Everything about Enrico Fermi totally explained
Enrico Fermi (
September 29,
1901 –
November 28,
1954) was an
Italian physicist most noted for his work on the development of the first
nuclear reactor, and for his contributions to the development of
quantum theory,
nuclear and
particle physics, and
statistical mechanics. Fermi was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 for his work on
induced radioactivity and is today regarded as one of the top scientists of the 20th century.
Fermium, a
synthetic element created in
1952 is named after him.
Biography
Physics in Rome
Enrico Fermi was born in
Rome,
Italy. His father was Alberto Fermi, a Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Communications, and his mother was Ida de Gattis, an elementary school teacher. As a young boy he enjoyed learning physics and mathematics and shared his interests with his older brother, Giulio. When Giulio died unexpectedly of a throat abscess in 1915, Enrico was distraught, and immersed himself into scientific study to distract himself. According to his own account, each day he'd walk in front of the hospital where Giulio died until he became inured to the pain. Later, Enrico befriended another scientifically inclined student named
Enrico Persico, and the two together engaged in scientific projects such as building
gyroscopes, and measuring the
magnetic field of the
earth. Fermi's interest in physics was further encouraged when a friend of his father's gave him several books on
physics and
mathematics, which he read and assimilated.
Fermi received his undergraduate and doctoral degree from the
Scuola Normale Superiore in
Pisa. There was an entrance exam which candidates had to take in order to enter the prestigious institute, which included an essay. For his essay on the given theme
Characteristics of Sound, 17-year-old Fermi chose to derive and solve the
Fourier analysis based partial differential equation for waves on a string. The examiner interviewed Fermi and concluded that his essay would have been commendable even for a doctoral degree. At the
Scuola Normale Superiore, Fermi teamed up with a fellow student named
Franco Rasetti with whom he used to indulge in light hearted pranks. Later, Rasetti became Fermi's close friend and collaborator.
Fermi's Ph.D advisor was
Luigi Puccianti. In 1924 Fermi spent a semester in
Göttingen, and then stayed for a few months in
Leiden with
Paul Ehrenfest.
From January 1925 to the autumn of 1926 he stayed at the
University of Florence. In this period he wrote his work on the
Fermi-Dirac statistics. When he was only 24 years old, Fermi took a
professorship in
Rome (the first for
atomic physics in Italy, which he won in a competition created by professor
Orso Mario Corbino, director of the Institute of Physics).
Corbino helped Fermi in selecting his team, which soon was joined by notable minds like
Edoardo Amaldi,
Bruno Pontecorvo,
Franco Rasetti and
Emilio Segrè. For the theoretical studies only,
Ettore Majorana also took part in what was soon nicknamed "the
Via Panisperna boys" (after the name of the road in which the Institute had its labs).
The group went on with its now famous experiments, but in 1933 Rasetti left Italy for
Canada and the
United States, Pontecorvo went to
France and Segrè left to teach in
Palermo.
During their time in Rome, Fermi and his group made important contributions to many practical and theoretical aspects of physics. Some of these include the theory of
beta decay, and the discovery of slow neutrons, which was to prove pivotal for the working of
nuclear reactors. His group also systematically bombarded elements with slow
neutrons, and during their experiments with
uranium, narrowly missed observing
nuclear fission. At that time, fission was thought to be improbable, if not impossible, mostly on theoretical grounds. While people expected elements with higher
atomic number to form from neutron bombardment of lighter elements, nobody expected neutrons to have enough energy to actually split a heavier
atom into two light element fragments. However, the
chemist Ida Noddack had criticised Fermi's work and had suggested that some of his experiments could have produced lighter elements. At the time, Fermi dismissed this possibility on the basis of calculations.
Fermi was well-known for his simplicity in solving problems. He began his inquiries with the simplest lines of mathematical reasoning, then later produced complete solutions to the problems he deemed worth pursuing. His abilities as the greatest combined theoretical and applied nuclear physicist of all time were acknowledged by and influenced many physicists who worked with him, such as
Hans Bethe, who spent two semesters working with Fermi in the early 1930s. From the time he was a boy, Fermi meticulously recorded his calculations in notebooks, and later used to solve many new problems that he encountered based on these earlier known problems.
