Faust, the Physicists and the Atomic Bomb

Abstract

This paper explores the cross-fertilization between science and literature in the 1930s, at key moments in atomic physics and in the development of the atomic bomb. In 1932, the centenary of Goethe's death, physicists attending an international conference at Niels Bohr's Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen performed a parody of Goethe's Faust. Goethe's critique of science in the play made this a significant choice at the dawn of nuclear physics. James Chadwick's discovery of the neutron that year was high lighted in the performance. In 1933 while in Bloomsbury, London, the physicist Leo Szilard realized how to use a self-sustaining neutron chain reaction to release the energy of the atom. The previous year Szilard had read H. G. Wells's novel The World Set Free (1914) in which the phrase 'atomic bomb' was coined. As well as considering the Faustian themes in the novel, I explore parallels between Wells's scientist, Holsten, and Leo Szilard himself. I argue that this is a clear example of fiction influencing science, and that Goethe's notion that scientific knowledge and self-knowledge should evolve hand in hand, remains a valuable insight when considering the role of scientists in the creation of weapons of mass destruction.