Speaker
Description
The reason behind the use of paraffin (hydrogenated substances) to slow down neutrons in the famous experiment carried out in Via Panisperna on 22 October 1934 is recalled, including by several members of the Roman research group, as a sudden insight on Fermi’s part. An analysis of much of the extensive literature relating to the period 1930–34 on topics such as α and β decay, the discovery of the neutron, and artificial radioactivity; a review of the proceedings of the 1933 Solvay Congress and the 1934 International Congress of Physics in London; consultation of the Amaldi Archive and other archives on the history of science, lead me to hypothesise a different interpretation, one even more relevant to the way science proceeds, in which the general social environment, combined with the state of research on the specific topic, emerge as indispensable steps in the process of the growth and improvement of knowledge. The picture emerging from this case study opens up the possibility of an interpretation in which the successful and innovative idea that emerged in Rome takes on a different connotation, appearing as a product of the overall context of the era. At the same time, it confirms the decisive approach adopted at the institute in Via Panisperna, which also involved numerous visits to other laboratories and constant consultation of articles from the period.
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