The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age Paperback – October 10, 2017

I don’t think anyone including the authors would claim that The Pope of Physics is great literature. It isn’t, but it is well written, easy to read and extraordinarily interesting. Enrico Fermi was one of the great men of physics during the 20th century. His friends and coworker gave him the nickname of the Pope because when it came to physics, his pronouncements were infallible. Fermi ranks right up there with Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Marie Curie. Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1938. He immigrated to the United States from Italy later that same year. Because his wife was Jewish, their children would also have been classified as Jewish. It was not safe for Fermi and his family to remain in Italy after the alliance with Germany became a fait accompli.When Fermi first came to America, he became a physics professor at Columbia. A few years later in 1942, Fermi led a team of scientists that developed the first successful nuclear reactor. The reactor went critical on December 2, 1942. It was the first self-sustaining controlled nuclear reaction ever. Fermi’s contributions to the Manhattan Project were invaluable. He was one of the few physicists that excelled both theoretically and experimentally. He did not shrink from hard work or literally getting his hands dirty. Fermi led by example both at the chalkboard and in the lab.As a young man back in the 1960s, I served aboard the U.S, Navy’s FBM (Fleet Ballistic Missile) submarines. Each sub carried sixteen Polaris missiles. Each of the missiles was armed with a thermonuclear weapon, much more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The subs were also armed with the latest and most effective torpedoes. Some were nuclear tipped. At the time, these submarines were the most deadly weapons systems on earth. With only a few minutes notice, we could launch our missiles from the oceans depths, without fear of detection. That is an example of the destructive side of nuclear power. These weapon systems served the country well for many years as a deterrent against potential surprise attacks. Thankfully, we never had to launch our missiles or fire our torpedoes.But there is another side to nuclear power, a peaceful side. The subs were powered by nuclear reactors. Basically, the reactors are a source of heat. Without going into too much detail, the heat from the reactor (and there was a lot of it) is used to generate steam. The subs are actually propelled by steam turbines, which is why a nuclear sub can remain submerged almost indefinitely or at least until the food runs out. There was no need to surface to take on fuel. We could make our own oxygen and drinking water while submerged, but not food.In the U.S. today, about twenty percent of our electrical power comes from nuclear power. In France, that number is almost 75 percent. Nuclear power, when properly designed, sited and operated is safe, efficient and clean. There are no greenhouse gases. Enrico Fermi not only helped design “the bomb.” He is also one of the fathers nuclear energy for peace.After the war, Fermi accepted a teaching position at the University of Chicago. Six of his students went on to win the Nobel Prize. Also, one of his Italian students went on to become a Nobel laureate. That is quite a record.R.I.P. Enrico Fermi.

Scientists come in at least as many flavors as fruit. Some are inspired philosophers, others are get-your-hands-dirty mechanical craftsmen, yet others are like birds which can survey multiple parts of the scientific landscape from a very high altitude. But whatever other classification you may use, there are two distinctions which scientists have always exemplified. They can be either theoreticians or experimentalists, and especially these days, they are all specialists. In an age where it can take a lifetime to understand the complexities of even a narrow part of your science, excelling at every subfield of a scientific discipline, let alone both theory and experiment, would seem like an impossible feat.Enter Enrico Fermi, the likes of whom we are unlikely to see for a very long time. Bucking almost every neat scientific distinction, Fermi was the only scientist of the twentieth century who was supremely accomplished in both theoretical and experimental physics. Almost any of his discoveries would have been enough to net a Nobel Prize, and yet he made at least a dozen of them. In addition he was one of the three or four physicists of the century who were universalists, making contributions to and displaying a sound grasp of pretty much every branch of physics, from the microscopic to the cosmic. You could ask him any problem, and as long as he could calculate it he could give you an answer: no wonder that his colleagues called him the "Pope of Physics". It also helped that he lived through a century in which physics made momentous contributions to the human intellect and condition, and he was both fortunate and supremely qualified to be a major part of these contributions. As just one aspect of his extraordinary imprint on physics, no scientist has as many measurements, rules, laws, particles, statistics, units, and energy levels named after him as Fermi. He was also one of America's greatest immigrants.This is a fine biography of Fermi written by a practicing physicist and a historian of science, both of whom had connections to Fermi through family. The authors document Fermi's upbringing in politically troubled Italy. Fermi was a child prodigy who combined great intellect with hard self-reliance and perseverance, qualities which were inculcated by his hardworking parents. A life-changing tragedy at age fifteen - the sudden death of his brother with whom he was best friends - turned him toward physics and mathematics. His performance as a seventeen year old in the entrance examination for a well-known university in Pisa displayed knowledge that would have been substantial for a graduate student. From then on his scientific development proceeded