The Rise of Nuclear Alarmism Oct 28, 2009
In a 1999 essay, political activist Howard Morland mused about how history might have been different if Enrico Fermi had announced nuclear fission in 1934, when he first observed it without understanding it completely. That would have been five years before Otto Hahn published his findings, prompting Leo Szilard to write the "Einstein Letter" to FDR and eventually get the atomic bomb made in America, not Germany or Japan. (Slate)
Top honors bestowed on 2 area scientists Sep 19, 2009
Stanford University Professor Siegfried Hecker shared, with University of Texas Professor John Goodenough, the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award, one of the top honors awarded by the U.S. government. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, announced the presidential award. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Science)
Louis Rosen, at 91; physicist worked on first nuclear bombs Sep 7, 2009
Dr. Rosen was one of the last surviving links to the scientific giants who had created the atomic age - people like J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi as well as Teller. But more than that, he had also advanced the era. (Boston Globe)
Fermi Tracks Gamma-ray Pulsars Aug 20, 2009
(It used to be called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, but a year ago to honor the great Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi (1901-54), who was the first to suggest a viable way for accelerating cosmic particles to near-light speeds. Fermi isn't the first space observatory to probe the gamma-ray universe. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
The nuclear perils of the 21st century Jul 23, 2009
In 1939, various pieces of information in about 100 scientific papers crystallized in the joint thinking of Danish physicist Niels Bohr, Leo Szilard, a Hungarian-born American scientist, Enrico Fermi, the Italian genius who had left his homeland because of fascism, and John Archibald Wheeler of Princeton, all meeting at the Columbia University faculty dining room. The foursome - perhaps the greatest meeting of brains in history - developed the idea of chain reaction of uranium fission. (Boston Globe)
Gathering My Thoughts Jul 11, 2009
To me, that makes about as much sense as saying I should respect the Nobel Prize because, after all, over the years it has gone to the distinguished likes of Albert Einstein, Elie Wiesel, Enrico Fermi, George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling, John Steinbeck and Milton Friedman. On the other hand, not only didnt Jonas Salk, Maurice Hillman or Mark Twain, win one, but Jimmy Carter, Le Duc Tho, Al Gore and Yasser Arafat did. (Townhall.com)
> read more Jun 26, 2009
Enrico Fermi even described a plausible mechanism in 1949. When a star explodes, says Vink, the supernova ejecta material goes at a speed much larger than the speed of sound (pressure waves) in the surrounding interstellar medium. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
Sugarmans honor graduate students’ research Jun 16, 2009
D., 41) was a charter member of the Enrico Fermi Institute and a longtime Professor in Chemistry. (Univeristy of Chicago Chronicle, IL)
Meteorite grains divulge Earth's cosmic roots Jun 16, 2009
Roy S. Lewis, Enrico Fermi Institute and the Chicago Center for Cosmochemistry, University of Chicago. Heinrich Baur, Institute of Isotope Geology and Mineral Resources, Zurich, Switzerland. (EurekAlert!)
