by Ray Monk
194. ‘Anderson’s positively charged electrons’: JRO to FO, autumn 1932, S & W, 159
195. ‘I was quite intimate’: Nye (2004), 50
195. ‘gone nuts’: Anderson, interview by Harriett Lyle, 9 January–8 February 1979, Caltech Archives
196. ‘Greatest Atom Discovery’: quoted Farmelo (2009), 223
196. ‘a little house’: JRO to FO, 10.8.1931, S & W, 143
197. ‘is very much pleased’: JRO to FO, c. January 1932, S & W, 151
197. ‘looks well’: ibid.
197. ‘after I am gone’: ibid., 152
197. ‘I am meeting lots of Robert’s friends’: ibid., 153
197. ‘paradise’: see Brian (1996), 207
197. a millionairess: ibid., 216
198. ‘I have urged him’: JRO to FO, 12.3.1932, S & W, 154
198. ‘Only if things’: ibid.
198. ‘The theoretical physics’: JRO to FO, 7.10.1933, S & W, 163
199. he responded to an appeal: JRO to Theodore von Karman, c. March 1934, S & W, 173
199. ‘Tell me’: Nedelsky, interview with AKS, 7.12.1976, quoted S & W, 195
199. a serious study of ancient Hindu literature: in considering Oppenheimer’s interest in Hinduism, I have learned much from Hijiya (2000).
199. ‘I am learning Sanskrit’: JRO to FO, 10.8.1931, S & W, 143
199. ‘a friend half divine’: Ryder (1939), xxxviii
199. ‘Ryder felt and thought’: Time magazine, 8 November 1948, 75
199. he alludes very briefly: S & W, 151
199. ‘the Cakuntala’: ibid., 159
199. a year later: JRO to FO, 7.10.1933, S & W, 165
199. ‘the precious Meghaduta’: JRO to FO, 4.6.1934, S & W, 1880
200. ‘The Cloud Messenger’: see Thomas Clark, Meghaduta, the Cloud Messenger: Poem of Kalidasa (1882), Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger (2009)
200. ‘Garuda’: JRO to FO, 7.10.1933, S & W, 164
200. ‘that delectatio contemplationis’: S & W, 151
200. the extended disquisition on the notion of discipline: JRO to FO, 12.3.1932, S & W, 155
200. ‘I believe’: ibid., 156
201. ‘teachers, fathers and sons’: The Bhagavad Gita, translated by Juan Mascaro, London: Penguin (1962), Chapter 1, Verse 34
201. ‘evil of destruction’: ibid., 1.39
201. ‘Set thy heart’: ibid., 2.47
201. ‘freedom from the chains of attachment’: ibid., 13.9–13.11
201. ‘Any work’: ibid., 14.16
201. ‘would have been a much better physicist’: quoted Rigden (1987), 228
202. ‘The Jewish tradition’: ibid.
202. ‘why men of Oppenheimer’s gifts’: Rabi et al. (1969), 7
203. ‘The work is fine’: JRO to FO, autumn, 1932, S & W, 159
204. ‘It won’t be any trouble’: Nedelsky, interview with AKS, 7.12.1976, quoted S & W, 149
204. Wendell Furry: what follows draws on the information provided in Furry’s interview with Charles Weiner in Copenhagen, 9 August 1971, for the AIP: http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/24324.html
204. ‘The state of theoretical physics’: Milton S. Plesset, interviewed by Carol Bugé, 8 December 1981, Caltech Archives
205. ‘On the Production of the Positive Electron’: Oppenheimer and Plesset (1933)
205. ‘The experimental discovery’: ibid., 53
205. ‘fundamental observation’: Pais (2006), 27
205. ‘fast electrons and positives’: Oppenheimer and Plesset (1933), 55
205. ‘Their final formula’: Pais (2006), 27
206. ‘I fancy’: quoted Schweber (200), 68
206. ‘profound thanks’: Oppenheimer and Plesset (1933), 55
206. Oppenheimer wrote to Bohr: S & W, 161–2
206. ‘swarming’: Milton S. Plesset, interviewed by Carol Bugé, 8 December 1981, Caltech Archives
206. ‘a lot of discussion’: ibid.
206. ‘pudgy-faced’: Farmelo (2009), 230
206. ‘What you have said’: quoted ibid., 231
206. a four-page letter: ibid., 232
207. he wrote to Frank: JRO to FO, 7.10.1933, S & W, 162–5
207. ‘work with pairs’: ibid., S & W, 164
207. ‘has definitely established’: ibid., S & W, 165
207. ‘Lawrence’s first European recognition’: quoted Pharr Davis (1969), 56
207. ‘Lawrence left the conference’: ibid., 57
207. ‘one of Lawrence’s saddest experiences’: ibid.
