Nuclear Forces: The Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe by Silvan S. Schweber (PDF)

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On the fiftieth anniversary of Hiroshima, Nobel-winning physicist Hans Bethe called on his fellow scientists to stop working on weapons of mass destruction. What drove Bethe, the head of Theoretical Physics at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project, to renounce the weaponry he had once worked so tirelessly to create? That is one of the questions answered by Nuclear Forces, a riveting biography of Bethe’s early life and development as both a scientist and a man of principle.As Silvan Schweber follows Bethe from his childhood in Germany, to laboratories in Italy and England, and on to Cornell University, he shows how these differing environments were reflected in the kind of physics Bethe produced. Many of the young quantum physicists in the 1930s, including Bethe, had Jewish roots, and Schweber considers how Liberal Judaism in Germany helps explain their remarkable contributions. A portrait emerges of a man whose strategy for staying on top of a deeply hierarchical field was to tackle only those problems he knew he could solve.Bethe’s emotional maturation was shaped by his father and by two women of Jewish background: his overly possessive mother and his wife, who would later serve as an ethical touchstone during the turbulent years he spent designing nuclear bombs. Situating Bethe in the context of the various communities where he worked, Schweber provides a full picture of prewar developments in physics that changed the modern world, and of a scientist shaped by the unprecedented moral dilemmas those developments in turn created.

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⭐Hans Bethe was one of the greatest and most versatile scientists of the twentieth century. The sheer magnitude of his scientific accomplishments ranging across almost every field of theoretical physics almost defies belief; he was probably the last “universalist”, a man who could solve virtually any physics problem that came his way. The sum total of his work in science and government is so vast and diverse that it led the astrophysicist John Bahcall to joke that a conspiracy of several people must have published all those papers under the name Hans Bethe. But Bethe also had the rare distinction of being an even greater human being, a man with rock-solid integrity, strength of mind, character and equanimity. After building the atomic bomb, he worked ceaselessly until the age of 98 for nuclear disarmament and became known as the conscience of the scientific community, a Rock of Gibraltar on whom others could rely for sound and courageous advice even during the most trying of times. In every sense as both a scientist and human being, he was a role model for all of us. In this volume, his biographer Silvan Schweber tells us how Bethe became who he did. Schweber is supremely qualified to write about Bethe, having been his postdoc in the 50s and already having penned an outstanding contrasting study of Bethe and Oppenheimer as well as a superb history of quantum electrodynamics. Through many interviews and a friendship going back fifty years, Schweber gives us a rare glimpse into the personal and professional life of this great man. The biography achieves the rare goal of being both scholarly and engaging. The few technical sections can easily be skipped by non-specialists.The account is really of the years 1906-1940, beginning with Bethe’s birth and ending with his participation at the highest ranks in the Manhattan Project. Bethe grew up in Germany during the tumultuous years between the two great wars so his life is also a microcosm of German and American history during the early twentieth century. Schweber does an outstanding job in tying Bethe’s background to the German scholarly and cultural tradition. His father was a noted biologist and inspired Bethe’s interest in science. His remarkable mathematical talents manifested themselves at an early age. After finishing high school, his qualities were noticed by Arnold Sommerfeld, then Europe’s leading teacher of physics who had already trained some of the twentieth century’s most prominent theorists. Studying with Sommerfeld provided Bethe with a rigorous mathematical foundation which he then powerfully extended into new realms. It was under Sommerfeld that Bethe blossomed as a physicist. Another profound influence on him was that of Enrico Fermi with whom Bethe spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow. Fermi’s dazzling simplicity of thought, mastery of all of physics and remarkable ability to get to the heart of a problem combined with Sommerfeld’s rigor made Bethe uniquely positioned to apply the newly developed quantum theory to novel problems. During the twenties Bethe made key contributions to solid-state physics, quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. And his thorough grasp of the mathematical machinery of physics allowed him to instantly contribute to the new science of nuclear physics in the 30s. Throughout this time he formed lasting friendships and collaborations with outstanding theorists like Fermi, Peierls, Teller, Mott, Blackett and Oppenheimer.Schweber has a sure grasp of Bethe’s development and his achievements during the 30s. It was during this time that Bethe’s professional and personal lives were profoundly changed. After Hitler came to power in 1933, Bethe whose mother was Jewish was dismissed from his academic position. After spending a year in England, he had the good fortune to be invited to Cornell University which became his home until the end of his life. Bethe’s arrival at Cornell heralded a new era of physics in the United States, an era of which he became one of the leading statesmen. It was Bethe along with other famous European emigres like Fermi, Teller, Einstein and Szilard who was responsible for the ascendancy of the US in physics, a trend which has continued up to the present day. Schweber tells us how Bethe readily embraced his new country with its freedom and informality. He established a world-class center of physics at Cornell, mentored many influential physicists (both Freeman Dyson and Richard Feynman were later proteges of his), contributed an authoritative set of articles to nuclear physics (called the “Bethe Bible”) and most importantly, married Rose Bethe who was the daughter of his old teacher Paul Ewald. Throughout his life Rose was a major and steadfast influence on Bethe, and he consulted her on the moral consequences of working on nuclear weapons. A separate chapter on Rose makes her importance in Hans’s life clear.It was his scientific achievements and the propitious developments in his personal life that led Bethe to call the 30s the “happy 30s”. It was at the end of this decade that he made his most lasting contribution – an explanation of the origin of the sun’s energy generated through nuclear fusion. As Schweber tells us, Bethe was inspired to solve this problem during a conference and, helped by his incomparable knowledge of nuclear physics, worked out the essential details in short order. This was one of those puzzles that scientists had grappled with for more than a hundred years, and Bethe solved it in a characteristically direct way. Its solution addressed an elemental aspect of human curiosity, one that manifested itself when our hominid ancestors looked up at the sky and wondered what was out there. For this achievement Bethe was unsurprisingly awarded the Nobel Prize, although the Nobel committee themselves acknowledged that he could have gotten the award for half a dozen other major discoveries. Working until the end of his long life, Bethe continued to contribute to fields as wide-ranging as particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology.For me the most important part of this book was an appreciation of Bethe’s qualities which Schweber communicates with much sensitivity and insight. It is not possible for us to mirror the extraordinary mental faculties of minds like Bethe and Einstein. But we can very much try to emulate their personal qualities which are more accessible if we persevere. In case of Bethe, one of his most important traits was an uncanny ability to sense his own strengths and limitations, to work on problems for which he “possessed an unfair advantage”. Bethe knew he was not a genius like Dirac or Heisenberg. Rather, his particular strength was in applying a dazzling array of mathematical techniques and physical insight to concrete problems for which results could be compared with hard numbers from experiment. He could write down the problem and then go straight for the solution; this earned him the nickname “the battleship”. Another important thing to learn from Bethe was that just like Fermi, he was willing to do whatever it took to get the solution. If it meant tedious calculations filling reams of paper, he would do it. If it meant borrowing mathematical tricks from another field he would do it. Of course, all this was possible because of his great intellect, formidable memory and extraordinary powers of concentration, but there is certainly much to learn from this attitude toward problem solving. The same approach helped him in other aspects of his life. He became extremely successful as a government consultant and scientific statesman partly because he knew when to compromise and when to push ahead. This wisdom of being diplomatic at the right time is another lesson that Bethe imparts to the rest of us. Taken together, Bethe’s science and life provide ample inspiration for future scientists, policy makers and teachers. And Schweber does a wonderful job telling us how all these scientific and personal qualities manifested themselves and contributed to twentieth-century science during the tumultuous 20s and 30s.My only regret about the book is that Schweber stops at the end of the 30s. Bethe’s life during World War 2 and later is at least as interesting as his earlier years. I do hope that Schweber can write an equally insightful volume about this second phase, giving us another memorable portrait of a great scientist and citizen.

