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He was also the one bringing the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisch%E2%80%93Peierls_memorandum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisch%E2%80%93Peierls_memoran...
by cf141q5325 3y ago
He was also the one bringing the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisch%E2%80%93Peierls_memorandum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisch%E2%80%93Peierls_memoran... to the attention of the president.
I find him to be incredibly inspiring and "As we may think" even more so. The gravitas is palpable and reading this paper is one of these moments when "standing on the shoulders of giants" feels very much true.
edit: Regarding the memorandum, i found the following quote by Peierls especially chilling:
>Any competent nuclear physicist would have come out with very similar answers to ours if he had been asked: "What is the likely fission cross-section of pure U235? What critical size for separated U235 follows from this? What will be the explosive power of such a mass? How much industrial effort would be needed to do the separation? And would the military value be worthwhile?" The only unusual thing that Frisch and I did at this point was ask those questions.
Its hard to overstate how important it is to not make asking these kind of questions necessary again. I am doubtful about humanities chances for survival otherwise.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kwhitefoot 3y agoWhen I studied for my bachelor's in applied physics in the mid-70s several of those questions were standard exercises in the nuclear physics course.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago> Its hard to overstate how important it is to not make asking these kind of questions necessary again. I am doubtful about humanities chances for survival otherwise. Here's a problem though: those are the kind of questions I'd expect physicists to ask and give back-of-the-napkin answers to while killing boredom in a cafe or a bar. So I guess it's really more about what you'll do with the answers afterwards.
- cf141q5325 3y agoDont ask, dont tell? And dont scan the napkin