When Fermi submitted his famous paper on
beta decay to the prestigious journal
Nature, the journal's
editor turned it down because "it contained speculations which were too remote from reality". Thus, Fermi saw the theory published in
Italian and in
German before it was published in
English.
Nature eventually did publish Fermi's report on beta decay on
January 16,
1939.
The Manhattan Project
Fermi remained in Rome until 1938.
In 1938, Fermi won the
Nobel Prize in Physics 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".
After Fermi received the
Nobel Prize in
Stockholm, he, his wife Laura, and their children emigrated to
New York. This was mainly because of the
anti-Semitic laws promulgated by the
fascist regime of
Benito Mussolini which threatened Laura, who was Jewish. Also, the new laws put most of Fermi's research assistants out of work.
Soon after his arrival in New York, Fermi began working at
Columbia University.
In December 1938, the German chemists
Otto Hahn and
Fritz Strassmann sent a manuscript to
Naturwissenschaften reporting they'd detected the element
barium after bombarding
uranium with
neutrons; simultaneously, they communicated these results to
Lise Meitner. Meitner, and her nephew
Otto Robert Frisch, correctly interpreted these results as being
nuclear fission. Frisch confirmed this experimentally on 13 January 1939. In 1944, Hahn received the
Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fission. Some historians have documented the history of the discovery of nuclear fission and believe Meitner should have been awarded the Nobel Prize with Hahn.
Meitner’s and Frisch’s interpretation of the work of Hahn and Strassmann crossed the Atlantic Ocean with
Niels Bohr, who was to lecture at
Princeton University.
Isidor Isaac Rabi and
Willis Lamb, two
Columbia University physicists working at Princeton, heard the news and carried it back to Columbia. Rabi said he told Enrico Fermi; Fermi gave credit to Lamb. Bohr soon thereafter went from Princeton to Columbia to see Fermi. Not finding Fermi in his office, Bohr went down to the cyclotron area and found
Herbert L. Anderson. Bohr grabbed him by the shoulder and said: “Young man, let me explain to you about something new and exciting in physics.” It was clear to a number of scientists at Columbia that they should try to detect the energy released in the nuclear fission of uranium from neutron bombardment. On 25 January 1939, a Columbia University team conducted the first nuclear fission experiment in the United States, which was done in the basement of
Pupin Hall; the members of the team were
Herbert L. Anderson,
Eugene T. Booth,
John R. Dunning, Enrico Fermi,
G. Norris Glasoe, and
Francis G. Slack. The next day, at the Fifth Washington Conference on Theoretical Physics began in
Washington, D.C. under the joint auspices of
The George Washington University and the
Carnegie Institution of Washington. There, the news on nuclear fusion was spread even further, which fostered many more experimental demonstrations.
Fermi then went to the
University of Chicago and began studies that led to the construction of the first
nuclear pile Chicago Pile-1.
Fermi recalled the beginning of the project in a speech given in 1954 when he retired as President of the
American Physical Society:
» "I remember very vividly the first month, January, 1939, that I started working at the
Pupin Laboratories because things began happening very fast. In that period,
Niels Bohr was on a lecture engagement at the
Princeton University and I remember one afternoon
Willis Lamb came back very excited and said that Bohr had leaked out great news. The great news that had leaked out was the discovery of
fission and at least the outline of its interpretation. Then, somewhat later that same month, there was a meeting in
Washington where the possible importance of the newly discovered phenomenon of fission was first discussed in semi-
jocular earnest as a possible source of
nuclear power."
In August of 1939
Leó Szilárd prepared and
Albert Einstein signed the
famous letter warning President
Franklin D. Roosevelt of the probability that the Nazis were planning to build an
atomic bomb. Because of
Hitler's
September 1 invasion of
Poland, it was October before they could arrange for the letter to be personally delivered. Roosevelt was concerned enough that the
Uranium Committee was assembled and awarded
Columbia University the first
atomic energy funding of US$ 6,000. However, due to bureaucratic fears of foreigners doing secret research, the money wasn't actually issued until Szilárd implored Einstein to send a second letter to the president in the spring of 1940. The money was used in studies which led to the first
nuclear reactor —
Chicago Pile-1, a massive "
atomic pile" of
graphite bricks and
uranium fuel which went
critical on
December 2,
1942, built in a hard racquets court under
Stagg Field, the
football stadium at the
University of Chicago. Due to a mistranslation, Soviet reports on Enrico Fermi claimed that his work was performed in a converted "
pumpkin field" instead of a "
squash court", squash being an offshoot of hard racquets
(External Link
). This experiment was a landmark in the quest for energy, and it was typical of Fermi's brilliance. Every step had been carefully planned, every calculation meticulously done by him. When the first self sustained nuclear chain reaction was achieved, a coded phone call was made by one of the physicists,
Arthur Compton to
James Conant, chairman of the National Defense Research Committee. The conversation was in impromptu code:
» Compton: The Italian navigator has landed in the New World.
