Hans Bethe - My interest in the limits of quantum electrodynamics (64/158)
2,176 views · Published 27 June 2017 · 1:33 · Indexed 31 October 2026
Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Science & Technology
To hear more of Hans Bethe’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvgLyzTEmJk&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFyUDSroBQVEcbnNud7I9xom German-born theoretical physicist Hans Bethe (1906-2005) was one of the first scientists to join the Manhattan Project, later strongly advocating nuclear disarmament. In 1967, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. [Listener: Sam Schweber; date recorded: 1996] TRANSCRIPT: [SS] That begins your interest in the limits of quantum electrodynamics? It does indeed. In this paper, with Heitler, we tried to compare the theory with high energy electrons, and the only high energy electron which were... which were available were from cosmic rays and we predicted that cosmic ray electrons would lose a lot of their energy by going through rather small amounts of matters, maybe a... a centimeter of lead would do it, slow them down definitely. But experiments showed that wasn't the case. Well, in this connection I was approached, still in England at a conference in London, I was approached by Arthur Compton, who was one of the two leading cosmic ray physicists, the other being Millikan, and the two had a constant feud.
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