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Big Science Page 59

by Michael Hiltzik


  test ban opposed by, 402, 406, 407, 416, 417

  Strawberry Canyon, 200, 254–55

  Strong, Ed, 248

  strong force, 205

  Studienreisen (study trips), 40, 41, 42

  subatomic particles, 2, 4, 49

  submarines, nuclear-powered, 325

  Suisun Bay, proposed heavy-water reactor in, 345

  Superbomb, see hydrogen bomb

  Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), 11–12

  cancellation of, 440

  debate over, 439–40

  Supreme Court, California, 333

  Swann, William Francis Gray, 33–34, 41, 43, 54, 55, 105, 196

  egotism of, 35

  EOL as protégé of, 34–35, 54

  European sabbatical of, 41

  “glorification of facts” disdained by, 34

  synchrocyclotron, 306, 322

  funding for, 316–17

  see also cyclotron, 184-inch

  synchrotron, 305, 307, 311, 316, 322, 396

  Szilard, Leo, 48, 217, 218, 219, 223, 230

  as advocate for secrecy in atomic bomb research, 215, 220

  cyclotron principle used by, 47

  morality issues and, 280, 296

  Nazi atom bomb feared by, 214–15, 217

  Taylor, Elizabeth, 395

  Teapot, Operation, 399

  technetium (element 43), 167

  telegraph key, 31

  television, 397

  Elizabeth II’s coronation on, 397

  EOL’s color tube for, 391–94; see also Chromatic Television Laboratories

  Teller, Edward, 214–15, 218, 293, 337, 344, 361, 365, 369, 381, 401, 411, 421, 442

  Boulder lab proposal by, 362

  “clean bomb” concept endorsed by, 404

  as crucial asset for bomb program, 364

  in departure from Los Alamos, 363

  egotism of, 367

  EOL and, 366–68

  on EOL’s meeting with Eisenhower, 409–10

  H-bomb pushed by, 340, 342–43, 344, 348, 349, 408–9

  as intuitive theorist, 366

  as Livermore director, 428

  Los Alamos accused of foot-dragging by, 370

  mercurial personality of, 361, 363, 364, 366

  Oppenheimer hearing testimony of, 379

  Sputnik and, 415

  on test ban monitoring, 418

  test ban opposed by, 402, 406–7

  in threat to quit Livermore, 367–68

  UCLA’s offer to, 340

  Tennessee Eastman Corporation, 267, 269

  Tennessee Valley Authority, 194, 259, 261, 318

  Tenney, Jack, 326, 332

  tennis, 78

  Tesla, Nikola, 27

  Tesla coils, 27, 44, 48, 49, 69

  Texas, University of, 151

  attempted recruitment of EOL by, 200

  thallium, 128

  therapeutic isotopes, 307

  thermal diffusion, 237, 276, 436

  thermonuclear bomb, see hydrogen bomb

  Thomas, Charles, 295

  Thomson, G. P., 186, 222, 229

  Thomson, Joseph John “J. J.,” 16

  thorium, 17

  Thorne, Landon, 194

  Three Mile Island disaster, 11

  Throop Polytechnic Institute, 40, 176

  Tibbets, Paul, 292, 297

  Time, 109, 110, 377

  cover story on EOL in, 6, 168–69

  Times (London), 21

  Tinian Island, 292, 297

  Tizard, Henry Thomas, 222

  Tolman, Richard, 378

  Tower House (Tuxedo Park, N.Y.), 191–92, 195–96, 224

  Toyko, Japan, firebombing of, 289

  transuranic elements, 243, 307, 429

  Trinitron TV technologies, 397

  Trinity test, 280, 292–96, 310

  tritium, 117, 183, 340, 343, 355

  Truman, Harry S., 312, 339, 400

  atomic bomb project and, 285–86, 302

  and expansion of nuclear arsenal and, 341

  H-bomb program and, 350–51, 356

  Interim Committee’s recommendations for, 290

  Oppenheimer’s meeting with, 303–4

  Stalin and, 296

  Trinity test and, 295

  Tsarapkin, Semyon, 424–25

  tumors, 140, 143

  Tuve, Anthony, 29, 32

  Tuve, Merle, 27–28, 33, 43–44, 48, 49, 51, 81, 99, 111, 116, 118, 136, 154, 199, 221, 408, 423

  EOL’s career in high-energy physics set by, 44

  EOL’s childhood friendship with, 29

  EOL’s cyclotron idea downplayed by, 48

  EOL’s recklessness criticized by, 117–19

  EOL’s skepticism about Tesla coil approach of, 49–50

  radio experiments of, 31–32

  Tuxedo Park, N.Y., 191

  Tower House in, see Tower House

  Twentieth Century Fund, 427

  U-235, see uranium-235

  Uehling, Edwin, 94

  Ulam, Stanislaw, 361, 369

  ultrasonics, 195

  Un-American Activities Committee, California, 326

  underwater communications, 227

  unipolar effect, 35–36

  United States:

  in arms race, 376, 442

  in test ban negotiations with Soviet Union, 401–3, 422–23, 427, 428

  see also government, U.S.

