Buch, Englisch, 343 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm
Reihe: Springer Biographies
ISBN: 978-3-032-27961-3
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
When Bruno Pontecorvo disappeared without a trace in 1950, he was already recognized as one of the most brilliant physicists of his generation. A key member of Enrico Fermi’s famed “boys from Via Panisperna,” he helped make Rome a world center of nuclear physics in the 1930s. In the 1940s, while working in North America, he made decisive contributions to neutrino physics, devising methods to detect one of nature’s most elusive particles. At the same time, Pontecorvo was a committed communist whose work for Western institutions placed him at the center of Cold War suspicions.
His sudden disappearance sparked intense speculation: had he defected to the Soviet Union, was he a spy, and did he contribute to the Soviet atomic bomb? For years, nothing emerged from behind the Iron Curtain, until his reappearance in the Soviet press as Bruno Maksimovic Pontecorvo, publicly declaring his decision to seek political asylum and embrace a new life in Moscow.
In this compelling and deeply researched biography, physicist Giuseppe Mussardo reconstructs the scientific achievements and human complexities of a figure who seems drawn from a spy novel yet shaped some of the most important ideas of modern physics. The book explores the unresolved mysteries surrounding Pontecorvo’s choices, beliefs, and knowledge, offering a penetrating portrait of a scientist for whom discovery, ideology, and personal sacrifice were inseparably entwined.
Zielgruppe
Popular/general
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
The medlar tree (The story of the family Pontecorvo; the rise of Fascism; the decision to study physics).- The nature of things (The status of art in physics and science in general at the dawn of the XX century).- The goldfish fountain (the boys of via Panisperna in Rome; the slow neutron discovery and the industrial patent).- Two voices out of the chorus (Biographies of GianCarlo Wick and Ettore Majorana).- The paths of freedom (Pontecorvo in Paris, with Joliot Curie and his first political commitments, in relation to the Spain War and anti-fascism).- The last day of youth (Dramatic escape from Nazi Paris directed to USA).- The profession of diviner (Pontecorvo engage in oil companies for his nuclear expertise).- In the heart of the nucleus (decisive steps in understanding the atomic nucleus).- PO Box 1663, Santa Fe 165 (Story of the Manhattan Project).- Liebe Radioactive Damen und Herren (Neutrino physics).- War of shadows (McCarthyism, atomic espionage, spies).- Countdown (Last period of Pontecorvo in Canada).- Her Majesty's secret services (UK Soviet spies, Kim Philby and friends, Soviet spy network in UK).- Intrigue in Rome (How Pontecorvo and family suddenly disappeared).- Behind the scenes (What happened behind the scenes).- Bruno Maksimovic? (Pontecorvo in Moscow and Dubna).- Notes 397.- Selected bibliography 427.- Cronology 433.- Index of names 429.
