LAST MASTER:

HANS BETHE |1906-2005: 'The Last of the Old Masters' of Physics (Thomas H. Maugh II and K.C. Cole, March 8, 2005, LA Times)

Hans Bethe, the nuclear physicist whose elegant calculations explained how stars shine and laid the foundation for development of both the atomic and hydrogen bombs, has died. He was 98.

Bethe, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967, died Sunday at his home in Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University announced Monday.

A reluctant but crucial participant in the World War II effort to develop nuclear weapons, Bethe later became one of the country's most passionate and persuasive proponents of disarmament. He argued that the use of such weapons would cost not only countless lives, but "liberties and human values as well."

A brilliant, prolific and engaging theorist with an encyclopedic knowledge of nuclear physics, Bethe spent more than 60 years working with only a slide rule, a stack of blank paper and his enormous intellect, turning out page after page of mistake-free, complex calculations that fundamentally altered how scientists viewed the microscopic world of the atom.

"He was the last of the old masters," said astrophysicist Edward Kolb of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. "He turned out classic paper after classic paper."

Bethe (pronounced BAY-ta) was the lone survivor of the remarkable group of mostly German physicists of the early 20th century — a group that included Einstein, Dirac, Fermi and Heisenberg — that deciphered the fundamental laws of matter and energy and set the stage for the remarkable technological developments of the last half of the century.

"There's no one of comparable stature alive today," Cornell physicist Kurt Gottfried told The Times in 2003. "I can't think of any physicist who was as productive at the frontier over such a long period."

Hans Bethe, Prober of Sunlight and Atomic Energy, Dies at 98 (WILLIAM J. BROAD, 3/08/05, NY Times)

Hans A. Bethe, who discovered the violent reactions behind sunlight, helped devise the atom bomb and eventually cried out against the military excesses of the cold war, died late Sunday. He was 98, among the last of the giants who inaugurated the nuclear age.

His death was announced by Cornell University, where he worked and taught for 70 years. A spokesman said he died quietly at home.

Since the war years at Los Alamos, N.M., Dr. Bethe had lived in Ithaca, N.Y., an unpretentious man of uncommon gifts. His students called him Hans and admired his muddy shoes as much as the way he explained how certain kinds of stars shine. For number crunching, in lieu of calculators, he relied on a slide rule, its case battered. "For the things I do," he remarked a few years ago, "it's accurate enough."

For nearly eight decades, Dr. Bethe (pronounced BAY-tah) pioneered some of the most esoteric realms of physics and astrophysics, politics and armaments, long advising the federal government and in time emerging as the science community's liberal conscience. [...]

In a 1997 interview in his Cornell office, at age 90, Dr. Bethe said he had no regrets about his role in inventing the atom bomb, done amid worries about the Nazis' getting it first and conquering the world. But as the most senior of the living scientists who initiated the atomic age, he urged the United States to renounce all research on nuclear arms and called on scientists everywhere to do likewise. [...]

With passion, he fought President Ronald Reagan's proposed shield against enemy missiles, known popularly as Star Wars. It again pitted him against Dr. Teller, in what became their last battle. In February 1983, Dr. Teller tried to win over Dr. Bethe by revealing the secret details of what he considered the ultimate technical fix - the X-ray laser, powered by a nuclear bomb. It would emit powerful beams to smash Soviet warheads before consuming itself in ball of nuclear fire, an H-bomb to destroy H-bombs. "You have a splendid idea," said Dr. Bethe, complimenting Dr. Teller on its physics. But he soon led X-ray laser opposition, arguing that an enemy could easily outwit the exotic weapon.

"We need to try to understand the other fellow and negotiate and try to come to some agreement about the common danger," Dr. Bethe said after his Teller meeting. "That is what's been forgotten. The solution can only be political. It would be terribly comfortable for the president and the secretary of defense if there was a technical solution. But there isn't any."

All that scientist of conscience guff is rather annoying--he was only too happy to crank out the WMD for the wars he wanted and then lecture subsequent generations over their wars--but there's a neat website that lets you watch three of his lectures for a lay audience, Quantum Theory Made Relatively Simple:

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.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 12, 2005 12:00 AM