Enrico Fermi byl italský fyzik, známý svými výzkumy jaderných reakcí, kvantové teorie, částicové fyziky a statistické mechaniky. Jako jeden z mála fyziků se zabýval výzkumem jak teoretickým, tak i experimentálním. Zkoumal vlastnosti beta- a gamazáření. Podílel se na vývoji prvního jaderného reaktoru Chicago Pile-1. Podal několik patentů v oblasti využití jaderné energie a byl oceněn Nobelovou cenou za práci o indukované radioaktivitě. Bývá označován jako jeden z „otců“ atomové bomby. Je také autorem tzv. Fermiho paradoxu, který si klade otázku, kolik je ve vesmíru inteligentních mimozemských civilizací. Wikipedia
„Kdybych si dokázal zapamatovat názvy všech těchto částic, byl bych botanik.“
1954
Originál: (en) If I could remember the names of all these particles I'd be a botanist.
Zdroj: [Hay, William W., Experimenting on a Small Planet: A Scholarly Entertainment, Springer Science & Business Media, 2012, 452, anglicky]
„Nikdy nesázejte svou kariéru na to, že co umíte, nedokáže někdo jiný.“
Zdroj: [Sobotka, Petr, Christine Zenino, Christiaan Tonnis, Meteor o zemětřesení ledovců, spatření neviditelné barvy a letu Gagarina, http://dvojka.rozhlas.cz/meteor-o-zemetreseni-ledovcu-spatreni-neviditelne-barvy-a-letu-gagarina-8463348, Věda | Meteor, Český rozhlas Dvojka, Český rozhlas, 2021, duben, 10, 2021-04-11, čas 23 min : 53 sec, česky]
As quoted in Nuclear Principles in Engineering (2005) by Tatjana Jevremovic, p. 397
“I cannot think of a single one, not even intelligence.”
When asked what characteristics Nobel prize winning physicists had in common. As quoted in Physics Today (October 1994), p. 70.
On the Hydrogen bomb in a minority addendum http://honors.umd.edu/HONR269J/archive/GACReport491030.html (co-authored with I. I. Rabi) to an official General Advisory Committee report for the Atomic Energy Commission (30 October 1949)
Kontext: Such a weapon goes far beyond any military objective and enters the range of very great natural catastrophes. By its very nature it cannot be confined to a military objective but becomes a weapon which in practical effect is almost one of genocide. It is clear that the use of such a weapon cannot be justified on any ethical ground which gives a human being a certain individuality and dignity even if he happens to be a resident of an enemy country... The fact that no limits exist to the destructiveness of this weapon makes its very existence and the knowledge of its construction a danger to humanity as a whole. It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light.
On the Hydrogen bomb in a minority addendum http://honors.umd.edu/HONR269J/archive/GACReport491030.html (co-authored with I. I. Rabi) to an official General Advisory Committee report for the Atomic Energy Commission (30 October 1949)
Kontext: Such a weapon goes far beyond any military objective and enters the range of very great natural catastrophes. By its very nature it cannot be confined to a military objective but becomes a weapon which in practical effect is almost one of genocide. It is clear that the use of such a weapon cannot be justified on any ethical ground which gives a human being a certain individuality and dignity even if he happens to be a resident of an enemy country... The fact that no limits exist to the destructiveness of this weapon makes its very existence and the knowledge of its construction a danger to humanity as a whole. It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light.
“If I could remember the names of all these particles, I'd be a botanist.”
As quoted in Hyperspace (1995) by Michio Kaku
Comment to Eugene Wigner, ten days before his death from cancer, as quoted in The collected works of Eugene Paul Wigner (1992), p. 108
Nobel lecture (12 December 1938)
On the Hydrogen bomb in a minority annex http://web.archive.org/web/20080725010150/honors.umd.edu/HONR269J/archive/GACReport491030.html (co-authored with I. I. Rabi) to an official General Advisory Committee report for the Atomic Energy Commission (30 October 1949)
