Posted on 03/07/2005 8:41:58 AM PST by Borges
ITHACA, N.Y. - Hans Bethe, one of the last of the giants of 20th century physics, who played a pivotal role in designing the first atomic bomb and won a Nobel Prize for figuring out how the sun and other stars generate energy, has died at the age of 98.
Bethe died Sunday at his home, Cornell University announced Monday.
During World War II, he was a key figure in the building of the first atomic bomb as head of the Manhattan Project's theoretical physics division at Los Alamos, N.M.
Bethe (BAY'-tuh), who fled Nazi Germany and joined the Cornell faculty in 1935, also made major discoveries about how atoms are built up from smaller particles, about what makes dying stars blow up as supernovas, and how the heavier elements are produced from the ashes of these supernovas.
He averaged a scientific breakthrough every decade or so, beginning in the golden age of physics between the world wars, and became one of the 20th century's most accomplished and admired scientists.
In his 90s, at Cornell University's Newman Laboratory of Nuclear Studies, he devoted many solitary afternoons to his passion: numbers.
"I think it's very useful for keeping me young," he said in an interview in late 1996, his measured, resonant baritone inflected with his native German accent.
Bethe's indefatigable aura earned him the nickname of "The Battleship" at Los Alamos, the laboratory in New Mexico where the atomic bomb was developed.
Even though the atomic bomb designers knew its calamitous potential, the weapon's reality "was worse than we expected," Bethe reflected in an interview with The Associated Press in November 1996. "After Hiroshima, many of us said: `Let's see that it doesn't happen again.'"
Bethe played key roles in the 1963 and 1972 bans on atmospheric nuclear tests and anti-ballistic missiles.
Born in Strasbourg in 1906, Bethe fled Nazi Germany in 1933 after losing a university post because his mother was Jewish.
Bethe emerged in an era bursting with discoveries about the fundamental building blocks of matter. In the infancy of modern atomic theory, he spelled out what was known and unknown in nuclear physics in a classic series of papers dubbed Bethe's Bible.
He also investigated the structure of atoms, molecules and solids, devised techniques for calculating the properties of nuclear matter and laid the groundwork for the development of quantum electrodynamics.
In 1938, leading nuclear physicists were invited to crack a pivotal enigma that had long stumped the best scientific minds: the sun's energy source, and Bethe came up with his Nobel Prize-winning "carbon cycle" formula six weeks later. He showed that virtually all the energy produced by the most brilliant stars stems from a fusion reaction in which hydrogen serves as the fuel and carbon as the catalyst.
From a total of 300 published research papers, his choice of 20 favorites for a 1997 book collection included a few recent ones on the collapse of stars.
After retiring from teaching in 1975, Bethe turned to astrophysics, a field he previously had only dipped into.
With his grasp of so many fields of theoretical physics, Bethe was persuaded by astrophysicist Gerald Brown to delve into the macro-mysteries of mighty star explosions, or supernovae. Their collaboration quickly turned heads. A 1979 paper upended long-held assumptions about the density of a collapsing star's core.
At his zenith, there seemed to be few well-defined conundrums of the cosmos that Bethe couldn't master. He could not program the simplest computer, but had no trouble digesting reams of supercomputer readouts. For help, he reached into his briefcase for a slide rule he had carried around for 70 years.
He also had a habit of taking a 30-minute bath each morning.
"You sleep and things get somewhat unscrambled in your mind," he said in 1996. "Then in the bath, I can become conscious of that."
Science had been Bethe's hunger since boyhood.
"You see, most philosophical questions were quite well answered by the old Greeks, and even better by people from 1500 to 1800," he said. As for deciphering human character, "I don't think Shakespeare has ever been surpassed.
"Science is always more unsolved questions, and its great advantage is you can prove something is true or something is false. You can't do that about human affairs — most human things can be right from one point of view and wrong from another.
"It is the most wonderful feeling when you come to a real answer. This is it, and this is correct! In science, you know you know."
He is survived by his wife, Rose, a son and a daughter.
one of my fav physicist/chemist scientist. He was so brilliant at both theoretical and applied.....he is the last of the last....nmy real hero of nuclear chemistry died a decade ago.....Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.......
He won his Nobel when it really meant something, Before the days of Jimmy Carter and Yassir Arafat.
RIP.
Well the Science Nobels are given out by different comittees. The Peace Prizes shouldn't detract from them.
Amazing, the Germans could have conquered the world if those idiots didn't oppress geniuses like Bethe. Seems three quarters of the great Physicists came from Germany. May he rest in piece.
He had the habit of always popping small throat losengers while teaching. He was as addicted to those things as was a cigarette fiend and his butts. It got to the point where I thought his famous accent was not due to his German background but from those dang losengers. Every now and then those of us in the front row would get a little spray (holy water?) when the losengers kicked in.
He was a very great and truly nice person.
ping
Man, this year is still young, and it's been a bad one for physics followers. We've already lost both Bethe and Bromley:-'(
One of the bright stars in the physics pantheon. He was old when I was studying physics.
Here's a link to three lectures by Bethe, introduced by the following paragraphs:
IN 1999, legendary theoretical physicist Hans Bethe delivered three lectures on quantum theory to his neighbors at the Kendal of Ithaca retirement community (near Cornell University). Given by Professor Bethe at age 93, the lectures are presented here as QuickTime videos synchronized with slides of his talking points and archival material.
Intended for an audience of Professor Bethe's neighbors at Kendal, the lectures hold appeal for experts and non-experts alike. The presentation makes use of limited mathematics while focusing on the personal and historical perspectives of one of the principal architects of quantum theory whose career in physics spans 75 years.
A video introduction and appreciation are provided by Professor Silvan S. Schweber, the physicist and science historian who is Professor Bethe's biographer, and Edwin E. Salpeter, the J. G. White Distinguished Professor of Physical Science Emeritus at Cornell, who was a post-doctoral student of Professor Bethe.
Ach! You're right. My bad.
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