208. ‘The formalism’: JRO to GU, autumn 1933, S & W, 168
208. ‘The Production of Positives by Nuclear Gamma Rays’: Oppenheimer and Nedelsky (1933)
208. Three months later: see Physical Review, 45, 136 (1934)
208. ‘On the Theory of the Electron and the Positive’: Oppenheimer and Furry (1934a)
208. ‘it was a common sight’: Michelmore (1969), 37–8
209. the Boston meeting: see S & W, 169
209. ‘A short while ago’: quoted Mehra and Rechenberg (2001), 915
209. ‘I do not know’: JRO to FO, 7.1.1934, S & W, 171
209. a letter to the editor: Oppenheimer and Furry (1934b)
209. another letter: Oppenheimer and Furry (1934c)
209. ‘from Dirac’: JRO to GU, c. March 1934, S & W, 175
209. ‘Where is the nearest post office?’: Serber (1998), 36
209. ‘golden creative streak’: Farmelo (2009), 234
210. ‘A refusal’: quoted ibid., 235
210. ‘He is not interested’: quoted ibid., 239
210. ‘Thirty-One-Year-Old Professor’: see ibid., 240
210. ‘Forgetful Prof’: the newspaper page in question is reproduced in Kelly (2006), 129
210. ‘Like all geniuses’: quoted ibid., 128
210. ‘I never saw’: ibid.
210. ‘disentangling the still existing miseries’: JRO to FO, 4.6.1934, S & W, 181
211. ‘Garuda does ninety-five’: ibid., 182
211. demonstrating his car’s speed: see ibid., 183
211. ‘that the American part of you’: JRO to GU, autumn 1934, S & W, 187
211. ‘I have such a feeling’: ibid., 188
211. Robert Serber: most of what I say about Serber comes from Serber (1998) and the three AIP interviews listed in the Bibliography, dated 1967, 1983 and 1996.
211. ‘When I arrived’: Rabi et al. (1969), 17
211. ‘The word had gotten around’: Serber, interviewed by Charles Weiner and Gloria Lubkin at Columbia University, 10 February 1967, AIP
212. ‘naturally’: Lamb, in Brown and Hoddeson (1983), 313
212. ‘Oppenheimer’s office’: ibid., 314
212. ‘His group’: Rabi et al. (1969), 18
212. a mother hen fussing over her chickens: see Pharr Davis (1969), 79
212. The first evening: see S & W, 186
213. ‘was a bachelor then’: Rabi et al. (1969), 18
213. ‘Many of his students’: ibid., 19
213. Lauritsen: what follows is based largely on Holbrow (2003)
213. a short paper: Oppenheimer and Lauritsen (1934)
214. Felix Bloch: see Hofstadter (1994)
214. ‘a rather sturdy indigenous effort’: quoted Kevles (1995), 283
214. ‘One of us’: Felix Bloch, interviewed by Charles Weiner, Stanford University, California, 15 August 1968, AIP
214. ‘a fish place’: ibid.
214. ‘These were post-depression days’: Rabi et al. (1969), 19
214. ‘Bloch grew expansive’: Serber (1998), 31
215. ‘There were no jobs’: Melba Phillips, interviewed by Katherine Russell Sopka, 5 December 1977, AIP
215. Running through the door: see Pharr Davis (1969), 58
215. ‘Click . . . click . . . click’: ibid.
216. ‘It was a wonderful time’: ibid., 59
216. ‘Transmutation’: quoted ibid., 63
216. Oppenheimer’s
joint paper with Melba Phillips: Oppenheimer and Phillips (1935)
216. ‘an outline’: JRO to EOL, c. spring 1935, S & W, 193
217. ‘Oppenheimer’s lectures’: Brown and Hoddeson (1983), 313
217. ‘I never found nuclear physics so beautiful’: quoted Pharr Davis (1969), 78
217. found love in Princeton: see Farmelo (2009), Chapter Nineteen
218. ‘Princeton is a madhouse’: JRO to FO, 11.1.1935, S & W, 190
9. Unstable Cores
219. Frank: for biographical information on Frank Oppenheimer, the main sources are Cole (2009) and the interview with Judith R. Goodstein, 16 November 1984, Caltech Archives
219. ‘I remember once’: Frank Oppenheimer, interview with Judith R. Goodstein, 16 November 1984, Caltech Archives
220. ‘To inject bigotry’: Graham (2005), 199
220. ‘When I went to Hopkins’: Frank Oppenheimer, interview with Judith R. Goodstein, 16 November 1984, Caltech Archives
220. ‘In Italy’: ibid.
