And taking away the popes temporal domain, he did not recognize it. There were no diplomatic relations between rome, between the Italian Republic and the vatican, that didnt happen until 1929 so for a while he really could be the only pole. So set the stage for in a little bit, fermi is this young man, completely unknown even in his own country and within a decade is going to become this international star. But its during a time when fascism is in rain, full rain in the 1920s, how does that affect the young fermi . What role does that play in his development. There he is in his 20s, he comes from a modest family, his parents had not gone to college. There was nobody else in italy at the time. He was the leader and he was just purely thinking about physics as far as i can tell. The only, he joined the fascist party but cellini appointed him to the Royal Academy, double his salary and he said hey, double my salary is a good thing. So ill pledge allegiance to mussolini. He will be father
I believe that 15 years ago for maybe 20, gino on the death of another famous physicist, the greatest thing you could say about him is that you were so proud to be holding the same union card. [laughter] as someone who also held it and i also feel very lucky to have been asked to interview the two about this book. The physicists physicist may not be wellknown to the public that is in fact one of the greatest heroes of anybody whos done a comic physics. Its so amazing to have this fabulous and authoritative story of his life. We have a preview from the wall street journal that has just come out that says exactly that. So it is a fabulous book and i want to get started by asking for two of them to tell us what their motivation was for writing a book that isnt as wellknown as the einstein. M. I. Too loud . Maybe i will start out i was born in italy and came to the United States as a baby but then went back and he was a hero in italy and went on to become a physicist committee was a double
Decision to use the atomic bomb. In 1999, a poll of journalists ranks the bombing is the top new story of the entire 20th century. Beating out the landing on the moon, the attack on pearl harbor, and other prominent stories and events that occurred in the last century. The importance of a story of the atomic bombings of japan, has come over the last five decades or so, a enormous and highly acrimonious controversy, both among scholars and among the general public. It is safe to say that the issue of the atomic bombing is arguably and it is a strong argument the issue of the atomic bombings of japan is the most contentious debate in all of American History. I dont think we are going to settle it today. But i hope we will advance our knowledge of the subject and shed some light on some important issues and perhaps lower the volume of ill will at all to often has been a prominent part of this controversy. Trumanssy over decision to use the atomic bomb arises from two fiercely competing in
and survey the public on whether or not they voted. after every election somewhere in the range of 75 to 80% of the public claims to have voted and we know even in the presidential elections about 50%, so that means 20 somewhere in the range from 20 to 30% of the american public is willing to fly to a complete stranger and say they voted when they didn t. that s funny in itself but what it tells us is there is an incredible pressure in this country that we are socialized you ve got to vote. get out there and vote so people are embarrassed. and so they are more comfortable lying to somebody about it than they are saying they didn t do it. so that tells me that americans tend to think participation is important, and if that is the case our result suggests that as the country, as people, not as a country but let s say at the individual level as people s attitudes become more and more polarized they are more likely to participate. so if the internet is indeed polarizing people,
he was the man that deserves more credit than he received for organizing the atomic bomb project. but everybody in the historical literature talks about august 1939. that would have been nothing had there not been earnest lawrence to get things rolling. his operation at oak ridge was the operation that separated the u 235 from the 38. if there was not a lawrence, there would have been no atomic bomb on the schedule. and he is the sourcer s apprentice of the story. he is the man that built the great idea that he was sort of the pure scientist. he wanted to push forward the fran tears of mileage. that same machine will be modified and used to instead separate the uranium for the bomb that is dropped on hiroshima, hence, the unintended consequences. lawrence is in the context of oppenheimer and teller. oppenheimer steals the show. the man who at berkeley whether he was teaching here took sand script so that he could read the hindu classics in the original. a man who is very much