The Age of Radiance

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The Age of Radiance Page 52

by Craig Nelson


  “My son is dead”: Ibid.

  “I enter the room”: Quinn.

  “They brought you in and placed”: Curie, Cher Pierre.

  “Everybody said Marie Curie is dead”: Borel.

  “In science we must be interested”: Ève Curie.

  “There is no connection between my scientific work”: Redniss.

  “Madame Curie is very intelligent”: Kline.

  “The hour when we knew”: Curie, Pierre Curie.

  “In his scientific thinking Langevin”: “Tribute to Langevin,” La Pensées, 1946, Correspondance françaises.

  “Often, during meals, M. Langevin”: Perrin.

  “I spent last evening and night”; “I am trembling with impatience”: L’Oeuvre, November 23, 1911.

  “You are going to see quite a scandal”; “great friendship angered Mme. Langevin”; “was astounded to see Mme. Curie run”; “shouted threats for everyone to hear”: Perrin.

  “Variegated, virulent, turbulent, literary, inventive”: Tuchman.

  “I spent yesterday evening and night”: L’Oeuvre, November 23, 1911.

  “very difficult to judge the works of Mme. Curie”: Le Petit Parisien, January 5, 1911.

  “under the austere scientist”: Borel.

  “consorting with a concubine in the marital dwelling”: Perrin.

  “I rediscovered in [Pierre Curie’s] daughter”: American Institute of Physics.

  “well-respected but they are industrialists”: Quinn.

  “I miss Irène a lot”; “That young man is a ball of fire”; “My mother and my husband often debated”: Ibid.

  “What fools”: Segrè, From X-Rays to Quarks.

  “An infinitely tiny particle projected”: “Les grandes découvertes de la radioactivité,” La Pensée, 1957.

  “began to run and jump around”; “With the neutron we were too late”; “I will never forget the expression”: Republica (Lisbon), January 10, 1955.

  “Then began the harrowing struggle”: Ève Curie.

  3. Rome: November 10, 1938

  “completely self-confident, but wholly without conceit”: Allardice and Trapnell.

  “a steamroller that moved slowly”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  “There is a Fermi Sea”: Orear.

  “a very very common man”: Holton et al.

  “They were allowed to use the research”; “Fermi, after much reading of the pertinent literature”: Fermi to Persico, November 29, 1920, Fermi Papers.

  “Mechanical proficiency and practical gadgets”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  “The location of the building”: Ibid.

  “Fermi worked in the Institute”: Orear.

  “I want to mention the ‘Fermi Questions’ ”: Ibid.

  “if an atom were the size of a bus”: Aczel.

  “Fermi organized a group to do this”: Orear.

  “Radon plus beryllium sources were”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  “The experimenters had to run”: Orear.

  “One day, as I came to the laboratory”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  “Neutron research led to many surprises”: Orear.

  “Physics was comprehensible, as long as”: Ibid.

  “For the most part, my father”: Ibid.

  “Fermi was completely devoted to physics”: Ibid.

  “Fermi had always said he wanted”: Holton et al.

  “The next winter was the coldest”: Orear.

  “Now they are sending away the Jews”; “Re: Anti-Semitic Campaign”: Laura Fermi.

  “I’m going to cut the throat”: Kumar.

  “not yet hanged”: P. D. Smith.

  “For reasons that you can easily”: Fermi to Pegram, September 4 and October 22, 1938, Fermi Papers.

  “I think that my mother”: Orear.

  “She would not take notice”: Ibid.

  “having transformed the Physics Institute”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  4. The Mysteries of Budapest

  “Don’t you think God already”: Orear.

  “It is beneath my dignity”: Lanouette with Silard.

  “leaving his country, perhaps for good”: Ibid.

  “our Madame Curie”: P. D. Smith.

  “I only want to know”: Hargittai, Martians.

  “a vivid man about five feet”: P. D. Smith.

  “They should have arrived here”: Crick.

  “Johnny [von Neumann] used to say”: Rhodes, Dark Sun.

  “an intellectual bumblebee”; “You didn’t know what he”; “I never met anybody more imaginative”: P. D. Smith.

  “When I worked in the patent office”; “Spinoza’s God who reveals himself”; “work in which I myself”; “He tends to overestimate”: Lanouette with Silard.