Conant: How were the natives?
» Compton: Very friendly.
This successful initiation of a chain-reacting pile was important not only for its help in assessing the properties of fission — needed for understanding the internal workings of an atomic bomb — but because it would serve as a pilot plant for the massive reactors which would be created in
Hanford, Washington, which would then be used to produce the
plutonium needed for the bombs used at the
Trinity site and
Nagasaki. Eventually Fermi and Szilárd's reactor work was folded into the
Manhattan Project.
Fermi moved to
Los Alamos in the later stages of the Manhattan Project to serve as a general
consultant. He was sitting in the control room of the Hanford
B Reactor when it first went critical in 1944. His broad knowledge of many fields of physics was useful in solving problems that were of an interdisciplinary nature.
He became a
naturalized citizen of the United States of America in 1944.
Fermi was present as an observer of the
Trinity test on July 16, 1945. Engineer
Jack Aeby saw Fermi at work:
Post-War work
In Fermi's 1954 address to the APS he also said, "Well, this brings us to
Pearl Harbor. That is the time when I left Columbia University, and after a few months of commuting between Chicago and New York, eventually moved to Chicago to keep up the work there, and from then on, with a few notable exceptions, the work at Columbia was concentrated on the
isotope separation phase of the atomic energy project, initiated by Booth, Dunning and Urey about 1940".
Fermi was widely regarded as the only physicist of the twentieth century who excelled both theoretically and experimentally (Snow, 1981) (see
link below in 'References'). The well-known historian of physics,
C. P. Snow, says about him, "If Fermi had been born a few years earlier, one could well imagine him discovering
Rutherford's atomic nucleus, and then developing
Bohr's theory of the hydrogen atom. If this sounds like hyperbole, anything about Fermi is likely to sound like hyperbole". Fermi's ability and success stemmed as much from his appraisal of the art of the possible, as from his innate skill and intelligence. He disliked complicated theories, and while he'd great mathematical ability, he'd never use it when the job could be done much more simply. He was famous for getting quick and accurate answers to problems which would stump other people. An instance of this was seen during the first atomic bomb test in
New Mexico on July 16 1945. As the blast wave reached him, Fermi dropped bits of paper. By measuring the distance they were blown, he could compare to a previously computed table and thus estimate the bomb energy yield. He estimated that the blast was greater than 10
kilotons of
TNT, the measured result was 18.6. (Rhodes, page 674). Later on, this method of getting approximate and quick answers through back of the envelope calculations became informally known as the 'Fermi method'.
Fermi's most disarming trait was his great modesty, and his ability to do any kind of work, whether creative or routine. It was this quality that made him popular and liked among people of all strata, from other Nobel Laureates to technicians.
Henry DeWolf Smyth, who was Chairman of the Princeton Physics department, had once invited Fermi over to do some experiments with the Princeton
cyclotron. Walking into the lab one day, Smyth saw the distinguished scientist helping a graduate student move a table, under another student's directions. Another time, a
Du Pont executive made a visit to see him at Columbia. Not finding him either in his lab or his office, the executive was surprised to find the
Nobel Laureate in the machine shop, cutting sheets of tin with a big pair of shears.
After the war, Fermi served for a short time on the General Advisory Committee of the
Atomic Energy Commission, a
scientific committee chaired by
Robert Oppenheimer which advised the commission on nuclear matters and policy. After the detonation of the first Soviet
fission bomb in August 1949, he, along with
Isidor Rabi, wrote a strongly worded report for the committee which opposed the development of a hydrogen bomb on moral and technical grounds. But Fermi also participated in preliminary work on the hydrogen bomb at Los Alamos as a consultant, and along with
Stanislaw Ulam, calculated that the amount of
tritium needed for
Edward Teller's model of a
thermonuclear weapon would be prohibitive, and a
fusion reaction couldn't be assured to propagate even with this large quantity of tritium.
