History 181B - Class 37

History 181B: Modern Physics

Class 37 (4/23/03)
Physics, politics, and the state

Navigation

Outline

Physicists and politics
    What to do with the Bomb
        Early efforts from within
        The public crusade and the Scientists' Movement
        Physicists and the arms race
    The Cold War and the advisory function
        The H-bomb decision (1949-50)
        The Oppenheimer case (1953-54)
    Campaigns against politically suspect scientists

The state as funder
    Change of ideology in the U.S., change of scale elsewhere
    The Manhattan Project as the physicists' utopia
    Why do governments fund basic physics research?

Names and terms

Primary	Secondary
J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) James Franck (1882-1964), NP 1925 Franck Report (early summer 1945) Scientists' Movement Federation of Atomic (later American) Scientists (FAS) Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) H-bomb = hydrogen (fusion, thermonuclear) weapon Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)	Frédéric Joliot (1900-1958), NP 1935 (chemistry) Patrick Blackett (1897-1974), NP 1948 Pugwash Movement General Advisory Committee (of the AEC) House Un-American Activities Committee Senator Joseph McCarthy

Assignment

"Lawrence and his Laboratory: A Historian's View of the Lawrence Years," on the web ; Arthur Roberts, "Take Away Your Billion Dollars," Physics Today 1:7 (1948): 17-21.

    Fourth assignment: Read ch. 4 and episode 3.
    How did the Atomic Energy Commission end up responsible for Lawrence's lab?
    What were the scientific payoffs of the new research program?
    What new kinds of knowledge and skill were required?
    What might the tradeoffs have been?