Today marks the anniversary of the birth of Enrico Fermi, the well-known physicist known throughout the world, born in Rome on 29 September 1901. Nobel Prize for physics in 1938, his theoretical and experimental studies in the field of quantum mechanics and nuclear physics were important. Fermi was a pillar of modern physics as well as a key figure in the development of the atomic bomb. He died in Chicago on November 28, 1954 from stomach cancer.
From self-taught to Nobel Prize winner
Enrico Fermi demonstrated his great passion for scientific subjects since he was a child. He began his studies as a self-taught student, then, at the age of 17, he was admitted with full marks to the Pisa Normal School, where he conducted studies on relativistic and quantum physics. Four years later he graduated with top marks and, in 1926, he was the first Italian teacher of Theoretical Physics. With his other colleagues, he formed the group known as i “kids from Via Panisperna”, which was joined by some of the best-known physicists of the time, such as Ettore Majorana, Emilio Segrè, Franco Rasetti, Edoardo Amaldi, Orso Mario Corbino. Together with them, in 1931, he participated in an important conference in Rome, which was attended by important names such as Marie Curie, Niels Bohr, Werner Karl Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli. In the following years they continued their nuclear physics experiments whose objective was to irradiate the known atoms, hoping to obtain new radioactive atoms deriving from the decay of the starting atom.
The leading role in the Manhattan Project
Enrico Fermi was married to the Jewess Laura Capon and when, in the summer of 1938, the racial laws came into force in Italy, he decided to move with her to the United States, after having collected the Nobel Prize for Physics. In New York he found work at the Columbia University, where he continued his research on nuclear fission. On December 2, 1942 he put the first atomic pile, called Chicago Pile I, which was the prototype of a nuclear reactor. The news reached the American army. The US government decided to build a bomb based on nuclear fission through the Manhattan Project. The goal was to stop the rise of the Nazi-fascists, to end the Second World War. Fermi's role in this project was of the highest level: he was one of the technical directors.
From “fermio” to “fermi”, terms coined in his honor
At the end of the world war, Enrico Fermi returned to Chicago and founded an institute of nuclear physics, still known today by the name of fermilab. In the following years he dedicated himself to research in this area, also holding several conferences in Italy. In honor of him, an element of the periodic table is named “stop”, As well as “fermions” they are one of the two classes of particles of quantum statics. The “stop” it is instead a submultiple of the meter used in nuclear physics.
(Photo: Scientific Stories, Facebook Page; Enrico Fermi, Facebook Page)