smoothly, and before he was 30 he was both Italy's greatest physicist as well as one of the world's greatest scientists.The book lays out many of Fermi's major discoveries. Two in particular bracket his unsurpassed talents as both a theoretician and an experimentalist. In 1933 Fermi came up with a mathematical theory of radioactive decay and the weak nuclear force. And in 1942 he and his team assembled the world's first nuclear reactor. It is almost impossible to imagine any other scientist accomplishing these two very different and very important feats; the famed historian C. P. Snow paid Fermi the ultimate tribute in this regard when he said that, had Fermi been born twenty years before, he could have discovered both Niels Bohr's quantum theory of the atom (theory) and Ernest Rutherford's atomic nucleus (experiment). In the 1930s Fermi and his team became the world expert on neutrons; life in the physics institute on Via Panisperna in Rome was bucolic in spite of being intense. He almost single-handedly discovered the power of slow neutrons which are used to harness nuclear energy in reactors. He and other leading physicists also narrowly missed discovering nuclear fission, mistaking fission products for elements beyond uranium. Rome under his scientific tutelage became a magnet for scientists like Hans Bethe and Edward Teller who learnt the art of problem-solving in physics from the master. Fermi's marriage to a very intelligent and resourceful woman, Laura, cemented his family life. But the pall of fascism was dropping on Italy through the person of Benito Mussolini. Laura was Jewish, and by 1938 Fermi realized that he had to emigrate to another country. Fortunately the receipt of the 1938 Nobel Prize gave him the perfect opportunity to flee to the United States. Along with other brilliant scientists like Bethe, Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard and John von Neumann, Fermi became one of fascism's greatest gifts to this country.In the United States Fermi was already known as the leading nuclear physicist of his generation. When nuclear fission was discovered in Germany at the end of 1938, there were legitimate fears that the Nazis would harness it to build an atomic bomb. Efforts to investigate fission in the US kicked into high gear, especially after Pearl Harbor. It was not surprising that the scientific community turned toward Fermi to assemble the world's first nuclear reactor. The book's account of this tremendous feat involving black graphite bricks and faces, the squash stand at the university and the sometimes amusing consequences of secrecy is worth reading. First at Columbia and then memorably at Chicago, Fermi and his team achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction on December 6, 1942: a coded telegram went out to the leaders of the Manhattan Project saying that the "Italian navigator had landed in the New World". Even if he had accomplished nothing else this would have been sufficient to enshrine Fermi's name in history. But he kept on making major contributions, first at Chicago and then at Los Alamos. At Los Alamos Fermi's universal expertise was so valued that Oppenheimer created an entire division named after him (the F division). He became a kind of all-round troubleshooter who could solve any problem in theoretical or applied physics, or in engineering for that matter. He had an uncanny feel for numbers, and became known for posing and solving 'Fermi problems' which benefited from quick, back of the envelope, order-of-magnitude estimates. The iconic realization of the Fermi method was during the world's first atomic test in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, when, as the shockwave reached him, Fermi threw pieces of paper into the air and calculated the yield of the test based on the distance at which they fell. This calculation compared favorably with more sophisticated measurements that took several days to acquire.After the war Fermi became a professor at Chicago where he again served as a magnet for the new generation of physicists exploring the frontiers of particle physics and cosmology. He was an incredibly clear and succinct teacher, and gave his students a true feel for the entire landscape of physics. Teaching was not just limited to classrooms but spilled over into the lunch cafeteria and on hikes. Physicists like Freeman Dyson and Richard Feynman made pilgrimages to see him from around the country, and six of his students received Nobel Prizes. Even after winning enough accolades for a lifetime, he worked harder and more diligently than anyone else. His colleagues joked that he was the man with an inside track to God, so all-encompassing were his scientific and computing abilities. His notes on thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and nuclear physics are still available and they attest to his clarity. At Chicago he not only made important contributions to experimental particle physics but he also made the first forays into computing. The so-called Monte-Carlo method which allows one to explore features of a system by making random jumps bears his imprint.While not a very sentimental man, Fermi's friendliness, integrity, modesty and impartial, non-emotional attitude endeared him to almost everyone he came in contact with. He was friendly and had an impish sense of humor, but while not cold was also not a warm person who engaged intimately with those around him; this quality led to a family life which while not unhappy was also not particularly joyous, and his relative lack of affection was reflected in the brisk relationship that Fermi had with his daughter and son. He despised politics but still served on important government committees because of his feelings of duty toward his adopted country. Remarkably, his neutrality through some very politically fraught times was not detested, and he was one of the very few scientists who was admired by people who were each other's sworn enemies. While he opposed the hydrogen bomb on moral terms and testified on behalf of Oppenheimer during the latter's infamous hearing, he