Copyright by Jesús Rubén Martínez 2011 The Dissertation Committee for Jesús Rubén Martínez Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Adventures of Luis Alvarez: Identity Politics in the Making of an American Science Committee: Bruce J. Hunt, Supervisor Alberto Martínez Tracie Matysik Michael Stoff Mark Raizen The Adventures of Luis Alvarez: Identity Politics in the Making of an American Science by Jesús Rubén Martínez, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2011 Dedication To my parents, Rubén and Angelina, for not keeping a language of secrets. Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance of professors Bruce Hunt and Alberto Martínez. Professors Neil Foley and Sahotra Sarkar helped spark two chapters that eventually formed the kernels for this work. David Kessler at the Berkeley Bancroft Library and Becky Willard at the University of Texas Pickle Center both helped me work through a tremendous amount of raw materials. Finally, I would like to thank Eleanor Fluharty for putting up with a dissertation writer. v The Adventures of Luis Alvarez: Identity Politics in the Making of an American Science Publication No._____________ Jesús Rubén Martínez, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 Supervisor: Bruce J. Hunt In the 1930s and 1940s, American atomic physicists developed an identity akin to those ethnic identities developed by Chicanos and African Americans in the 1960s. Tremendous successes in high-energy physics put these American physicists at the pinnacle of science worldwide. Luis W. Alvarez was one of the central figures in this rise, was central to the development of “Big Science,” and won the Nobel Prize in 1968. However, historians have largely ignored him. Through Alvarez we see that American atomic physicists before the 1930s lacked an identity. Alvarez witnessed the growth of his field and was an early advocate for an identity for American atomic physicists. Using identity politics as a theme, we find five stories centered on Alvarez that illustrate this vi emerging self-image. Alvarez’s autobiography demonstrates his interest in preserving the history of physics and establishing his place in it. A textbook draft that Alvarez abandoned in 1952 further illustrates his early interest in the history of physics then absent in physics textbooks and an early interest in mythology and heroes. Alvarez’s work outside of physics helps define the boundaries of this newly self-identifying group as he conquered fields like forensics and pyramidology, as well as famously proposing the theory that an asteroid killed the dinosaurs. A collection of letters from cranks helps us demarcate science from non-science and thus define the boundaries of science. Finally, Alvarez’s identity as a physicist is contrasted with another category of identity, his ethnic identity. Alvarez was a white man with a Hispanic name, which provides us with the rare case of a white man discussing his whiteness with would-be biographers who wanted to frame him as a “Chicano physicist.” Altogether, Alvarez would, much more than any physicist in his generation, promoted and exemplified an identity as an American atomic physicist while rejecting other identities. vii Table of Contents List of Figures ..........................................................................................................x Preface: How I Came to Write About Alvarez .........................................................1 Goals and Results ............................................................................................4 Chapter 1: Alvarez and the Rise of American Atomic Physics .................................8 American Physics Before the Manhattan Project .........................................12 How to Win a Nobel Prize ............................................................................14 The Literature ................................................................................................22 Stories I Found ..............................................................................................25 Chapter 2: Alvarez on Alvarez: The Autobiography ..............................................32 Alvarez Wanted to Be Remembered .............................................................36 Physics and Autobiography ..........................................................................38 Alvarez Decides to Write an Autobiography ................................................44 Peter Trower Pushes for Publication .............................................................47 The Sloan Foundation Series ........................................................................49 Alvarez’s Life Outside Science ....................................................................61 The Personality of Luie Alvarez ...................................................................66 Conclusion ....................................................................................................70 Chapter 3: Alvarez’s Sense of History: The Textbook ...........................................73 The History of Physics Textbooks ................................................................78 Storytelling in the Alvarez Textbook ............................................................93 The Alvarez Textbook on Special Relativity ..............................................101 J. J. Thomson and the Plum Pudding Model of the Atom ..........................114 Conclusion ..................................................................................................131 Chapter 4: Insider as Outsider .............................................................................134 Magnetic Monopoles: A Minor Controversy in Physics ............................135 The Kennedy Assassination and the “Buffs” ..............................................143 Alvarez and Alvarez on Dinosaur Extinction .............................................151 viii Chapter 5: Alvarez’s Nutfile and the Boundaries of Science ...............................170 The Nutfile ..................................................................................................174 How Do You Spot a Nut? ...........................................................................178 Egyptian Pyramids: Alvarez’s Introduction to the Nuts .............................196 Dinosaurs Extinction Work Attracts Nuts ..................................................203 J. C. Cooper and the Segrè Experiment ......................................................211 Conclusion: Useful Outsiders and Unhelpful Nuts .....................................234 Chapter 6: The Whiteness of Luis Alvarez ...........................................................237 Who Is Hispanic? ........................................................................................241 White Heritage ............................................................................................245 The Biographers ..........................................................................................253 “Chips” Alvarez ..........................................................................................258 Alvarez on Racism ......................................................................................259 Alvarez in Mexico .......................................................................................265 Alvarez the Minority ...................................................................................267 Politics and Whiteness ................................................................................271 Race In the Lab ...........................................................................................277 Changing Public Image ...............................................................................281 A Need For Role Models ............................................................................288 Conclusion and Lesson ...............................................................................290 Chapter 7: Conclusion ..........................................................................................295 The Rise of Molecular Biology ...................................................................299 Appendix: TEKS Textbooks ................................................................................305 Bibliography ........................................................................................................314 ix List of Figures Figure 1.1: Luis Walter Alvarez in 1968 .................................................................9 Figure 1.2: Alvarez celebrating his Nobel Prize in Sweden in 1968 .....................17 Figure 2.1: Alvarez in a flak jacket before the bombing of Hiroshima .................35 Figure 2.2: President Truman presenting Alvarez with the Collier Trophy ..........62 Figure 3.1: Alvarez described a box on a frictionless surface .............................106 Figure 3.2: This 1959 image of plum pudding is the first to appear in print .......118 Figure 3.3: By 1967, images of plum pudding had become common .................119 Figure 4.1: Luis and Walter Alvarez in Gubbio, Italy at the K-T boundary ........155 Figure 5.1: Alvarez with Egyptologist Ahmed Fakhry and Pyramid Project team leader Jerry Anderson in Berkeley, 1967