In his later years, Fermi did important work in particle physics, especially related to
pions and
muons. He was also known to be an inspiring teacher at the
University of Chicago, and was known for his attention to detail, simplicity, and careful preparation for a lecture. Later, his lecture notes, especially those for
quantum mechanics,
nuclear physics, and
thermodynamics, were transcribed into books which are still in print.
Also in these later years he mused about a proposition which is now referred to as the "Fermi Paradox". This absurd contradiction or proposition is this: that with the billions and billions of star systems in the universe, one would think that intelligent life would have contacted our civilization by now; yet this hasn't happened since it takes only about 600 years for a civilization to reach potential for annihilating itself with weapons of mass-destruction as it grows in knowledge exponentially.
Fermi died at age 53 of stomach cancer and was interred at
Oak Woods Cemetery in
Chicago,
Illinois. Two of his graduate students who assisted him in working on or near the nuclear pile also died of cancer. Fermi and his team knew that such work carried considerable risk but they considered the outcome so vital that they forged ahead with little regard for their own personal safety.
As
Eugene Wigner wrote: "Ten days before Fermi had died he told me, 'I hope it won't take long.' He had reconciled himself perfectly to his fate".
A recent poll by
Time magazine listed Fermi among the top twenty scientists of the century.
The
Fermilab particle accelerator and physics lab in
Batavia, Illinois, is named after him in loving memory from the physics community.
Fermi 1 & Fermi 2
nuclear power plants in
Newport,
Michigan are also named after him, as are many schools such as Enrico Fermi High School in
Enfield, Connecticut.
Fermi Court in
Deep River, Ontario is named in his honour.
In 1952, element 100 on the
periodic table of elements was isolated from the debris of a nuclear test. In honor of Fermi's contributions to the scientific community, it was named
fermium after him.
Since the 1950s, the United States Atomic Energy Commission has named its highest honour, the
Fermi Award, after him. Recipients of the award include well-known scientists like
Otto Hahn,
Robert Oppenheimer,
Freeman Dyson,
John Wheeler and
Hans Bethe.
Laura and Enrico Fermi Family Legacy
Enrico Fermi's mother built her own pressure cooker ("Enrico Fermi, Physicist", Segre, University of Chicago Press, 1970) and perhaps this inspired Enrico to build the first nuclear reactor in 1942. A pressure cooker is metal containing steam pressure. Enrico's pile was graphite containing uranium from exploding (copyright Olivia Fermi 2001-2008, unpublished manuscript). In 1928, Fermi married Laura Capon. They had two children while living in Rome, Italy: a daughter Nella Fermi Weiner, PhD (1931–1995), artist and feminist; and a son Giulio ("Judd") Fermi, PhD (1936–1997). Laura and Enrico's son Giulio worked with the Nobel laureate
Max Perutz on the structure of
hemoglobin.
Toward the end of his life, Enrico realized his faith in society at large to make wise choices about nuclear technology was questionable ("Fermi Remembered", Cronin, ed., University of Chicago Press, 2004). Enrico Fermi said:
"Some of you may ask, what is the good of working so hard merely to collect a few facts which will bring no pleasure except to a few long-haired professors who love to collect such things and will be of no use to anybody because only few specialists at best will be able to understand them? In answer to such question[s] I may venture a fairly safe prediction.
History of science and technology has consistently taught us that scientific advances in basic understanding have sooner or later led to technical and industrial applications that have revolutionized our way of life. It seems to me improbable that this effort to get at the structure of matter should be an exception to this rule. What is less certain, and what we all fervently hope, is that man will soon grow sufficiently adult to make good use of the powers that he acquires over nature."
(Enrico Fermi, The Future of Nuclear Physics, unpublished address, Rochester, NY, January 10, 1953, EFP, box 53.)