also served as a consultant to Los Alamos once he realized that the Russians might also get the bomb; characteristically enough, he correctly predicted how long it would take them to build their first thermonuclear weapon. People looked to him for impartial guidance in almost every matter which could benefit from rational introspection.Art and music baffled Fermi, but his rational analysis of these things only endeared him more to his friends and colleagues. At an art exhibit on the immigrant experience for instance, he calculated the ratio of the lengths of legs and heights of the immigrants in the photos and concluded that his own dimensions fit the statistical distribution. At Los Alamos he quickly memorized the rules of square dancing and danced with unerring accuracy but almost zero passion. His modesty and tendency to shun the limelight was also a great draw. He could as easily chat with janitors as with other Nobel Laureates. No task was beneath him, and his great ability to perform routine work without complaints or fatigue was instrumental in his success: whatever it took to solve a problem, Fermi would do it. When flabbergasted scientists asked him how he did it, Fermi would often reply with a smile, "C.i.f, con intuito formidable" ("with formidable intuition"). Often his distinguishing quality was pure stamina; whether it was a tennis match or a physics problem, he would beat the problem (and his opponents) into submission by sheer perseverance and doggedness. His manner of playing sports mirrored his manner of doing science: shun the style and elegance, and go straight and relentlessly for the solution using every technique at your disposal. The method of approximate guesses which came to be named after him has been used to estimate a wide variety of disparate numbers, from the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy to the number of piano tuners in Chicago (his favorite example).This giant of science was struck down by cancer in 1954 when he was still in his prime. The book talks about visits made by various famous scientists and friends to the hospital where he was installed after exploratory surgery indicated no hope. They could not believe that the indefatigable Enrico would soon be no more. All came away shaken, not because they saw an emotionally fraught man in pain but because they saw a perfectly calm and rational man who had reconciled himself with reality. He knew exactly what was happening to him and was making plans for publishing his last set of notes. Characteristically, he was measuring the rate of saline intake and calculating how many calories he was getting from it. When he came home and his wife rented a hospital bed for him, he predicted that he would only need it until the end of the month. True to his amazing calculating prowess, he passed away two days before the predicted date, on November 28, 1954.This book in general lays out a warm and engrossing picture of Enrico Fermi. As I see it, it is up against two challenges. Firstly, it's relatively sparse on the science and does not always provide adequate background. In this context it is a light read and comes across somewhat unfavorably compared to Richard Rhodes' seminal book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" which goes into great depth regarding Fermi's work, especially on the Chicago nuclear reactor. Rhodes' volume is also better on giving us a detailed picture of Fermi's contemporaries. Secondly, it cannot resist comparison with two old Fermi biographies. His wife Laura's endearing biography of him named "Atoms in the Family", published only a few months before his death, provides as intimate a picture of the personally reticent Fermi as we can expect. This book's view understandably is not as intimate. The same goes for "Enrico Fermi: Physicist", a biography of Fermi written by his friend, fellow Nobel laureate and uncle of one of the present book's authors, Emilio Segre. Segre was a top-notch physicist who worked with Fermi from the beginning and who does much recreating the early days of Fermi's experiments in Rome. That description provides another personal touch which is again not as vivid in this volume.Notwithstanding these comparisons, I am glad that Segre and Hoerlin wrote this book to introduce one of history's greatest and most unique scientists to a new generation. No scientist has contributed more practically and in a more versatile manner to modern physics. And few scientists have combined extraordinary and universal scientific talents with the kind of personal humility and decency that Fermi exemplified. For all this his life story needs to be known anew.

Uno de los mejores libros que he leído, un obligado para los entusiastas de la historia, la ciencia y los grandes genios!

An excellent book -for a general reader but, particularly those who have studied Physics. The book is elaborates the genius of the man, popularly referred as The Pope of Physics. One wonders how a genius looks at the problem, to find answers to deep mysteries in the area he/she works. I was tempted to review again my Physics lessons, with more insight and interest, as I began reading the book. The language and style of the book is also interesting, motivating and concise. The chapters are organised in the order the events took shape in the life of Enrico Fermi- one of the greatest Physicst, excelling in wide, nearly all, branches of Physics. He was expert in theory as well as conducting experiments. None of the chapters is too long, in fact one can finish each of them in a short time and gain motivation and momentum.It is not easy to get the facts, quotes, the thinking process, emotions( of Fermi and the people around him), the wealth of information gathered to write such a book. The authors Gino Segre, and Bettina Hoerlin make up a good combination and have conducted a parallel research to produce the book. This has made the book all the more enjoyable for any reader. I am now approaching the end of the book, but will be reading and referring very often.All my friends now know some thing about this book.

