In autumn of 1949, Enrico Fermi returned to Italy after an eleven-year absence to deliver nine lectures, six in Rome and three in Milan. Apart from subsequent limited publication, this material has been seen little by the larger scientific community. This volume represents the first time that these nine lectures have been published in English. The nine lectures collected in this book represent a precious document of Fermis view on topics with which he had engaged in the previous decades. They were addressed to the young Italian physicists and to a more general audience only then beginning to recover from the physical and moral disruption of the war. Published in collaboration with the Italian Physical Society (SIF), the book includes a presentation of the president of SIF, Angela Bracco, an introduction written by the editors, and two substantial essays: one on Fermis life, written by Francesco Guerra/Nadia Robotti, and a second on Fermis skill in talking about Physics in a clear and sparkling manner, written by Vincenzo Barone. The volume appears as a contribution to the 70th anniversary of Fermi's death and should appeal not only to students of physics but to both those with an interest in the history of science in general and those who wish for a clearer picture of the life and mind of this pioneering physicist.
Enrico Fermi Life.- Enrico Fermi and the communication of physics.-
Presentation of Enrcio Fermi Conferenze di Fisica Atomica Raccolte da
professori ed assistenti di Fisica delle Universita di Roma Milano in
1949.- First lecture The elementary particles.- Biographical notices on
Sebastiano Sciuti.- Second lecture The elementary particles.- Biographical
notices on Lucio Mezzetti.- Third lecture Theories on the origins of the
elements.- Biographical notices on Ettore Pancini.- Fourth lecture The search
of an attraction between an electron and a neutron.- Biographical notices on
BE Cacciapuoti.- Fifth lecture Nuclear orbits.- Biographical notices on Mario
Ageno.- Sixth lecture New developments in quantum
electrodynamics.- Biographical notices on Giacomo Morpurgo.- Seventh lecture
The neutron.- Biographical notices on Carlo Salvetti.- Eighth lecture Optical
similarities in neutron properties.- Biographical notices on Carlo
Salvetti.- Nineth lecture The Dirac monopole.- Biographical notices on Piero
Caldirola.
Aldo Treves graduated with a degree in Physics under G. Occhialini in 1968. He has since engaged in scientific and academic activity at the University of Milan; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; SISSA, Trieste; and the University of Insubria, Como. His main areas of research are: the astrophysics of collapsed objects, theoretical aspects, and observations with space and ground-based instrumentation.
Pasquale Tucci has been a professor of the History of Physics at the Universita degli Studi di Milano. He was co-editor, together with P. Redondi, G. Sironi, and G. Vegni, of the book The Scientific Legacy of Beppo Occhialini (SIF, Springer, 2006). His last paper, written with L. Gariboldi, was Occhialinis Memoirs, Giornale di Fisica 2022 63:1-73.
