Making Physics: A Biography of Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1946-1972

Abstract

This book by a young Stony Brook philosophy professor and historian offers in 13 well organized and clearly arranged chapters an exciting view into the genesis and the operation of one of the foremost Big Science laboratories in the 20th century. Initiated by two Columbia University professors, Isidor Rabi and Norman Ramsay, Brookhaven National Laboratory was established immediately after World War II by nine universities on the US East Coast, from Harvard to Johns Hopkins, starting with a nuclear pile project. Equipped with the most modern nuclear physics instruments of the day to perform pure research in physics, chemistry, medicine nd biology, BNL was able to leave most important marks in the development of all these fields, despite receiving considerable competition in the flourishing Atomic Age, then dominated by the United States. Crease tells of the both the high and low points of the Laboratory. keeping a good balance between institutional, personal and scientific aspects. Using a vast amount of official reports and memoranda, publications and letters, interviews and reminiscences, photos and other graphical presentations, he concentrates on a lively account of the two main installations of the laboratory - the various types of reactors and elementary-particle accelerators - and their uses. For example, while the first accelerator, the Cosmotron, (ready 1953/54) was soon beaten by the more powerful Berkeley Bevatron, the second proton machine, the AGS, in spite of being ready a year after the CERN PS, succeeded in overtaking the latter in the number of decisive results of particle physics, which were often honoured by Nobel prizes going to American physicists: such as for the discovery of the two neutrino types, the CP-violation of the neutral kaons, and the existence of the Ω- proving the SU3 scheme. Brookhaven also pioneered new techniques and experimental methods in nuclear and particle science, both in pure and applied reearch. In spite of restricted (and overall wise) selection of topics, the book reflects the best style and the atmosphere of the whole exciting epoch in nuclear science. It represents an exemplary account of the development of a singlular institution, which possessed an unusually broad and - as one has to admit - even `democratically' determined programme. Certainly, in the first 25 years after the war great expenditures were spent on this most fashionable branch of modern research, but later generations should really view the Brookhaven story with considerable admiration and even some envy. This well presented book, with fine illustrations, helpful notes and index, is a pleasure to read both for the layman and the scientist.