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Article: Luis Alvarez: From A-bomb to archeology
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- April 19, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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As a scientist, Luis W. Alvarez is that rare thing: a tinker and
a thinker, both hands-on technician and ivory-tower theorist. As a
result, he seems to have been present at the creation of most of the
century's seminal inventions in physics.
He almost discovered nuclear fission. (Enrico Fermi beat him to
it by a few days.) During World War II he invented an antisubmarine
radar enemy U-boats couldn't detect. He also developed a
ground-controlled radar, still in use by the military, for landing
aircraft. He helped build the atomic bomb and watched the dawn of
the nuclear age over New Mexico and at Hiroshima aboard a chase B-29.
After the war he learned the new particle physics and won his ...