221. ‘How did he end up’: Graham (2006), 5
221. ‘In the last months’: ibid., 12
221. the McCarthy period: for a detailed account of Melba Phillips’s experience of McCarthyism, see Neuenschwander and Watkins (2008), 329–38, 355–9.
222. ‘when I stopped’: Melba Phillips, draft for a eulogy for Frank Oppenheimer, 1985, quoted Neuenschwander and Watkins (2008), 309–10
222. ‘We were not political in any overt way’: quoted ibid., 311
222. ‘the grim news’: ibid.
222. ‘We were sitting’: Serber (1998), 31
223. a major event: see Nelson (1988), Chapters 4 and 5
223. When the question was put directly to him: see ITMO, 277
224. ‘He tried’: quoted Goodchild (1980), 34
224. ‘My brother Frank’: ITMO, 9
224. ‘occasionally perhaps’: ibid., 101
224. ‘defection’: Michelmore (1969), 47
224. ‘worked fairly well’: ITMO, 101
225. ‘Are the Formulae for the Absorption of High Energy Radiations Valid?’: Oppenheimer (1934)
225. ‘Such clarity’: ibid., 45
225. ‘made it possible’: ibid., 44
225. ‘possible to do justice’: ibid., 45
226. ‘On the Interaction of Elementary Particles I’: Yukawa (1935)
227. at the summit of Pikes Peak: for a detailed (and entertaining) account of this, see Anderson, interview with Harriett Lyle, 9 January–8 February 1979, Caltech Archives.
227. scholarly account: Anderson and Neddermeyer (1936)
227. fight with Heisenberg: what follows draws heavily on the account of the matter given in Cassidy (1992), Chapter 18.
228. a paper that he published in June 1936: Heisenberg (1936)
228. ‘On Multiplicative Showers’: Oppenheimer and Carlson (1937)
228. ‘It would seem’: ibid., 221
228. ‘another cosmic ray component’: ibid., 231
228. ‘the presence’: Anderson and Neddermeyer (1937), 884
228. a short report: see Street and Stevenson, ‘Penetrating Corpuscular Component of the Cosmic Radiation’, Physical Review, 51, 1005 (1937)
229. ‘a very conscious purpose’: Brown and Hoddeson (1983), 212
229. ‘the possibility’: Oppenheimer and Serber (1937)
229. ‘The point of view’: Oppenheimer, Serber et al. (1937), 1038
229. ‘optimistic’: quoted Cassidy (1992), 376
230. ‘it is important’: ibid., 406
230. ‘The Limits of Applicability’: see ibid., 407
230. ‘According to Heisenberg’s recollection’: ibid., 412
231. ‘smouldering fury’: ITMO, 8
231. ‘Your closeness’: Alfred Stern to JRO, 14.10.1966, quoted S & W, 202
231. ‘It is big here’: Michelmore (1969), 58
231. ‘what the depression was doing to my students’: ITMO, 8
231. ‘to understand’: ibid.
232. ‘I began’: ibid.
232. ‘I liked’: ibid.
232. ‘The matter’: ibid., 9
232. More than 3,000 US citizens: Gerassi (1986), 3. For information about US volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, I have also made use of Richardson (1982).
233. when he astonished a friend: see Chevalier (1965), 16, where he quotes from a notebook entry he made dated 20.7.1937: ‘E. told me of Oppenheimer having last summer gone East, taking with him all three volumes of Marx’s Kapital and reading them through cover to cover on the train.’ He does not say who ‘E.’ is.
233. complete works of Lenin: ibid.
233. ‘Beginning in late 1936’: ITMO, 8
233. Jean Tatlock: my main source of information about Jean Tatlock is B & S, particularly Chapter Eight
234. ‘active member’: JRO FBI file, quoted B & S, 104
234. ‘the spring of 1936’: ITMO, 8
234. ‘on again, off again’: ibid.
234. ‘never seemed’: ibid.
234. ‘quite composed’: quoted B & S, 114
234. ‘these terrible depressions’: ibid.
235. he twice proposed to her: see B & S, 153
235. ‘No more flowers’: Michelmore (1969), 49
235. ‘Tell him to go away’: ibid.
235. ‘disappeared for weeks’: quoted Goodchild (1980), 35
235. ‘had probably belonged’: ITMO, 3
235. ‘half-jocular overstatement’: ibid., 9
235. ‘We clipped it out’: FO, interview with Judith R. Goodstein, 16 November 1984, Caltech Archives
235. ‘quite upset’: ITMO, 186
235. ‘the only thing’: ibid., 101
236. ‘The meeting’: ibid., 102
236. ‘It’s really hard to imagine’: FO, interview with Judith R. Goodstein, 16 November 1984, Caltech Archives
236. ‘they were scared’: ibid.
