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Post by galvez on Nov 21, 2003 11:40:16 GMT -5
www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1938/"For his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons." From the Nobel e-Museum. I added a link to Fermi because there is a type of collective "genius" within the genepool of the Italian people that has invigorated Western civilization for thousands of years. It does not surprise me at all that an Anglo-Saxon nation like the United States needed to import Enrico Fermi for help in developing the atomic bomb.
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Arawn
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Post by Arawn on Nov 21, 2003 11:51:08 GMT -5
The US didn't 'import' him, he emmigrated there volentarily to get away from the facists.
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Post by galvez on Nov 21, 2003 12:01:27 GMT -5
Arawn writes:
"The US didn't 'import' him, he emmigrated there volentarily to get away from the facists."
Well, Enrico Fermi was not a commodity or chattel so of course he was not literally "imported." But I think it works figuratively because the U.S. really needed his contributions to make the Manhattan Project a success. Perhaps if he wasn't as famous or renowned he would have had much more difficulty immigrating to the U.S.
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Arawn
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Post by Arawn on Nov 21, 2003 12:09:13 GMT -5
He moved there straight after winning his Nobel prize. However, he could have chosen to go anywhere, Brazil, UK, where ever, but he chose the US, which isn't suprising, as that was the place where everything was happening as far as Nuclear physics was concerned (excluding facist Europe that is).
Alot of scientists, went to the US for the same reason, from the UK Germany, and so on.
Talent moves to where it is appreciated most, providing there is the opportunity to do so of course.
It could well be that his presence sped up the manhatten project slightly, but with hundreds of people working on it, plus no problems with obtaining bomb fuel (like the Germans had), they would have gotten there anyways.
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Post by galvez on Nov 21, 2003 12:14:52 GMT -5
Arawn writes:
"It could well be that his presence sped up the manhatten project slightly, but with hundreds of people working on it, plus no problems with obtaining bomb fuel (like the Germans had), they would have gotten there anyways."
Enrico Fermi is called the "architect of the nuclear age." To say he sped things up slightly is a gross understatement. He is considered by some historians to have been the most important scientist in the Manhattan Project. It is true that there were many others involved, but quantity does not equal quality.
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Post by galvez on Nov 21, 2003 12:25:44 GMT -5
"One of the most important things he [Fermi] did took place in an unused squash court at the University of Chicago: On December 2, 1942 he created a sustained a nuclear fission chain reaction, which was critical to creating an atomic bomb." www.needham.mec.edu/High_School/cur/mp/whos_who.html |
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Arawn
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Post by Arawn on Nov 21, 2003 12:31:04 GMT -5
In a squash court. Intresting. i like it.
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Post by Graeme on Feb 2, 2004 8:01:48 GMT -5
Enrico Fermi wasn't all Italian. He was half Irish. The Atomic program in the States employed a lot of Jews.
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