Half-Life

Starred review from December 8, 2014
When Italian physicist Bruno Pontecorvo (1913–1993) disappeared in 1950, everyone believed he had fled to the U.S.S.R. to escape the fate of physicist Klaus Fuchs, arrested earlier that year “for passing atomic secrets” to the Soviets. Five years later, Pontecorvo surfaced in Moscow, explaining that he had moved to escape persecution for antiwar views and that his work had no military applications. Proof that Pontecorvo spied remains elusive, but Close, a professor of physics at Oxford, delivers an intensively researched, engrossing biography that turns up some suspicious behavior and mildly incriminating documents. Pontecorvo was a science prodigy who studied under Enrico Fermi in Rome, contributing to Fermi’s 1938 Nobel–winning studies on neutron bombardment of the atomic nucleus. In 1936 he joined the Paris laboratory of Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie, where he enhanced his reputation, absorbed their left-wing views, and joined the Communist Party. Work on various projects brought him to the U.S., Canada, and finally Britain before his disappearance at the height of Cold War spy hysteria. Whether or not he was a spy, he was undoubtedly a brilliant scientist. Close serves Pontecorvo well in this outstanding biography, illuminating his work as well as the painful political conflicts of his time. Agent: Patrick Walsh, Conville & Walsh.

December 1, 2014
Months after the 1950 arrest of British nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs, Bruno Pontecorvo (1913-1993) vanished behind the Iron Curtain. Everyone assumed that he was also a Soviet spy, but extensive investigation found no evidence that he provided secrets to the Soviets.In this insightful biography, British physicist and writer Close (Physics/Univ. of Oxford; The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe, 2011, etc.) does not ignore Pontecorvo's brilliant research and the tortuous political turmoil of his era. (The United States Congress described him as "the second deadliest spy in history.") Born into a wealthy, superachieving Italian family, he was 18 when he joined Enrico Fermi in Rome and contributed to groundbreaking 1934 experiments showing that slowing neutrons made them vastly more efficient in exploring the atom. Moving to France and then fleeing to America after the 1940 German invasion, Pontecorvo spent three years in a Canadian laboratory building the first heavy water reactor. Although only peripherally related to the Manhattan project, its scientists often consulted colleagues who were directly involved. In 1948, popular and highly respected, Pontecorvo moved to Britain and was working on the British atom bomb when he disappeared. Five years passed before he reappeared to express his pleasure at being a Soviet citizen, an opinion he did not publicly change until the Soviet Union collapsed. A privileged member of its scientific elite, he continued world-class research into neutrons and neutrinos. The Nobel committee has no objection to communists but dislikes controversy, so Pontecorvo's defection probably deprived him of the prize. Close's intense research turns up hints that he spied and, warned by other spies, fled to avoid arrest. A fine account, heavy on science and politics, of a long, productive, peripatetic and ultimately inexplicable life.

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January 1, 2015

In this absorbing biography of Italian physicist Bruno Pontecorvo (1913-93), a pioneer of the Standard Model of particle physics, notable British physicist Close (emeritus, physics, Oxford Univ.; The Infinity Puzzle) takes a scientific approach, differentiating this account from other biographies such as Simone Turchetti's The Pontecorvo Affair: A Cold War Defection and Nuclear Physics. Close provides engaging descriptions of physics research in the 20th century, starting with fellow Italian physicist Enrico Fermi's lively group of "boys," among them Pontecorvo. The author's discussion of his subject's support of communism and the largely unplanned impact this had on the neutrino physicist's family and career, are equally clear and engrossing. Close does an excellent job of describing the personal and professional lives of his subject, as well as the international intelligence community's investigations of Pontecorvo before and after he deflected to the Soviet Union. VERDICT This fascinating and well-researched account will appeal to a wide range of readers, including those interested in World War II and the foundation of the Manhattan Project, the Cold War, particle physics, the process of scientific investigation, and the life of scientists.--Sara R. Tompson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lib., Archives & Records Section, Pasadena, CA

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