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Robert Serber
(14 Mar 1909 - 1 Jun 1997)
American physicist who wrote gave introductory background lectures (5-14 Apr 1943) on the design and construction of atomic bombs at Los Alamos. Notes from these seminars were mimeographed as The Los Alamos Primer (the first Los Alamos technical report, LA-1) given to newly-arriving scientists at the top-secret laboratory.
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Science Quotes by Robert Serber (2 quotes)
The object of the project is to produce a practical military weapon in the form of a bomb in which the energy is released by a fast neutron chain reaction in one or more of the materials known to show nuclear fission.
— Robert Serber
From notes (written up by Edward U. Condon) of introductory lectures by Robert Serber (Apr 1943) at the start-up of the Los Alamos Project. For distribution to new arrivals, the notes were mimeographed as The Los Alamos Primer. See 'Object', Sec.1, p.1. Declassified in 1965. Published with an Introduction and extensive notations added by the editor, in Robert Serber and Richard Rhodes (ed.), The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How To Build an Atomic Bomb (1992), 3.
We see that the immediate experimental program is largely concerned with measuring the neutron properties of various materials, and with the ordnance problem. It is also necessary to start new studies on techniques for direct experimental determination of critical size and time scale, working with large but sub-critical amounts of active material.
— Robert Serber
From notes (written up by Edward U. Condon) of introductory lectures by Robert Serber (Apr 1943) at the start-up of the Los Alamos Project. For distribution to new arrivals, the notes were mimeographed as The Los Alamos Primer. See 'Conclusion', Sec.22, p.24. Declassified in 1965. Published with an Introduction and extensive notations added by the editor, in Robert Serber and Richard Rhodes (ed.), The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How To Build an Atomic Bomb (1992), 63.
See also:
- 14 Mar - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Serber's birth.
- The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How To Build an Atomic Bomb, by Robert Serber and Richard Rhodes (ed.). - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