Enrico Fermi ist einer der wenigen Physiker, die gleichermaßen theoretisch und experimentell gearbeitet haben und auf beiden Gebieten erfolgreich waren. Er wandte Paulis Ausschließungs- Prinzip auf Quanten Gase an und begründete die Fermi- Dirac- Statistik, und wurde 1938 für seine Untersuchungen zur induzierten Radioaktivität durch Neutronenbestrahlung mit dem Nobelpreis ausgezeichnet.Beide Autoren stehen in persönlichen Verhältnis zu Fermi – wie sie in ihrem Nachwort betonen, Gino Segre ist der Neffe von Emilio Segre, Fermis ersten Mitarbeiter an der Universität Rom, Bettina Hoerlins Familie war mit den Fermis aus der Zeit in Los Alamos bekannt. So nähert sich ihr Buch Fermi auf der Basis von Personen und Orten, natürlich wird auch Fermis wissenschaftlicher Werdegang skizziert, die Autoren wollten aber keine wissenschaftliche Biographie verfassen.Enrico Fermi, der bereits früh Interesse an elektrischen Motoren und mechanischen Spielzeugen entwickelte, wurde durch ein Buch auf Latein aus dem Jahre 1840, das er in einem Buchladen in der Nähe erworben hatte, von Physik begeistert – zwar etwas veraltet, behandelte es einen breiten Querschnitt durch die Gebiete Mathematik, klassischen Mechanik, Akustik, Optik und Astronomie. 1918 bestand er die rigorosen Aufnahmeprüfungen der Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa mit Bravour. Nach seinem Studium verbrachte er ein Semester bei Max Born in Göttingen und kam hier in Kontakt mit den 'Knaben', die gerade dabei waren, die neue Quantenmechanik aus der Taufe zu heben. Insbesondere die Bekanntschaft mit Wolfgang Pauli, inspiriert Fermi zu seinem 1925er Paper 'On the quantisation of the perfect monoatomic gas'.Nach Rom zurück gekehrt, wird Fermi – gerade 24 Jahre alt – auf einen neu geschaffenen Lehrstuhl für Theoretische Physik berufen. Hier entwickelt er seine Theorie der schwachen Wechselwirkung und führt Experimente mit Neutronen durch, aus denen seine Studien zur induzierten Radioaktivität und zur Erzeugung von Transuranen erwachsen.In großer Ausführlichkeit schildern die Autoren die Entwicklung der sozialen und politischen Verhältnisse im damaligen Italien, die in den 30iger Jahren von zunehmenden Antisemitismus geprägt wurden, was schließlich zum Exodus der Fermis führte, sie benutzen die Reise zur Nobelpreis Verleihung, um Italien den Rücken zu kehren und nach Amerika auszuwandern, wo Fermi zunächst an der Columbia Universität eine Anstellung fand.Die Kunde von der Entdeckung der Uranspaltung durch Otto Hahn und deren theoretische Erklärung von Lise Meitner und ihrem Neffen Otto Frisch, brachte Niels Bohr nach Amerika; eigentlich hatte er Meitner und Frisch Stillschweigen versprochen, bis ihr Ergebnis publiziert wäre, aber er hatte die Resultate mit George Uhlenbeck auf der Überfahrt diskutiert und versäumt, ihn um den selben Gefallen zu bitten.Fermi beschäftigte sich mit der Neutronen Ausbeute bei Kernspaltungen, seine Ergebnisse ließen Kettenreaktionen möglich erscheinen, über die schon Leo Szilard 1933 nachgedacht hatte. Weitere experimentelle Untersuchungen führten, über verschiedene Ausbaustufen, zum ersten funktionsfähigen Atommeiler, der in Graphit gepresstes Uran und Kadmiumstangen als Regulatoren benutzte. Die erste kritische Reaktion kam im Dezember 1942 in Chicago zustande. Mit seiner einzigartigen Kombination aus theoretischen Kenntnissen und experimenteller Erfahrung wurde Fermi auch zu einem der wichtigsten Berater des Manhattan Projekts.Wie erwähnt, liegt der Fokus der Autoren auf der Lebensgeschichte Fermis, seinen Beziehungen zu Mitstreitern und Schülern, aber auch auf der wechselvollen Geschichte seiner Familie. Es fließen zahlreich Anekdoten über Fermis besondere Begabung als Physiker ein, etwa über seine unvergleichliche Fähigkeit, die Größenordnung von physikalischen Effekten einschätzen zu können. Die wohl bekannteste dieser Stories handelt von Fermis Methode der Schätzung der Trinity Explosion: Fermi ließ kleine Papierschnipsel fallen, und schätzte deren horizontale Versetzung, als sie von der Druckwelle erreichte wurden, aus einer kleinen Tabelle, die er vorbereitet hatte, gelangte er in wenigen Augenblicken zu einem Ergebnis, das bis auf einen Faktor zwei mit den späteren genaueren Auswertungen der Sensoren am Explosionsort übereinstimmte.Mit dem Buch ist den Autoren ein liebevoll recherchierter, allgemein verständlicher Lebensabriss des großen Wissenschaftlers gelungen.

