Via Panisperna boys

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The Via Panisperna boys were a group of young scientists led by Enrico Fermi. In 1934, in Rome, they made the famous discovery of slow neutrons which opened the way to the realization of the nuclear reactor and the atomic bomb. They are named after the street where their University of Rome La Sapienza Physics Department laboratory was located, a street named after San Lorenzo in Panisperna.

In addition to Fermi, the other "boys" were: Edoardo Amaldi, Oscar D'Agostino, Ettore Majorana, Bruno Pontecorvo, Franco Rasetti and Emilio Segrè. All but D'Agostino, a chemist, were physicists.

The group was formed thanks to the good offices of Orso Maria Corbino, a physicist, minister, senator and director of the Institute of physics in Via Panisperna, who recognized the qualities of Enrico Fermi, appointed him in 1924 and instituted for him the first Chair of Theoretical Physics in Italy. From 1929, Fermi and Corbino dedicated themselves to the transformation of the institute into a modern centre of research.

Their laboratory research at first was concerned with atomic and molecular spectroscopy; then they moved towards the experimental study of the atomic nucleus by bombarding various substances with neutrons, obtained by irradiating beryllium with alpha particles emitted by radon, a strongly radioactive gas, rendering possible numerous stable artificial radioactive elements. On the theoretical side, the work of Majorana and Fermi enabled the understanding of the structure of the atomic nucleus and the forces acting in it (the Majorana Forces). The fundamental theory of beta decay was published in 1933 and 1934.

In the years following their famous experiment, after the dramatic events of those times (discrimination against the Jews during the late years of Fascism in Italy, then the Second World War), the group was dispersed and the majority of the via Panisperna boys emigrated from Italy.

In 1938, because of the race laws and of the imminence of the Second World War, the group was dispersed and most of “the boys” emigrated. From the group only Amaldi remained in Italy. He was then instrumental in the reconstruction of Italian physics and, after the war, was amongst the founders of CERN.

The director Gianni Amelio has told their story in a film.

The building in Via Panisperna is today included in the complex of the Viminale, on the homonymous Roman hill where can be found the Ministry of the Interior. In the near future, to the building it will be added a centre for research and a museum of physics dedicated to Enrico Fermi.

it:Ragazzi di via Panisperna

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