The Princeton period

OCT 01, 1967

Abraham Pais

IN SEPTEMBER 1946 the American Physical Society met in midtown Manhattan. In the minutes of this meeting we read that it “was confined to papers on three topics: cosmic‐ray phenomena, theories of elementary particles and the design and operation of accelerators of nuclear particles and electrons. Disparate as these three subjects may appear to be, the trend of physics is rapidly uniting them.”

This article is only available in PDF format

References

1. Phys. Rev. 70, 784 (1946).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
2. H. A. Bethe, J. R. Oppenheimer, Phys. Rev. 76, 451, 796 (1946).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
3. J. R. Oppenheimer, Phys. Rev. 71, 462 (1947).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
4. H. W. Lewis, J. R. Oppenheimer, S. A. Wouthuysen, Phys. Rev. 73, 127 (1948).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
5. M. Conversi, E. Pancini, O. Piccioni, Phys. Rev. 71, 209, 557 (1947).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
6. The statement that “the particle with mass determined from the range of nuclear forces is the Yukawa particle and not the meson found in cosmic rays” appears first, I believe, in S. Sakata and T. Inoue, Progress of Th. Physics, 1, 143 (1946).
The Shelter Island discussions led to the paper by R. E. Marshak and H. A. Bethe, Phys. Rev. 72, 506 (1947). https://doi.org/PHRVAO
The Japanese paper did not reach the US until early 1948;
see R. E. Marshak in Proc. Kyoto Conf., 1965, p. 180.
7. W. E. Lamb, R. C. Retherford, Phys. Phys. Rev. 71, 914 (1947).
8. J. E. Nafe, E. B. Nelson, I. I. Rabi, Phys. Rev. 71, 914 (1947). https://doi.org/PHRVAO
See also G. Breit, Phys. Rev. 72, 984 (1947); https://doi.org/PHRVAO
H. M. Foley, P. Kusch, Phys. Rev. 72, 1256 (1947); https://doi.org/PHRVAO
H. M. Foley, P. Kusch, 73, 412 (1948); https://doi.org/PHRVAO , Phys. Rev.
G. Breit, Phys. Rev. 74, 656 (1948).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
9. J. R. Oppenheimer, Phys. Rev. 35, 461 (1930).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
10. P. A. M. Dirac, Proc. of the Seventh Solvay Conference (1934).
11. W. H. Furry, J. R. Oppenheimer, Phys. Rev. 45, 245 (1934).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
12. See H. A. Bethe, Phys. Rev. 72, 339 (1947).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
13. H. W. Lewis, Phys. Rev. 73, 173 (1946).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
14. From the unpublished manuscript of the Richtmyer lecture, see reference 3.
15. J. R. Oppenheimer, “Knowledge and the Structure of Culture,” The Helen Kenyon Lecture, Vassar College (October 1958).
16. “The Age of Science: 1900–1950” The Scientific American (September 1950).
17. See also the comments by J. R. Oppenheimer in “US Atomic Energy Commission: In the Matter of J. R. Oppenheimer.” (Transcript of hearing before Personnel Security Board.) Washington, D.C. (1954), page 26.
18. J. R. Oppenheimer, “On Science and Culture,” Encounter (October 1962).
19. J. R. Oppenheimer, in “Perspectives of Modern Physics,” Essays in honor of H. A. Bethe, Interscience, New York (1966).
20. J. R. Oppenheimer “Science, values and the human community” Fulbright Conference on Higher Education, Sarah Lawrence College (June 1957).
21. J. R. Oppenheimer, “Science and the Common Understanding,” The BBC Reith Lectures, Oxford University Press, London (1954).

More about the authors

Abraham Pais, Rockefeller University.