Enrico Fermi

The Last Man 
   Who Knew Everything    

   Italian-born American physicist Enrico Fermi made a breakthrough 75 years ago this month that changed the world. 


   In 1942 he proved that chain reactions occur and could be used to release the energy of the uranium atom. He also cleared the way for the production of plutonium. 

   Why did he do this?

   A new book, The Last Man Who Knew Everything, by David N. Schwartz, tells the story. In January 1939, news came that Germans had split the uranium atom. Physicists worried that a bomb could be next.

   That summer, German physicist Werner Heisenberg visited America. Fermi tried to persuade him to defect to the U.S. Heisenberg replied, "I owe my patriotic duty to my country." 

   Fermi was shaken, wrote Schwartz,
and he moved ahead with experiments. 

   We are thankful the Nazis never developed a nuclear bomb. But the U.S. did, and used two bombs to hasten the 1945 Japanese surrender - the least of two horrible military options - while freeing 
millions in Southeast Asia from Japanese occupation. 

   Alas, other nations have joined the nuclear club, and we may be facing another choice between two horrible options. Back to the book...

   Having won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1938, Fermi contributed to quantum physics, particle physics, condensed matter physics and astrophysics. Since physics has become specialized, Schwartz considers Fermi the last scientist who could see all of physics as an integrated whole. 

   His book relates that, unlike most scientists, Fermi had a sunny personality and sense of humor. He was loved by colleagues.

   Fermi died in 1954 without revealing how his role in nuclear weapons affected his inner life. Do you think he was upset at having his peacetime work interrupted?  

      Jimmy