  United States Steel Corporation, 210

  uranium, 16, 17, 129, 216, 252

  enriched, see uranium-235 (U-235), separation of

  fears of shortage in, 354–55

  nuclear fission of, 93–94, 192, 213–14, 216–17, 227–28, 243–44

  nucleus of, 213–14, 243

  production of, 358

  uranium-235 (U-235), 216, 222, 228, 234, 236, 246, 355

  uranium-235 (U-235), separation of, 7

  centrifuge method for, 238, 256, 257–58

  electromagnetic method for, 64, 237–38, 248, 252, 257, 260, 261, 265–66, 268, 269, 272, 310, 433

  gaseous diffusion method for, 235–36, 237, 239, 257, 260, 272, 275, 325

  tailings from, 355

  uranium-238 (U-238), 216, 231, 355

  Uranium Committee (Briggs committee), 218, 223, 229, 238, 245

  Compton panel’s review of, 227–28

  counterproductive regime of, 220–21

  EOL’s criticism of, 225–26

  uranium hexafluoride (hex), 237, 257, 260, 272

  Urey, Harold, 188, 221, 233, 235, 237, 255, 257, 262, 313, 408

  cyclotron’s usefulness disparaged by, 183

  deuterium discovered by, 106

  gaseous diffusion research of, 235–36, 239, 272

  U.S. Radium Corporation, radium poisoning of workers at, 80

  vacuum chambers, 27, 31, 44, 48, 49, 50, 53–56, 181, 187

  of calutrons, 252, 255, 258, 266, 273–74, 275

  of eleven-inch cyclotron, 64–65, 67, 68

  of Mark I accelerator, 357

  of sixty-inch cyclotron, 179, 187

  of thirty-seven-inch cyclotron, 155, 238

  of twenty-seven-inch cyclotron, 62, 78, 84, 107, 130, 153, 167

  two dees of, 53, 64–65, 67, 68, 85, 169, 170

  Van de Graaff, Robert, 27–28

  Van de Graaff generators, 27–28, 44, 69

  Vandenberg, Hoyt, 384

  Veksler, Vladimir, 305–6, 423

  Vermillion, S.Dak., 32–33

  Vietnam War, 437, 438

  Wahl, Arthur C., 245

  Wallace, Henry, 232

  Walton, Ernest, 69, 70, 71–72, 73, 108, 133, 135, 181, 186

  Washington Times-Herald, 331

  Washington University (St. Louis), 251, 389, 408

  cyclotron at, 264

  Watson, Edwin M. “Pa,” Uranium Committee formed by, 218

  Waymack, William, 315

  Weaver, Warren, 125, 176, 178, 200, 254, 308, 309, 323, 359, 438

  184-inch cyclotron and, 201–
4, 205

  Rad Lab visited by, 177

  Weinberg, Alvin M., 7, 8, 11, 440

  on pitfalls of Big Science, 433–34, 435–36

  Weinberg, Steven, 433, 439

  Weisskopf, Victor, 345, 437

  White, Milton, 76, 142

  lithium experiment of, 72–73

  in move to Princeton, 137

  Whittier, John Greenleaf, 442

  Wick, Gian-Carlo, 334, 335

  Wideröe, Rolf, 355, 442

  Archiv paper of, 45–46, 47, 63

  Wigner, Eugene, 9, 218, 219, 256

  Wilkes, Daniel, 406

  Williams, John, 330

  Willkie, Wendell, 318

  Wilson, Robert R., 2, 84, 87, 170

  Wilson, Woodrow, 32

  Winternitz, M. C., 135, 464n

  Winthrop & Stimson, 193

  Wisconsin, University of, 59

  Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), 59

  Wood, Robert W., 195, 196

  Works Progress Administration (WPA), 74, 178–79

  World War I, 39, 193

  World War II, 3–4, 9, 185, 200, 279, 434

  atomic bomb in, see atomic bomb

  impact of Lawrence-Oppenheimer relationship on allied strategy in, 91

  Normandy invasion in, 279

  radar developed in, 7–8

  U.S. technical unpreparedness for, 208–9

  Worthington, Hood, 318

  X-rays, 26, 49, 75, 78, 79, 80, 140, 143, 162, 177

  diagnostic, 405

  discovery of, 16

  X-ray tubes, 61, 78, 80, 82, 140, 149, 162

  Livingston and, 83–84

  patenting of, 83

  Y-12 (Oak Ridge Laboratory), 265, 266, 267–75

  cost of, 268

  as EOL’s personal fiefdom, 271

  procurement crisis and, 267

  silver used in, 267

  Yale University, 36

  EOL at, 36, 42–43

  Sloane Physics Laboratory at, 34

  Yalta conference (1945), 284

  Yasaki, Tameichi, 174, 291, 310

  York, Herb, 364–65, 366, 368, 369, 372, 399, 400–401, 402, 407, 411, 417

  as go-between EOL and Teller, 367

  as Livermore director, 400

  named Livermore director, 368

  Yukawa, Hideki, 323

  Zeleny, John, 43

  Photography Credits

  Courtesy of Robert Lawrence: 1

  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: 2–4, 6–29, 33–36

  US Patent and Trademark Office: 5

  Los Alamos National Laboratory: 30–31

  Arthur Holly Compton, Atomic Quest: 32

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  Copyright © 2015 by Michael Hiltzik

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  Illustration credits are on page 513.

  Interior design by Robert Ettlin

  Jacket design by Marlyn Dantes

  Jacket photograph © Science Source/Getty Images

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Hiltzik, Michael A.

   Big science : Ernest Lawrence and the invention that launched the military-industrial complex / by Michael Hiltzik.

    pages cm

   1. Cyclotrons. 2. Physicists—United States—Biography. 3. Lawrence, Ernest Orlando, 1901–1958. I. Title.

   QC787.C8H55 2015

   530.092—dc23

   [B]                         2014017463

  ISBN 978-1-4516-7575-7

  ISBN 978-1-4516-7603-7 (ebook)

 

 

 


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