His wife, Laura Fermi (1907–1977), early environmentalist, systems thinker, prolific writer and New York Times bestselling author of "Atoms in the Family: Life with Enrico Fermi, Architect of the Atomic Age" (University of Chicago Press, 1954) said, of our nuclear dilemma:
"But above all, there were the moral questions. I knew scientists had hoped that the bomb wouldn't be possible, but there it was and it had already killed and destroyed so much. Was war or was science to be blamed? Should the scientists have stopped the work once they realized that a bomb was feasible? Would there always be war in the future? To these kinds of questions there's no simple answer." (Laura Fermi, "Reminiscences of Los Alamos", edited by Lawrence Badash)
Rachel Fermi (1964–), photographer and teacher, Laura and Enrico Fermi's 3rd grandchild, continued to question the sanity of nuclear weapons in her book, published with Rachel Samra, introduction by Richard Rhodes: "Picturing the Bomb", Abrams pub, 1995). The authors juxtapose photos from the top secret world of the Manhattan Project with family photos from Los Alamos and Hanford.
Olivia Fermi (1957–), formerly Alice Caton, M.A. A.B.S. - Leadership in Human Systems, ConRes Cert, photoartist, writer and business consultant, Laura and Enrico's first grandchild, is currently researching the legacy of her grandparents for a series of books she plans to publish. http://fermieffect.com On September 29, 2001, shortly after the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City, Olivia flew to Rome, Italy to deliver a speech to the International Conference: Enrico Fermi and the Universe of Physics. She had been invited to speak to this gathering of physicists as a representative of the Laura and Enrico Fermi family. Olivia said:
"All of us alive today, and all who will come after us, are heirs to Enrico Fermi’s scientific legacy. We all have a stake in it. Since the end of World War II, humanity has had knowledge of nuclear energy and its incredible potential for benefit as well as harm.
"Enrico Fermi gave us a lot. And there's more to be done. Enrico Fermi’s work, and the work of other scientists, exists in a world full of people who, in a certain way, are like Enrico... [funnyanecdotes about occasional Enrico errors]... He, like all of us, was both brilliant and fallible.
"We have a collective, developmental task. We must learn to integrate our scientific knowledge and our human experience to find the answers to the nuclear dilemma, and to the many other dilemmas facing us today. ... Our world has yet to find the right nuclear recipe – how to harness nuclear power for the benefit of all living things.
"We will need all of our human gifts to survive and flourish on this planet. From here, it looks to me like Enrico contributed all of his gifts. Now it’s up to us to contribute ours. We can look back to Enrico for inspiration, if we look to ourselves for the future."
(Olivia Fermi (formerly Alice Caton), "Enrico Fermi in the Family", Speech presented at: Proceedings of the International 'Enrico Fermi and the Universe of Physics' Rome, Sept 29 - Oct 2, 2001" Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei Istitutio Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, 2003). Her speech was translated into Italian and published by Promoteo, the Italian journal of arts and letters in the December 2001 issue. ("Fermi in Famiglia", Alice Caton (now Olivia Fermi), Promoteo Anno 19, Numero 76, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Dicembre 2001)
The two male grandchildren of Laura and Enrico are Olivia's brother: Paul Weiner, PhD (1959–), mathemetician and professor; and Rachel's brother: Daniel Fermi (1971–). Between Paul and Rachel, there are four great-grandchildren of Laura and Enrico Fermi. These two children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren are all the direct descendents of Laura and Enrico Fermi.
Patents
- — Process for the Production of Radioactive Substances, filed October, 1935, issued July, 1940
- — Neutron Velocity Selector, filed September, 1945, issued October, 1950
- — Neutronic reactor, with Leo Szilard, filed December, 1944, issued May, 1955
- — Testing Material in a Neutronic Reactor, filed August, 1945, issued October, 1956
- — Test Exponential Pile, filed May, 1944, issued February 1957
- — Method of Operating a Neutronic Reactor, filed December 1944, issued July, 1957
- — Neutronic Reactor, filed October 1945, issued September, 1957
- — Neutronic Reactor Shield, filed January 1946, issued September, 1957
- — Method of Sustaining a Neutronic Chain Reacting System, filed November, 1945, issued November, 1957
- — Air Cooled Neutronic Reactor
- — Chain Reacting System
- — Neutronic Reactor
- — Neutronic Reactor
- — Method of Testing Thermal Neutron Fissionable Material for Purity, filed November 1945, issued January 1961
Further Information
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