age. Like many very old men, he often seems boyish. He is young enough to climb stairs two at a time and to be chagrined that he cannot descend in the same way. He rises from achair easily and often walks around a room to help himself recall. Remembering is hard for him, and when we reach a hole in his memory he is apt to say, "That is a scandal!" He holds hirnself to a high standard. My mistakes, though, he meets with grace, often saying with a smile, "Worse crimes have been committed." I have been gratified to find that Dr. Wigner's recollec­ tions in my own interviews consistently square with the writ­ ten record ofhis past thought. His accounts ofthe people and events ofhis life have remained intemally consistent through­ out the three years in which this book was formed.
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