The Last Man Who Knew Everything

September 15, 2017
A fine life of the scientist "who knew everything about physics, the study of matter, energy, time, and their relationship."Never a media darling like Einstein or Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) is now barely known to the public, but few scientists would deny that he was among the most brilliant physicists of his century. A lucid writer who has done his homework, Schwartz (NATO's Nuclear Dilemma, 1983), whose father won a Nobel Prize in physics, delivers a thoroughly enjoyable, impressively researched account. The son of a middle-class Italian family, Fermi was a prodigy. As an adolescent, he absorbed textbooks in physics and mathematics and obtained perfect grades in those subjects in college. After graduation, he led a team that made Italy, formerly a backwater, a world-class center of physics. In the decade after 1925, Fermi described the weak interaction, one of the four fundamental forces of nature, and perfected neutron bombardment of the atomic nucleus, which produced artificial radioactivity and ultimately nuclear fission and the atomic bomb. After winning the Nobel Prize in physics in 1938, he left Mussolini's Italy for the United States, where his research indicated that neutrons from uranium fission would lead to a chain reaction releasing enormous energy. Proving this required an actual chain reaction, which he accomplished in 1942 after building the first atomic reactor. He led a section of the Manhattan project, which produced the atomic bomb, and remained a dominant figure until his premature death at 53. Einstein only theorized; Ernest Lawrence only built machines and experimented; Fermi excelled at both besides being a superb teacher universally loved by students. Neither eccentric nor introspective, he kept no diary, so little is known of his inner life, but Schwartz has no qualms about speculating. A rewarding, expert biography of a giant of the golden age of physics.

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Starred review from October 9, 2017
Schwartz (NATO’s Nuclear Dilemmas), a State Department alumnus, introduces a new generation to Enrico Fermi (1901–1954) with the first English-language biography of Fermi in 47 years. An Italian immigrant, Nobel laureate, and passionate outdoorsman, Fermi pioneered the physics breakthroughs that shaped the 20th century. Readers will find no equations here, only unfaltering, clear explanations of the science behind his discoveries relating to the weak and strong interactions, Fermi-Dirac statistics, computational physics, and nuclear reactors. Along with Fermi’s life in Italy and America, Schwartz ably resurrects his Los Alamos years, showing how “much of what was secret in the Manhattan Project originated in Fermi’s brain.” Uniquely, Fermi triply excelled in experimentation, theory, and teaching. By “stripping problems to their bare essentials and leading his students through step-by-step solutions,” Fermi “believed that anyone could learn what he knew.” Charismatic, confident, and approachable, he was beloved by students and peers alike. But Fermi showed reticence “in every aspect of his personal life,” writing “neither letters nor diaries.” Schwartz recreates Fermi’s story from the outside in, aided by the writings of his wife, Laura, and his colleagues. Told in a sure, steady voice, Schwartz’s book delivers a scrupulously researched and lovingly crafted portrait of the “greatest Italian scientist since Galileo.”

Starred review from October 15, 2017
In 1942, after Enrico Fermi had forever changed the world by triggering the first-ever atomic chain reaction, a colleague asked his wife, Laura Fermi, Do you think anything is impossible for Enrico? In this compelling new biography, Schwartz makes clear how little lay beyond the reach of this scientific polymath. A laudably lucid narrative illuminates how Fermi's remarkable breadth of intellect established him as Italy's most celebrated twentieth-century scientist, a pioneer in theorizing on beta rays and in creating new elements through slow-neutron bombardment. Acclaimed as a Nobel laureate, Fermi uniquely excelled as theorist, experimentalist, and teacher. And that unparalleled range of talents quickly elevated Fermi to leadership in American science, after he fled a Nazifying Europe. The taut narrative captures all the high drama of Fermi's December 1942 breakthrough in fission and all the tense intrigue of the consequent Manhattan Project bomb-making in which Fermi's multifaceted genius again shone. Though comparable to Segre and Hoerlin's The Pope of Physics (2016) as an account of Fermi's groundbreaking science, Schwartz's biography delivers a much fuller personal portrait, illuminating how this generous friend to scientific colleagues, this inspiring mentor to students, often proved a difficult husband and negligent father. A sophisticated portrayal of a complex man.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)