Enrico Fermi was a truly remarkable scientist, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century and probably the last great ‘all rounder’, in that he was equally at home with theory and experiment, and worked in a wide range of fields, including nuclear physics, condensed matter physics and astrophysics. You can hardly open a physics textbook without finding his name attached to some theory, phenomenon, energy level, unit etc. One of his greatest achievements was constructing the first successful mathematical theory to explain weak radioactive decays of nuclei. His Nobel Prize could have been for a number of his discoveries, but was actually for his work in the field of neutron interactions with nuclei. Ironically, this is one area where he (and other physicists) missed discovering nuclear fission, mistaking fission products for elements beyond uranium. In 1942 he and his team famously assembled the world's first self-sustaining nuclear reaction in a pile laboriously assembled in a disused squash court in a basement at the University of Chicago (presumably no Safety Officers were informed!). This was preliminary work connected with producing the first atomic bomb. Later, almost single-handedly, he went on to show how slow neutrons could be used to produce nuclear energy in reactors. He continued to do important work on the atomic bomb programme during and after the war, and the Director of Los Alamos, Oppenheimer, valued his contributions so highly that he created an entire division named after him (the F division).This biography charts Fermi’s entire life from his birth in 1901 to his early death in 1954. Fermi was a child prodigy who combined great intellect with perseverance, qualities which had their origin in his hardworking parents. His remarkable talents were soon recognized and he was supported by a few far-sighted senior scientists. Later he established a small group (Fermi’s Boys) in Rome that produced much exciting work in nuclear physics and whose members went on to establish major reputations themselves. By the age of 30 he was both Italy's greatest physicist as well as one of the world’s greatest scientists. Clear teaching was always central to Fermi’s way of working and his published notes are still well worth reading. His move to America followed the rise of fascism in Italy. There is much science along the way, both about his work in Italy and America, but it is very well explained without too much technical detail.There is also much about Fermi the man and the relationship with his collaborators and family. Fermi was not a cold man, but his first love was science; music, art and such thing held no interest for him. He was friendly and modest, and even had a good sense of humour, but he could not be described as a warm person, a fact that resulted in a family life that while not unhappy, was not overly joyous, and lead to somewhat distant relationships with his son and daughter. It was only in later years that his wife Laura emerged as a person in her own right and she subsequently authored several successful science books, and a biography of her husband ‘Atoms in the Family’, the latter shortly before his death. Fermi despised politics, but nevertheless served on important government committees out of a sense of loyalty to his adopted country.This is a fine book with a good mix of Fermi’s science achievements and his personal life. The former are described in sufficient technical detail to be understandable by the general reader, which I think is the right approach for a book that aims to be more than just a scientific biography. One of the authors, Gino Segre, has an earlier book ‘Faust in Copenhagen’ which describes the early days of quantum theory and the personalities involved. I am sure the present volume will achieve a similar success. It certainly deserves it.

Covers his life in full without being mundane. From the eyes of his colleagues, students and friends the characteristics of the great physcist and his human nature is brought out. Book showcases why Fermi was/is one of the most loved and respected scientific person of the modern era.I have brought this because I had come across many remarks, by great scientist, about how they were awed by fermi's deaph of understanding and clarity and at the same time how he was without any air of grandeur. I have even come across a book on nuclear engineering, whose author (worked in los alamos and a nobel laurete ) out of respect to Fermi, insisted on using 'fermi' as unit for neutron interaction crossection through out his book instead of 'barns' that was conventionally used. From then on i was intrigued about him.