Physics Today and the spirit of the Forties

MAY 01, 1973

When the magazine emerged 25 years ago, it reflected the hopes for science in the postwar period and focused attention on the new opportunities and environment for research.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3128048

Charles Weiner

Great expectations were in the air for the future of physics when the first issue of PHYSICS TODAY appeared in May 1948. The applications of physics in World War II had created a new social environment for science in terms of public attitudes and government financial support. Among physicists themselves excitement was brewing over new experimental discoveries and theoretical interpretations in solid‐state and particle phenomena. At the same time, new instruments of unprecedented power and size were offering high hopes for probing both the smallest particles of matter and the largest dimensions of the universe. The birth of PHYSICS TODAY as a communication link among physicists, and between them and the larger community, reflected these events of the postwar years. The emergence of the new magazine in May—like the dedication in June of the 200‐inch Palomar telescope and the public announcement in July of the discovery of the transistor—was the culmination of a process that had been set in motion years earlier.

References

1. Postwar planning for science is discussed and documented in The Politics of American Science: 1939 to the Present (J. L. Penick, C. W. Pursell, and others, eds.) MIT Press, Cambridge (1972).
2. “Preliminary Report of the Policy Committee on the Reorganization of Physics,” AIP Archives at the AIP Center for History of Physics;
H. A. Barton, “The Early Years,” in Physics Today 21, no. 5 (1968), page 66.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
3. V. Bush, “Trends in American Science,” in Physics Today 1, no. 1, (1948), page 5.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
4. V. Bush, “Trends in American Science,” in Physics Today 1, no. 1 (1948), page 6.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
5. E. Piore, “Investment in Basic Research,” in Physics Today 1, no. 7, (1948), page 6.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
6. A. Roberts, Physics Today 1, no. 7, (1948), page 17.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
7. These postwar developments in nuclear physics are discussed by many of the major participants in Exploring the History of Nuclear Physics (C. Weiner, ed.), AIP Conference Proceedings no. 7 (1972).
8. E. A. Burrill, “The Accelerator Conference,” in Physics Today 1, no. 5, (1948), page 15.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
9. J. R. Oppenheimer, “Thirty Years of Meson Physics,” in Physics Today 19, no. 10, (1966), page 57.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
10. R. Feynman, “Pocono Conference,” in Physics Today 1, no. 2, (1948), page 9.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
11. S. Tomonaga to J. R. Oppenheimer, May 1948, Oppenheimer Papers, Manuscripts Division, US Library of Congress, Wash., D.C.
12. R. Feynman, “Pocono Conference,” in Physics Today 1, no. 2, (1948), page 11.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
13. Quoted in H. Childs, An American Genius: The Life of Ernest Orlando Lawrence, Dutton, New York (1969), page 299.
14. The events leading up to the 200‐inch telescope dedication are documented in The Legacy of George Ellery Hale (H. Wright, J. Warnow, C. Weiner, eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge (1972).
15. L. Spitzer, “The Formation of Stars,” in Physics Today 1, no. 5 (1948), page 11.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
16. Physics Today 1, no. 4 (1948), page 22.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
17. C. Weiner, “How the Transistor Emerged,” in IEEE Spectrum 10, no. 1, (1973), page 24.https://doi.org/IEESAM
18. J. C. Slater, Physics Today 1, no. 4 (1948), page 22.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
19. V. Bush, “Trends in American Science,” in Physics Today 1, no. 1 (1948), page 39.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
20. H. A. Robinson, “The Challenge of Industrial Physics,” in Physics Today 1, no. 2 (1948), page 5.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
21. J. Pfeiffer, “Science on the Air,” in Physics Today 1, no. 3 (1948), page 20.https://doi.org/PHTOAD
22. J. Pfeiffer, “Science on the Air,” in Physics Today 1, no. 3 (1948), page 24.https://doi.org/PHTOAD

More about the Authors

Charles Weiner. AIP.