  “Hitler and his Nazis are”: Segrè, From X-Rays to Quarks.

  “practically everybody who came”: P. D. Smith.

  “I’m spending much money”: Hargittai, Martians.

  “as I was waiting for the light”: P. D. Smith.

  “I don’t remember him ever”: Lanouette with Silard.

  “We are all agreed that”: Dael Lee Wolfle, Symposium on Basic Research (New York: National Academy of Sciences, 1959).

  “something deeply hidden had to be”: Isaacson.

  “how a puddle with a bit of oil”: Rife.

  “the most beautiful and stimulating”: Sime.

  “bordering on fear of people”: Ibid.

  “For many years I never had”: Hahn.

  “My strongest and dearest remembrances”: Rife.

  “a nose for discovering new elements”: Ibid.

  “But I thought you were a man”: Hahn.

  “it was as if the ground”: Kumar.

  “As soon as we were in”: American Institute of Physics.

  “It was the passport to scientific”: Meitner, “Status.”

  “Late”: Sime.

  “like an axe in the hands”: Segrè, From X-Rays to Quarks.

  “she had committed a gross error”: Rife.

  “Fermi was a very careful experimenter”: Teller.

  “mystics, magicians and religious fanatics”: Rittenmeyer and Skundrick.

  “I have nothing against the Jews”: Max Planck, “Mein Besuch bei Adolf Hitler”: Physikalische Blätter 3 (1947).

  “I built it from its very”: Letter to Gerta von Ubisch, July 1, 1947, Meitner Collection.

  “After these three laws were read”: Rittenmeyer and Skundrick.

  “The Jewess endangers the institute”; “nothing more could be done”; “The great misfortune has happened”: Sime.

  “It is considered undesirable”: Rife.

  “is like a sensitive child”: Letter to Ehrenfest, May 4, 1920, in Albrecht Fölsing, Albert Einstein: A Biography (London: Viking, 1997).

  “appeared to me like a miracle”: Paul A. Schilpp, ed., Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (New York: MJF Books, 1969).

  “Bohr loved paradoxes”: Teller.

  “I wanted her to be provided for”; “The danger consisted in the SS’s”: Hahn.

  “You have made yourself as famous”: Rife.

  “No, but I was told”: Segrè, From X-Rays to Quarks.

  “Perhaps you cannot fully appreciate”: Meitner to Hahn, September 25, October 15, and December 5, 1938, in Krafft.

  “Help us. The Nazis are killing”: Rittenmeyer and Skundrick.

  “One always thinks life in this world”: Sime.

  “One day, while strolling in the”: Orear.

  “Monday evening, in the lab”; “How beautiful and exciting it”: Sime.

  “Miss Meitner—Professor Meitner”: “Discovery of Fission.”

  “Was it a mistake?”; “Perhaps a drop could divide”; “The charge of a uranium nucleus”: Frisch.

  “These results, I realized”: Sparberg.

  “What is the possibility that uranium 239”: Rife.

  “Dear Otto! I am now almost certain”: Sime.

  “When I came back to Copen
hagen”: “Discovery of Fission.”

  “Dear Tante, I was able to speak”: Sime.

  “When we met on the boat”; I rigged up a pulse amplifier”: “Discovery of Fission.”

  “We had bad weather through”: Stefan Rozenthal.

  “Your results present a wonderful”; “Unfortunately I did everything wrong”; “The uranium work is for me”: Sime.

  “We’ve been such dumb assholes!”: Aczel.

  “Fermi wasn’t in his office”: Herbert Anderson.

  “ ‘a scientist not discovering fission’ ”: Allison.

  “If Fermi had published”: Orear.

  “I went up to the thirteenth floor”: “Discovery of Fission.”

  “God!” he said. “This looks like”: Kinkead.

  “All the things which H. G. Wells”: Weart and Szilard.

  “It takes one neutron to split”: Laura Fermi.

  “We turned the switch”; “That night, there was very little doubt”: P. D. Smith.

  5. The Birth of Radiance

  “his willingness to accept facts”: Hargittai, Martians.

  “predict what would happen”: “Discovery of Fission.”

  “work and dirty my hands”: Rhodes, Atomic Bomb.

  “with the precision of a prosecuting attorney”: Hargittai, Martians.

