HS, part 2
KWP59 at aol.com
KWP59 at aol.com
Sun Oct 15 02:48:30 CDT 2006
This odd neglect may have a logic behind it; a closer look reveals that
Cornwell's real focus is the physical sciences--three-quarters of the
book deals with physics and technology: engineering, rocketry, radar,
cryptology and, above all, nuclear fission. Within the physical sciences,
the much-contested figure of Werner Heisenberg receives by far the
most attention.
The Heisenberg debate seems an ideal test case for Cornwell's questions
about the moral neutrality of science. Two typical positions characterize
the debate, which surrounds the problem of why Heisenberg remained
in Germany. The first--espoused by some journalists and playwright
Michael Frayn--points to Heisenberg's failure to join the NSDAP and
the dislike for his "non-Aryan" physics among National Socialists as
evidence that Heisenberg was practicing a form of passive resistance.
This interpretation follows Austrian journalist Robert Jungk, who argued
in an early account of Heisenberg's behavior in _Heller als tausend
Sonnen_ (1956) that German nuclear physicists chose not to build the
bomb. Only later did Jungk discover that their failure to develop the bomb
was due to ignorance. Jungk drew on evidence from interviews he
conducted with the physicists themselves (notably Carl von Weizsäcker),
and retroactively accused them, in a revised edition of the book (1990),
of whitewashing themselves. Journalist Thomas Powers confirmed Jungk's
original thesis in _Heisenberg's War_ (1994), arguing that Heisenberg
fought his own personal war against the Nazis by consciously delaying
the construction of a bomb. Powers's view is heavily based on his
interpretation of Heisenberg's fateful meeting with Niels Bohr in occupied
Copenhagen in 1941, during which Heisenberg gave a suspiciously vague
report on the progress of German nuclear research. Bohr interpreted the
conversation as an attempt at exploitation, but Power reads it as a hidden
cry for help. British playwright Michael Frayn, who acknowledges basing
his work on Powers, has similarly focused on the meeting: in the beginning
of his play _Copenhagen_ (1998), Bohr's wife Margrethe asks: "Why did
[Heisenberg] come to Copenhagen?"[5] Frayn suggests Heisenberg's
moral status is subject to uncertainty--much like his physics.
An alternative explanation, held mostly by historians and scientists,
suggests that by staying in Germany, Heisenberg sacrificed moral and
political scruples for the benefit of science--or for his scientific career.
His loss of the race for the bomb is a sign of intellectual failure, not
moral
superiority. Scholars who espouse this position follow Samuel Goudsmit,
who attributed the failure to "certain stupidities on the part of German
scientists and their government" (p. 232).[6] Paul Lawrence Rose is
convinced that Heisenberg miscalculated the required amount of U-235
for the reaction. His conclusion that the necessary quantity could not be
procured during wartime caused him to attempt to tease scientific advice
from and thus alienate Bohr, his former mentor and close friend.[7] David
Cassidy suggests Heisenberg acted for the German government when
visiting Bohr, arguing that Heisenberg hoped to use Bohr's connections
to Allied nuclear physicists to make them believe that Germany was still
a long way from building the bomb.[8] Cassidy and Rose base their
argument on a postwar letter by Heisenberg to his colleague B. L. van
der Waerden and on the newly released Farm Hall transcripts--secret
recordings of conversations of ten German nuclear scientists interned
near Cambridge, England, made in order to discover whether they
collaborated with the Soviets after the war. Rose criticizes Powers's
failure to take into account this "damning evidence," released in 1992
and recently published in an annotated edition (p. 70).[9] Among the
most coherent and successful chapters in Cornwell’s book are those
treating these transcripts (chapter 29) and the subsequent chapter-long
evaluation of the figure of Heisenberg ("Heroes, Villains and Fellow
Travelers").
Kurt-Werner Pörtner
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20061015/9227947d/attachment.html>
More information about the Pynchon-l
mailing list