A Brilliant Darkness The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Ettore Majorana, the Troubled Genius of the Nuclear Age

by Magueijo, Joao

• ISBN13: 9780465009039
• ISBN10: 0465009034
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-11-24
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

On the night of March 26, 1938, nuclear physicist Ettore Majorana boarded a ship, cash and passport in hand. He was never seen again. InA 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 Darknesschronicles Majorana's invaluable contributions to scienceincluding his major discovery, the Majorana neutrinowhile revealing the truth behind his fascinating and tragic life.

Author Biography

João Magueijo is a lecturer in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College, London, where he was for three years a Royal Society Research Fellow. He has been a visiting researcher at the University of California at Berkeley and Princeton University, and received his doctorate in Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University. Magueijo was featured in a British television documentary, "Einstein's Biggest Blunder," which was broadcast last year. Visit the author's website at http://theory.ic.uk/~magueijo/.

Table of Contents

Prologue: A Moment of Fatigue or Moral Discomfort	p. vii
Life: The Grand Inquisitor
The Attic of 251 Via Etnea	p. 3
Nuclear Crisis	p. 18
Frankenstein's Youth	p. 30
Poltergeist Exposed	p. 43
Bread and Sperm	p. 50
Strong Interactions	p. 65
Meet Ettore Majorana	p. 75
Boys Will Be Boys	p. 80
Neutrinos from Transylvania	p. 92
Ode to the Vanquished	p. 101
Creation and Annihilation	p. 108
The Serpent's Egg	p. 118
His Unfinished Symphony	p. 127
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle	p. 135
Stellar Collapse	p. 142
Artichokes	p. 148
Meanwhile, at Via Panisperna	p. 152
The Crepuscule of Via Panisperna	p. 164
Ettore's Neutrino	p. 171
The Quiet Before the Storm	p. 182
The Search Party	p. 191
Afterlife: The Dark Matter
Pagliacci	p. 205
A Pirandellian Intermezzo	p. 211
Don't Cry for Him, Argentina	p. 215
They Thought the Sun Was Sick	p. 223
The Sign of the Beast	p. 231
Ettore MajoranaÖ	p. 242
A Vote of Silence	p. 248
Epilogue: Mediterranean Whales	p. 253
Acknowledgments	p. 267
References	p. 269
Credits	p. 271
Index	p. 273
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