the World has probably never been closer to a nuclear war than in October 1962. American reconnaissance aircraft discovered the ongoing construction of the avfyrningsramper for medeldistansrobotar in Cuba. At the same time a heavy trip soviet ships loaded with military equipment against the island nation just 15 miles from the coast of USA. Finally managed to the leaders of the united states and the Soviet union avoid a nuclear war. But the arms race continued.
the following Year posted to the Russian quantum physicist Vladimir Fock in Leningrad in a letter to the Royal Swedish academy of Sciences in Stockholm. He was a member of the soviet academy of Sciences and wanted to launch an idea to promote détente between east and west.
physicist, considered Vladimir Fock that the time was ripe to give a nobel Prize for the laser. The world’s first laser beam – a short red light pulse – lit in the united states on 16 may 1960. The laser technology then spread rapidly to other laboratories. Nowadays it is included in every single snabbköpskassa equipped with a barcode scanner.
the Theories that led to the breakthrough had been discussed for decades, among other things, by Albert Einstein. A central theoretician was the american physicist Charles Townes. The first nominations of the him arrived at the Royal Swedish academy of Sciences already a couple of years before there were any working laser. Prior to the decision on the 1964 prize had he scored by far the highest number of nominations from professors, academicians, experts and former nobel Laureates as the Royal Swedish academy of Sciences invited to come with proposals.
In a letter to the Royal Swedish academy of Sciences writes the soviet quantum physicist Vladimir Fock, a price shared between the united states and the Soviet union ”without a doubt, would give the best impression on world opinion”. Photo: Fredrik Funck
proposes Vladimir Fock a shared prize between Charles Townes and to the Russian physicist Aleksandr Prokhorov. Never before had an american shared a nobel Prize in physics with soviets. It was a radical proposal in a time when physics had a special charge.
” Physics is the science which, more than any other symbolizes the cold war. For it was the physicists who created and built the atomic bomb, ” says Karl Grandin, director of the Center for history of science at the Royal Swedish academy of Sciences.
The yellowed letter from Vladimir Fock is typed in Russian. He points out the two candidates ‘ scientific merits, but slips over in the policy. Vladimir Fock stresses that a shared prize ”without a doubt, would give the best impression on world opinion”.
in an archive behind the double lock of the Royal academy of Sciences at Frescati outside Stockholm. The collections include investigations concerning who should be able to be worthy laureates, and which candidates are not considered to keep up.
When the first nobel prizes began to be awarded in the year 1901 was all the material secret. The respective priskommittéerna built up the archive solely for its internal work. But in 1974 decided the Royal Swedish academy of Sciences let the researchers. They get access to all the material older than fifty years – provided that all of the named persons are dead. The other committees have adopted similar rules.
Karl Grandin has specialgranskat the documents of the first Nobel prize for the laser, which was handed out in the year 1964. The material was made available in January 2015, and earlier this year he published an article on the price of the Swedish fysikersamfundets journal Fysikaktuellt.
to the united states that the russians were included in the plans of a nobel Prize for the laser, and a related device called the maser and emits microwaves instead of visible light. It is clear from a handwritten letter, preserved in the archive.
The anonymous sender claims to be Charles Townes close friend, and he is worried about his friend to be beaten in a legitimate Prize. The concern is based on an analysis of the political situation: “the Russians are making incorrect claims and the swedes are afraid of the Soviet union.” Making the enquiry hope that “the Soviet union does not expose the swedes for a political pressure forcing the nobel Committee to take a wrong and non-objective decisions”.
– You might be thinking that science should be apolitical and stand above things like that, but it was used of course of the respective systems, ” says Karl Grandin.
indicates that the fysikkommitténs five members really took any political considerations. But there are no notes on how the discussion went, just beslutsprotokoll.
the Members came to the conclusion that the american Charles Townes was the most qualified candidate. However, they had difficult to evaluate the soviet research. For the first time in fysikprisets history, they asked outside experts for help.
One of the experts suggested that Charles Townes would get half of the price, and that the other half would be divided between the russians Nicolai Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov. But he added that such a distribution would be a little unfair because the american research weighed heavier than the soviet.
the council followed. In 1964 – the height of the cold war, the coldest period was the physics prize between scientists from each side of the iron curtain.
– But in the media gave it no attention at all. It was nothing, ” says Karl Grandin.
Journalists interested in completely other things. The peace prize the same year went to the american medborgarrättskämpen Martin Luther King – which the year before held his famous speech ”I have a dream”. His prize received a lot of attention.
And the british röntgenkristallografen Dorothy Hodgkin received Casinoslot an undivided kemipris for determining the structure of complex molecules such as penicillin and vitamin B12. She was a colorful person, peace activist and the third woman ever to get a kemipris (after Marie Curie in 1911 and her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie in 1935). The media was fond of her.
was about the nobel prize in literature. The Swedish Academy had decided to reward the French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. As the first and so far the only laureate in literature he declined. He had a policy to refuse all official awards. In the end, continued speculation about whether he in spite of everything would pop up during the award ceremony at the Stockholm concert hall to receive the prize money and his medal from the king. He did not.
So the letter with hopeful thoughts of an american-soviet physics prize was finally a blow in the air. Price left no imprint in the world opinion. But after all, there is evidence that science can unite individuals in a highly polarised world.
– even before he received the Nobel prize visited the Townes of their colleagues in the Soviet union, to discuss common interests in the field of physics, ” says Karl Grandin.
