A Brilliant Darkness

October 12, 2009
Part mystery, part biography and part nuclear physics primer, Magueijo’s book takes readers through an investigation into the melodramatic life, work and bizarre disappearance of a troubled young physicist after he boarded a ship in Palermo on the cusp of WWII. A “twisted prodigy raised by domineering parents, Majorana (born 1906) became one of the Via Panisperna boys, a group of raucous young physicists nurtured by fission pioneer Enrico Fermi. Majorana discovered a subatomic particle called the Majorana neutrino, but refused to publish any papers and so never got credit for his discovery. Magueijo’s examination of Majorana, aided by interviews with his living relatives, reveals a troubled, confounding man whose disappearance has inspired as many conspiracy theories as the Roswell incident. Whether Majorana committed suicide, joined a monastery, or ran off to Argentina, whether he deserves a Nobel Prize (if he’s still alive somewhere) as Magueijo, a theoretical physicist at Imperial College, London (Faster than the Speed of Light
), insists, it’s clear his life and approach to his work were both singular and outrageously strange. Photos, illus.

November 1, 2009
Ahh, to be a fly on select walls of European physics research during those heady years of the early 20th century. Ettore Majorana (190638) was part of that elite group of men and women tackling theoretical physics, which was more math than lab science. Theoretical physicist Magueijo ("Faster Than the Speed of Light") paints the life of a twenty something math prodigy who joined Enrico Fermi, Emilio Segre, and the other "Via Panisperna Boys" who in 1934 discovered nuclear fusion. The author could have easily fallen into the jargon of his profession to describe the work of a fellow scientist, but he does not. His clear explanation of Majorana's insight into nuclear physics, often accompanied with drawings and illustrations, will appeal to a wide audience. VERDICT Like most biographers, Magueijo treats Majorana's life and mysterious disappearance at the age of 31 in 1938 with respect mixed with admiration. The result will affect both science history buffs familiar with the man and his work and general readers who may never have heard of him. Recommended for public and academic collections.Margaret F. Dominy, Drexel Univ. Lib., Philadelphia

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2009
No twentieth-century scientist deserved the Nobel Prize more than the Italian physicist Ettore Majorana. So argues Magueijo, who nonetheless admits that the Nobel selection committee faced an insuperable obstacle in considering Majorana: only the living are eligible for the prize, and after March 26, 1938, no one knew whether Majorana was alive or dead. For on that date, one day after he had inexplicably handed a cache of his papers to a baffled student, the gifted theorist boarded a ship in Palermoand vanished! Unraveling the mysteries left in the wake of that departing ship, Magueijo delves deep into the subatomic theories developed by the enigmatic genius, theories so advanced that they dazzled Majoranas mentor, Enrico Fermi, and have continued to mesmerize scientists ever since. For the benefit of nonspecialists, Magueijo explains these scientific theories in mercifully simple terms. But what simple terms can illuminate a tortured and unstable personality, vulnerable to bouts of depression and prone to antisocial reclusiveness? The complexities of that personality resist assimilation into any of the standard explanationssuicide, kidnapping, flight, monastic retreatfor Majoranas disappearance. But astounded readers will thank Magueijo for his daring venture into the science and the psyche of a perplexing figure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)