Chemists Discover Rare Rydberg Molecule With 'New' Type Of Bonding May 13, 2009
These molecules are an important test for atomic theory which first emerged in 1934 when Enrico Fermi predicted how another atom might behave when interacting with an electron far from its nucleus. OU researchers are looking for the same types of molecules formed by Cesium atoms, but a Cesium atom is slightly different because there is more than one type of molecule depending on how the spins of the system align. (Science Daily)
Veteran space walker could find three-point line during Hubble Space Telescope mission May 1, 2009
Grunsfeld grew up near the University s campus on Chicago s South Side, where Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi oversaw construction of the first nuclear reactor during World War II.. I was inspired as a young man by the exploits of Enrico Fermi as a scientist and as a mountaineer in the Dolomites, and he became a role model for me, said Grunsfeld, who studied physics at Chicago. (Univeristy of Chicago Chronicle, IL)
World first for strange molecule Apr 28, 2009
It reinforces fundamental quantum theories, developed by Nobel prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi, about how electrons behave and interact ... Back in 1934 Enrico Fermi predicted that if another atom were to "find" that lone, wandering electron, it might interact with it. (BBC News -- Science)
Evangelical wrestler to preach in Coulee Region Apr 16, 2009
"Well, I say that every single person who claims they were abducted by space aliens is either lying or mistaken too (and there are thousands of them). I'll bet that less than .001 percent of the population has ever made an alien abduction claim...just guessing, that number is probably .02 percent claiming direct experience of a 'miracle.' I consider it logical to consider as superset the entire population, not just the set of all claimants. If ninety percent of everyone had claimed either... (La Crosse Tribune, WI)
Q&A: 'Energy efficiency can help reduce fiscal deficit' Mar 20, 2009
NEW DELHI: He's known as the 'founding father' of energy efficiency in the US. Arthur H Rosenfeld, 86, is commissioner of the California Energy Commission (CEC) since 2000, He was a student (Physics) of Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi, at the University of Chicago. Rosenfeld's research on the miniaturization of electronic ballasts in fluorescent lamps led to the development of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) at Laurence Berkeley National Laboratory where he founded the Centre for Building Science... (India Times, India)
Bobby Cremins: “We could have won the national chamionship” Mar 19, 2009
I think we won the Enrico Fermi Bowl in 48, and that was it. Buzz the Gay Bee. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Sports)
Physicist wins 1m Templeton gong Mar 17, 2009
Professor d'Espagnat's scientific pedigree put him at the centre of the growth of quantum mechanics, working with Nobel laureates in the field including Enrico Fermi and Niels Bohr. But he was troubled by how little the field was addressing the philosophical questions raised by the theory - which for the first time suggested that experiments were not measuring an absolute reality and that the experimenter could influence the result. (BBC News -- Science)
EDIT: Anybody Out There? Mar 6, 2009
Why, as the physicist Enrico Fermi questioned, if the apparent size and age of the universe suggests that many technologically advanced ET civilisations ought to exist, has there been no observational evidence to support it. Why have they not contacted us. (India Times, India)
Clayton adds Smith Medal to his honors Mar 6, 2009
The National Academy of Sciences will award the J. Lawrence Smith Medal for investigations of meteoric bodies to Clayton, the Enrico Fermi Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Chemistry, Geophysical Sciences and the College, at the academy s annual meeting on Sunday, April 26 in Washington, D.C.. Clayton has pioneered the use of oxygen isotopes chemical fingerprints found in meteorites and lunar rocks in understanding the processes that formed the planets and asteroids early in the... (Univeristy of Chicago Chronicle, IL)
Watching deep-space fireworks Mar 4, 2009
It s named after Enrico Fermi, an Italian-American physicist who helped design the first atomic bomb and also studied gamma-ray bursts. Since they were first observed more than 35 years ago by satellites, these bursts of energy have been one of the biggest mysteries of space. (Science News for Kids)
GOP lawmakers want Fast Lane audit Mar 2, 2009
The winning alliance included students from Middletown, Portsmouth, Tiverton and Mount Hope high schools in Rhode Island; Bedford High School in Massachusetts; and Enrico Fermi High School in Enfield, Conn. The national finals will be held in Atlanta in April. (Boston Globe)
Nanoweapons Research Necessary for Survival Feb 27, 2009
The migrs over the 1930s included Einstein, Theodore von Karman, John von Neumann, Eugene Wigner, Leo Szilard, Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Lise Meitner, Enrico Fermi [an Italian whose wife was JewishL. N.], and many others. What are the superweapons of today. (Newsmax)
Alien Census: Can We Estimate How Much Life Is Out There? Feb 11, 2009
One day in 1950, nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi posed a question to a few colleagues he was lunching with at Los Alamos National Laboratory that would become known as the Fermi Paradox: If the Milky Way is indeed teeming with alien civilizations, as many theories suggest, where are they. Shouldn't we see evidence of their existence. (Scientific American)