⭐This book covers the life and work of a young German genius during the heady days for theoretical physics of the 1920s and 30s.It introduces many of the players who ultimately created the atomic bomb such as Fermi, Teller, Gamow and others. The work is very scholarly and tells its story well. The problem for nonmathematical reader is that there are pages of formulas that are meaningless to the nonmathematician. Not an easy go but worth it for anyone with any interest in the development of an understanding of atomic structure.

⭐There is a lot of good information here, just two problems as I see it. First, the style of the author tends toward the formal, so there are introductory words before each new section about what is coming. A second style problem infuses the whole book, namely the prose has a wordy, fuzzy quality, particularly in the sections on physics. I’ve read a lot better accounts of nucleosynthesis and the early history of nuclear physics than this one.The second problem is the sudden ending of the book before Bethe’s participation in building the atomic bomb, and his later misgivings. Shocking to say the least, skipping some of his most famous and interesting activities.So, it’s a mediocre book, but worth reading.

⭐A very interesting book with an emphasis on the contextual conditions and people that impacted the early life of Han Bethe. It helps to have some acquaintance with 20th century developments in modern physics. The author has a good grasp of the topics the Bethe investigated and wrote about. Some parts are a bit technical and mathematical, but not to the point that they distract from the overall message. I will look forward to a sequel book that covers the last half of Bethe’s career and life.

⭐I am interested in science and the men who made scientific history. Hans Bethe’s life is very interesting but the book issomewhat ponderous.

⭐This is an almost inpossible read even for a well-educated engineer of scientist. It’s definately not for the general public!

⭐I have long wanted to read about this man.Though the book is sizeable, I will certainlyfinish reading it!

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