History 181B - Class 33

History 181B: Modern Physics

Class 33 (4/14/03)
The threats of the 30s

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Outline

Nuclear physics by the mid-30s
Rethinking the transuranics: Discovering fission (1938)
Chemical and physical arguments
Consequences, physical, technical, and political

Troubles in the Soviet Union: The Stalinist regime
    A hopeful start
    Fears of the 1930s: Cultural revolution
    Fears of the 1930s: Xenophobia and purges

Troubles in Italy: The fascist regime

Troubles in Germany: The Nazi regime
    The Weimar Republic (1919-1933): An era of instability
    The National Socialist rise to power (1933) and party platform
    First consequences for physics: Dismissals and emigration

Names and terms

Primary	Secondary
Otto Hahn (1879-1968), NP 1944 (chemistry) Lise Meitner (1878-1968) Fritz Strassmann (1902-1980) Otto Robert Frisch (1904-1979) binding energy fission fragment chain reaction dialectical materialism Great Terror (1936-1938) Lev Landau (1908-1968), NP 1962 Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), NP 1938 Law for Restoration of the Civil Service (1933) Nuremberg Laws (1935)	Hans Bethe (1906- ), NP 1967, "Bethe Bible" V.I. Lenin (1870-1924), Josef Stalin (1879-1953) George Gamow (1904-1968) Piotr Kapitza (1894-1984), NP 1978 Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

Assignment

Selections from Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources, ed. Klaus Hentschel and Ann M. Hentschel (Basel: Birkhäuser, 1996), 1-5, 18-21, 119-127, 152-157.

    What kinds of arguments did the opponents of relativity theory advance?
    What did the advocates of "German physics" (or "Aryan" or "Nordic physics") want?
    How did Heisenberg respond? Were his actions and strategies justified?