236. He said: ITMO, 183
236. ‘He made it clear’: ITMO, 9, quoted back to him, ITMO, 184
237. between $100 and $300: for this and the financial details that follow, see ITMO, 184–5
237. Robert A. Brady: see Dowd (1994)
237. ‘had enthusiasm’: ITMO, 158
237. ‘It was a very inappropriate thing’: ibid.
237. one to Mildred Edie: S & W, 205
238. two to Brady: ibid., note 54
238. ‘Local 349’: Chevalier (1965), 23
238. ‘For four years’: ibid.
238. ‘In bursts’: ibid., 23–4
238. ‘invariably lively’: ibid., 24
238. ‘thousands of dollars’: ibid., 25
238. ‘miserable thing’: ITMO, 156
239. Chevalier has described privately: HC to JRO, 23.7.1964, JRO papers, LOC, Box 200
239. ‘We had decided’: Chevalier (1965), 19
239. ‘story . . .’ of: HC to JRO, 23.7.1964, JRO papers, LOC, Box 200
239. ‘I have never been a member’: JRO to HC, 7.8.1964, JRO papers, LOC, Box 200
239. ‘I had originally planned’: quoted Herken (2002), 341, note 46
239. the website: http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/documents.html
240. in private correspondence: see Herken (2002), 31
241. When Chevalier was asked: see B & S, 138
241. ‘Look’: ITMO, 116–17
241. ‘might well’: ibid., 10
242. ‘This was the era’: ibid., 8
242. ‘I never was a member’: ibid., 10
242. ‘that Communists stood’: ibid., 115
242. ‘. . . it seems clear’: ibid.
242. ‘dialectical materialism’: ibid.
242. a political tract: Report to Our Colleagues, 20 February 1940. A second tract with the same title, dated 6 April 1940, was also said by Chevalier to have been written by Oppenheimer. These documents are discussed in Chevalier (1965), 35–6, Herken (2002), 50–2, and B & S, 144–6. The full text of the first of these reports is availabl
e on Herken’s website at: http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/document4.html
243. the American Communist Party: for the history of the Communist Party of the United States I have made much use of Fried (1997a) and Isserman (1993). See also Haynes (1996), Klehr et al. (1995) and Lewy (1990)
243. its internal structure was reorganised: see Isserman (1993), Chapter 1
243. ‘wanted to be’: ibid., 9
243. ‘The Communists began’: ibid., 3
243. ‘Communism is Twentieth Century Americanism’: ibid., 9
243. ‘A significant proportion’: ibid., 10
243. ‘What is Communism?’: Fried (1997a), 250–4
243. ‘The truth is’: ibid., 250–3: italics in the original
244. ‘the talk that I heard’: ITMO, 10
244. in the summer of 1938: ibid.
245. ‘a land of purge and terror’: ibid.
245. ‘It’s worse than you can imagine’: Michelmore (1969), 57–8
245. ‘These conversations’: Weisskopf, interviewed by MJS, 23.3.1979, quoted B & S, 148
245. ‘is fine’: Felix Bloch to IIR, 2.11.1938, quoted Schweber (2000), 108
245. ‘Alone in North America’: see ‘In Memoriam: George Michael Volkoff’, at: http://www.cap.ca/pic/Archives/56.5(2000)/volkoff-Sept00.html
245. Supernovae: helpful introductory accounts of this topic can be found in Asimov (1977), Luminet (1992) and Shipman (1976).
246. appeared in ad 1054: see Luminet (1992), 87–90, and Shipman (1976), 44–8
246. ‘cessation of its existence’: Baade and Zwicky (1934b), 76
246. ‘the super-nova process’: ibid., 77
246. Hans Bethe’s work: Bethe (1939)
247. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar: Luminet (1992), 75, Shipman (1976), 39
247. ‘Stars and Nuclei’: Cassidy (2005), 174
247. ‘The Source of Stellar Energy’: ibid.
247. ‘nuclear transformations’: see ‘Minutes of the San Diego Meeting, June 22–24, 1938’, Physical Review, 54, 235–43 (1938)
248. ‘On the Stability of Stellar Neutron Cores’: Oppenheimer and Serber (1938)
248. ‘On Massive Neutron Cores’: Oppenheimer and Volkoff (1938)
248. The present estimate: see Bernstein (2004), 47
248. ‘I remember’: quoted Thorne (1994), 195
249. ‘the question of what happens’: Oppenheimer and Volkoff (1938), 380
249. ‘There would seem to be’: ibid., 380–1
249. ‘require serious consideration’: ibid., 381
249. ‘one of the great papers’: Bernstein (2004), 48