  “You are reinventing the field”: P. D. Smith.

  “We went over to Fermi’s office”: Weart and Szilard.

  “Szilard was not willing to do”: Enrico Fermi Papers, 2:11.

  “During the summer of 1939”: Teller.

  “On matters scientific or technical”: Weart and Szilard.

  “It is like shooting birds”: Feld and Szilard.

  “Contrary to perhaps what is”: Fermi, “Physics at Columbia University.”

  “There’s a wop outside”: Rhodes, Atomic Bomb.

  “Princeton is a wonderful little spot”: Mehra.

  “Let’s give it up”; “How would it be if we”; “Daran habe ich gar nicht gedacht”: Feld and Szilard.

  “The one thing most scientists”: Rhodes, Atomic Bomb.

  “In the United States of those days”: Orear.

  “We did not know just how”: Feld and Szilard.

  “he really only acted as a mailbox”: Jungk.

  “Alex, what you are after”: Mahaffey.

  “Szilard came to the conclusion”; “The question of money arose”: Herbert Anderson.

  “We have now reached the conclusion”: Frisch and Peierls.

  “For the Lord’s sake, don’t”: Buderi.

  “consider a future device for”: Bush and Conant.

  “undoubtedly a Fascist”: Lt. Col. S. V. Constant report, August 13, 1940, Leo Szilard Papers.

  “oscillated between theoretical and experimental”: Orear.

  “He frequently said, he was amazed”: Rhodes, Atomic Bomb.

  “Cartons of carefully wrapped graphite”: Herbert Anderson.

  “Physicists on the seventh floor”: Orear.

  “within a few years the use”: Bush and Conant.

  “My supervisor at the Met Lab”: Cowan.

  “a style of machine that dropped”: Kelly.

  “These lines are primarily addressed”: Staff, “Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945.”

  “We found out how coal miners feel”: Allardice and Trapnell.

  “For the construction of the pile”: Herbert Anderson.

  “One aspect of Fermi that wasn’t”: Orear.

  “The pile, according to plan”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  “Graphite was an awful material”: Orear.

  “It was a great temptation”: Herbert Anderson.

  “just in case an important experiment”: Lanouette with Silard.

  “Marched into Russia. Murdered the Jews”: Rittenmeyer and Skundrick.

  “The whole atmosphere there was”: “To Fermi—with Love.”

  “Well, what do you do”: “Fermi Facts, Fables.”

  “The pile is not performing now”: Laura Fermi.

  “Pull it to thirteen feet”; “This is not it”; “I’m hungry. Let’s go to lunch”; “This is going to do it”: Allardice and Trapnell.

  “Fermi had, the night before”: “To Fermi—with Love.”

  “At first you could hear the sounds”: Rhodes, Atomic Bomb.

  “I couldn’t see the instruments”; “The reaction is self-sustaining”: Allardice and Trapnell.

  “Nothing very spectacular had happened”: Rhodes, Atomic Bomb.

  “Probably for Fermi, however, the real victory”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  “The Italian navigator has landed”: Bush and Conant.

  “One of the things that I shall”; “There was a crowd there”: “Discovery of Fission.”

  6. The Secret of All Secrets

  “proton merry-go-round”; “Oh, sugar”: Herken, Brotherhood.

  “He was tall, nervous and intent”: Rhodes, “I Am Become Death.”

  “He wanted everything and everyone”: Conant, 109 East Palace.

  “Oppenheimer was Jewish, but wished”: Rhodes, “I Am Become Death.”

  “Robert could make people feel”: Rhodes, Atomic Bomb.

  “Oppenheimer’s prestige and ascendancy were great”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  “J. Robert Oppenheimer, 30, associate professor”: Staff, “Prof Takes Girl for a Ride.”

  “Hot dog”; “My two great loves are”: Bird and Sherman.

  “I remember exactly how I”; “When Alvarez told me the news”: Kelly.

  “That’s impossible”: Bird and Sherman.

  “prospects for useful nuclear energy”: Herken, Brotherhood.

  “Time is very much of the essence”: Bush and Conant.

  “The world would be better”: Conant, 109 East Palace.

  “The Secretary of War has selected”: Baggott.

  “When Groves saw that the usual”; “He’s a genius”: Conant, 109 East Palace.

