Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi

This was a fairly easy book to read. It was more of a personal account of what life was like for Fermi and his family. Not too technical, but still enjoyable.

Enrico Fermi was a supremely talented scientist of the twentieth century, perhaps the only scientist who was uniquely accomplished in both experimental and theoretical physics. Fermi contributed massively to almost every branch of modern physics, and almost any one of his discoveries would have been enough to win him a Nobel Prize. In this book, his wife Laura Fermi affectionately and engagingly tells us the story of this singular individual and his all-consuming passion for physics. Laura brings a personal touch to the great man's life that is rarely seen. This is especially valuable for someone like Fermi who was a rather private individual and not fond of talking about personal matters. Laura recounts Fermi's childhood and background, including his taking refuge in physics after a personal tragedy in which his brother and best friend Giulio died when he was 15. After this incident Fermi's life trajectory was set. He quickly rose through the ranks to become Professor of Physics at Rome. Laura describes their meeting and how she was wonderstruck by the intellect and unassuming nature of the young man. She endearingly describes their time together in Italy during a decade that was very important and exciting for the development of modern physics. Much of the book's appeal comes from personal glimpses into Fermi's personal life as well as his and Laura's life in the United States after they fled from Mussolini's anti-Semitism (Laura was Jewish). Laura describes the remarkable discoveries Fermi made in Rome with neutrons, his enduring friendship with other extraordinary scientists and their migration to America. She has amusing stories about adjusting in the United States and about Fermi's singularly important work on the Manhattan Project. She describes the great secrecy during the project because of which Fermi could not tell her earlier about what was probably his greatest achievement- the construction of the world's first nuclear reactor, a watershed in world history. She also tells us about amusing aspects of life in the secret and remarkable community of Los Alamos, where there was an entire division created just for Fermi. Accompanying all these stories are anecdotes about the great physicists of the century, most of whom Fermi personally knew well and who respected him tremendously for his knowledge and modesty. All things considered, this is a rare glimpse into the life of a most extraordinary scientist provided by someone who personally knew him as well or better than anyone could. It is a very valuable book and deserves an important place in the history of physics.

Excellent book. Very well written, especially considering that it was written in English by a non-native speaker of the language. Regardless of the writing, it tells a story that had largely been kept secret from my husband, even though he received a university degree in Physics. He has found substantial confirmation of what Laura Fermi wrote in several books by Emilio Segre, and at many Web sites.

On first glance the title of this book appears to be a play on the ADDAMS FAMILY TV series. However, this book was originally published in 1952 and the TV series didn't come out until a decade later. However, there was apparently a newspaper cartoon that the TV series was based on, and that dates back to the 1930s. Whether Mrs. Fermi made a conscious pun or not I don't know. Would be a bizarre nexus between the Addams family & the great Enrico Fermi, but..... In any case, this book is a biography of Enrico Fermi, who was the greatest Italian physicist of the 20th century. He was probably the greatest Italian scientist since Galileo Galilei. Fermi was in charge of the first team to successfully unleash a controlled nuclear reaction. Also, one major type of photon (the "Fermion") is named after him [the other major type of photon is the "Boson"]. One of the nice things about having a non-scientist (in this case, his wife) write the biography is that we get to see the man "behind the equations." Laura Fermi describes his quirks and we also find out that he had a sense-of-humor almost comparable to Richard Feynman. Another intriguing aspect of the book is that we get a view of the Manhattan Project from a non-scientist's point of view. Mrs. Fermi gives us an inside look at the living conditions and everyday duties / chores of someone who was not actually working on the bomb. This is an interesting viewpoint as I've read several other accounts of Los Alamos as told thru the eyes of the scientists who worked on the bomb. This is an important book that gives insight into one of the biggest names in modern physics. That he ended up settling in the United States is of great fortitude to we Americans. His discoveries have been a monumental boon to science, and in this book is his life story.

I first read this book more than 40 years ago. I still reread it, now and then. It is the source of most of the anecdotes that helped to explain, and disseminate, the Fermi style of doing physics. I am particularly fond of the memories of the youth of Laura Fermi, when Enrico was a young "dottore", and, together with a group of friends, used to hike the Italian Alps at holidays. Everything was used to teach science, or the way of thinking needed in science (for instance, the thermodynamics of the frying pan!). Later you'll find this "physics at the finger tips" approach used to estimate the power emitted at the first nuclear explosion. A great book.