a story lives forever
Register
Sign in
Form submission failed!

Stay signed in

Recover your password?
Register
Form submission failed!

Web of Stories Ltd would like to keep you informed about our products and services.

Please tick here if you would like us to keep you informed about our products and services.

I have read and accepted the Terms & Conditions.

Please note: Your email and any private information provided at registration will not be passed on to other individuals or organisations without your specific approval.

Video URL

You must be registered to use this feature. Sign in or register.

NEXT STORY

Community at the Rockefeller building

RELATED STORIES

Introduction to the American way of life
Freeman Dyson Scientist
Comments (0) Please sign in or register to add comments

So I came... actually it was the middle of September, and I remember very well arriving at Cornell on an exceedingly hot day and it was blazing hot outside and I came into this ice cold physics building where the air conditioners were running full blast. It was my introduction to the American way of life, and I introduced myself at the Department Chairman's office, and there was the secretary sitting huddled over an electric heater. So I found it all rather shocking coming from the austerities of war time England. But one soon gets used to it.

Freeman Dyson (1923-2020), who was born in England, moved to Cornell University after graduating from Cambridge University with a BA in Mathematics. He subsequently became a professor and worked on nuclear reactors, solid state physics, ferromagnetism, astrophysics and biology. He published several books and, among other honours, was awarded the Heineman Prize and the Royal Society's Hughes Medal.

Listeners: Sam Schweber

Silvan Sam Schweber is the Koret Professor of the History of Ideas and Professor of Physics at Brandeis University, and a Faculty Associate in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. He is the author of a history of the development of quantum electro mechanics, "QED and the men who made it", and has recently completed a biography of Hans Bethe and the history of nuclear weapons development, "In the Shadow of the Bomb: Oppenheimer, Bethe, and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist" (Princeton University Press, 2000).

Tags: Cornell University, USA

Duration: 56 seconds

Date story recorded: June 1998

Date story went live: 24 January 2008