  “The investigation of Szilard should”: Groves to Calvert, June 12, 1943, Manhattan Engineer District Records, National Archives.

  “The prospect of coming to Los Alamos”: United States Atomic Energy Commission, In the Matter.

  “People I knew well began”: Kelly.

  “I went by train to a place”: Bernstein.

  “I drove right through the square”: Conant, 109 East Palace.

  “Here at Los Alamos”: Rhodes, “I Am Become Death.”

  “In spite of the difficulties”; “It was an unforgettable experience”: Smith and Weiner.

  “At great expense, we have gathered”: Laura Fermi.

  “Oppenheimer was very patient”: Feynman.

  “The water supply had been built”: Bernstein.

  “I would like that very much”: Frisch.

  “I will have nothing to do”: Sime.

  “ ‘Welcome to Los Alamos’ ”: Zoellner.

  “the culmination of three centuries of physics”: Bird and Sherman.

  “Behind us lay the Sangre de Cristo”: Kelly.

  “The Mesa was indented by”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  “They had this notion that we”; “Soon Johnny will know so much”; “It is my fault”: Lang.

  “Kitty was a very strange woman”; “The General’s in a stew”; “You know, usually on a military post”: Conant, 109 East Palace.

  “Though I had an excellent time”: Bernstein.

  “The Army routinely leveled every”; “Fermi once told me with hardly”; “wrote an official letter to”: Teller.

  “Teller had worked on the bomb project”: Bernstein.

  “Throughout the ten years, Oppie”: Rhodes, Atomic Bomb.

  “God protect us from the enemy”: Conant, 109 East Palace.

  “Fermi was simply unable to”: Mahaffey.

  “Below her, she had Rudolf”: Orear.

  “he told the horse in a firm voice”: Teller.

  “I required a special small laboratory”: Segrè, Enrico
Fermi.

  “someday will be filled with great”: “Atoms in Appalachia.”

  “Mr. President, I agree that”: Kelly.

  “trained like soldiers not to reason why”: Nichols.

  “If you walked along the wooden”; “It was so darned bleak”; “Fermi was very discreet”: Kelly.

  “Enrico, when I was in”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  “All science stopped during the war”; “was like tickling the tail”: Feynman.

  “The Critical Assemblies Group decided”: Orear.

  “Just as a beam of light”: Teller.

  “Only he was fully awake”; “Pray, what is the candidate’s tailor”; “an almost primitive lack of ability”: George Dyson.

  “At the start I had regarded Teller”: Bethe, “Comments.”

  “The first Sunday I was there”: Laura Fermi.

  “While Klaus was a mere”; “somewhat plump, greenish pale”: Rhodes, Dark Sun.

  “The Mosquito flew at a great height”: Bird and Sherman.

  “Both the father and the son”: Kelly.

  “You see, I told you”: Teller.

  “When Niels and Aage Bohr arrived”: Segrè, Enrico Fermi.

  “the Nazis’ work was held”: Lang.

  “main theme was that it”: Staff, “Jewish Spirit.”

  “Even if my brother steals”: Teller.

  “People must learn to prevent”: Baggott.

  “With the beginning of the war”: Heisenberg.

  “Heisenberg stated that he was”; “stressed how important it was”; “Dear Heisenberg, I have seen”: Niels Bohr Library & Archives.

  “He said that his main aim”: Bernstein.

  “The big problem was”: Conant, 109 East Palace.

  “Recent reports both through the newspapers”: Oppenheimer Papers, H. A. Bethe folder.

  “the only way we could lose”: Bird and Sherman.

  “deny the enemy his brain”; “We wouldn’t have had the moral”; “I think it was dreadful”: Baggott.

  “since there was not even the remotest”: Rhodes, Dark Sun.

  “émigré’s passionate hatred of Hitler was”: Max von Laue to Theodor von Laue, August 19, 1945, Laue Papers, Deutsches Museum Archives, Munich.

  “As long as Prof Meitner was”: Meitner Collection.

  “They are obliged to try”; “Ah, so you’re the little lady”; “was Germany’s anointed postwar scientific icon”: Rife.

  “nonsense from the first word”; “After the last 15 years which”; “perhaps one cannot be such”; “It is a difficult problem”: Sime.

 

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