L'incredibile storia di Enrico Fermi

Overview

On the occasion of the centenary of his birth, in 2001, Superquark dedicated a special episode of the program to Enrico Fermi, in two parts. Mixing excerpts from films and documentary narration, the program retraces Fermi's origins and his studies that took him, very young, to the Scuola Normale di Pisa. It talks about the fertile period of "I ragazzi di Via Panisperna" in Rome when together with Rasetti, Amaldi, Segré, Majorana, D'Agostino and Pontecorvo he worked on reactions produced by atomic nuclei by the action of slow neutrons. Explores the group's relations with the fascist regime and the mysterious disappearance of Majorana; shows some laboratory instruments used by Fermi in the 1930s; talks about his departure for the USA, the awarding of the Nobel Prize in 1938 and the work of building the atomic pile, with the first nuclear chain reaction on 2 December 1942.

Episode Information