Monday, September 19, 2011

Passing the torch

From Fermi Remembered. The insightful biographical sketch at the beginning of the book, by Emelio Segre, includes details of Fermi's early (self) education and entry into Scuola Normale Superiore.
Murray Gell-Mann: When Fermi lay dying in Billings Hospital, I realized how much I cared for this brilliant, funny, difficult man. I was on leave in the East, and I invited Frank (C.N.) Yang to come with me to Chicago to see him. When we got to the bedside, Enrico kept telling us not to be downcast. "It is not so bad," he said. He told of a Catholic priest who had visited him and whom he had had to comfort. And Frank reminded me a few years ago of what Enrico said when we left, never to see him again. "Now, it is up to you."

4 comments:

Jean Huiskamps said...

Let's hope we can be just as inspiring when our tine comes :-)

Guy_Brodude said...

Fermi was also a casual eugenics supporter (of course, that was hardly uncommon in his time). 

Ene Dene said...

It's not uncommon now as well, governments support breading of some subsets of population.

gubbish said...

"governments support breading of some subsets of population"

Fried Soylent Green. Yummy!

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