Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
F
IGURE
I
Luis Alvarez at
the MIT Radiation Laboratory,
September 1943. [Photo
courtesy of University of
California Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory.]
Ernest Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron and one of the most
influential American scientists in history. Lawrence was mentor to
many who later made their mark; several, like Luis, were to follow
him in winning the Nobel Prize.
"If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of
the soluble," wrote Sir Peter Medawar.
3
To choose a problem that
cannot be solved, or one that need not be solved in order for a field
to advance, is to delay the progress of both science and career. Luis
Alvarez understood Medawar's point and proved a master at select-
ing the next important problem and designing just the piece of
apparatus to solve it.
By his own description, his style was to "flit" from research
problem to research problem, often to the consternation of his co-
workers and students and especially his mentor, Lawrence. But dur-
ing a period when physics was advancing rapidly and opportunities
abounded, his method made him unusually versatile and produc-
tive. In the early days of World War II, he worked to improve the
radar system that played such a crucial role in the Allied victory.
From there, he went to Los Alamos to become one of the key sci-
entists in the development of the atomic bomb. Two unusual proj-
