A Brilliant Darkness: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Ettore Majorana, the Troubled Genius of the NOn the night of March 26, 1938, nuclear physicist Ettore Majorana boarded a ship, cash and passport in hand. He was never seen again. In A Brilliant Darkness, theoretical physicist Joao Magueijo tells the story of Majorana and his research group, "the Via Panisperna Boys," who discovered atomic fission in 1934. As Majorana, the most brilliant of the group, began to realize the implications of what they had found, he became increasingly unstable. Did he commit suicide that night in Palermo? Was he kidnapped? Did he stage his own death? A Brilliant Darkness chronicles Majorana's invaluable contributions to science -- including his major discovery, the Majorana neutrino -- while revealing the truth behind his fascinating and tragic life. |
Contents
3 | |
Nuclear Crisis | 18 |
Frankensteins Youth | 30 |
Meet Ettore Majorana | 75 |
Neutrinos from Transylvania | 92 |
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle | 135 |
Artichokes | 148 |
The Crepuscule of Via Panisperna | 164 |
The Quiet Before the Storm | 182 |
Pagliacci | 205 |
They Thought the Sun Was Sick | 223 |
Ettore MajoranaTM | 242 |
Acknowledgments | 267 |
Other editions - View all
A Brilliant Darkness: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Disappearance of ... Joao Magueijo No preview available - 2009 |
A Brilliant Darkness: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Disappearance of ... Joao Magueijo No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
alpha particle Amaldi Amis’s annihilation antiparticle atomic became beta ray Bohr bomb brother Bruno Bruno Pontecorvo Carrelli Catania chiral detect didn’t Dirac Dirac’s theory disappearance Dorina double beta decay electron element Emilio Segrč emitted Ettore Majorana Ettore’s Fabio fact Fascist father Fermi Feynman Figure fission genius German Gilda Senatore Giovanni Gentile going happened Heisenberg Hitler interactions isotopes Italian Italy later Laura Fermi left-handed leptons letter look Luciano Majorana neutrino mass mathematical Mattia mother Mussolini Naples negative energies negative-energy neutrinoless double beta neutrons never Nobel Prize nuclear physics nucleus Palermo Panisperna Boys paper Pauli perhaps physicists Pietro Pontecorvo positive-energy positron Professor proton quantum mechanics radioactive Rasetti Rome Salvatore Sciascia scientific scientists Senator Corbino Sicilian Sicily signora someone speed of light spin story suicide talk tell there’s things tore’s trino University uranium Via Panisperna Boys who’d wrote