1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,960 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hi there, Welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: where we stifted through the artifacts of history seven days 4 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:23,439 Speaker 1: a week. Today is June nineteen. The day was June 5 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:29,200 Speaker 1: nineteen eleven. Luis Walter Alvarez was born in San Francisco 6 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 1: to Walter and Harriett Alvarez. Alvarez was a physicist who 7 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:37,680 Speaker 1: worked on radar projects during World War Two, an inventor 8 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:42,400 Speaker 1: and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics. Luise's father, Walter, 9 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:46,960 Speaker 1: was a physician and later a research physiologist, and early 10 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,839 Speaker 1: on Louise would go to the lab with him. When 11 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:54,000 Speaker 1: Luise was eleven years old, he and his dad made 12 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,280 Speaker 1: a radio together. Later, Louise attended San Francisco Polytechnic High School, 13 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 1: but in it up moving to Rochester, Minnesota. While he 14 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: was enrolled there, his father worked for the Mayo Clinic 15 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:10,560 Speaker 1: in Rochester, and Louise began apprenticing at the Mayo Clinics 16 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:13,840 Speaker 1: instrument shop and being tutored by machinists while he was 17 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:17,960 Speaker 1: still in high school. Alvarez went on to study physics 18 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,320 Speaker 1: at the University of Chicago, where he got his bachelor's 19 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:25,560 Speaker 1: master's and doctorate. As he was finishing up his PhD, 20 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:29,920 Speaker 1: he married Geraldine Smithik. The two of them later had 21 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:33,160 Speaker 1: two children, as well as a daughter who died at birth. 22 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:38,039 Speaker 1: They later divorced. Louise then completed a lot of work 23 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: in California. After getting his PhD. He got a job 24 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:46,040 Speaker 1: with Ernest Lawrence at the University of California, largely through 25 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: connections his father and sister had With Lawrence, Alvarez worked 26 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: on the cyclotron, a type of particle accelerator, in the 27 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 1: radiation laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley. He 28 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:01,880 Speaker 1: also worked in a metal urgical laboratory of the University 29 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,960 Speaker 1: of Chicago and the Los Almost Laboratory of the Manhattan District. 30 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 1: Alvarez was a prolific scientist, but we'll touch on just 31 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,360 Speaker 1: some of his discoveries and achievements. He discovered the East 32 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:17,959 Speaker 1: West effect and cosmic rays, a discovery that gave evidence 33 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 1: that cosmic rays include positively charged particles. Once he joined 34 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:26,400 Speaker 1: the radiation lab at the University of California, he focused 35 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:30,160 Speaker 1: on nuclear physics. In nineteen thirty seven, he gave the 36 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,960 Speaker 1: first experimental demonstration of k electron capture by nuclei, which 37 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: was a phenomenon that had not yet been proven. He 38 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 1: also developed a method for producing themes of very slow neutrons. 39 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,280 Speaker 1: Alvarez also developed a mercury vapor lamp with one of 40 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:50,440 Speaker 1: his students named Jake Wien's. That development established a new 41 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:53,800 Speaker 1: standard of length that the U. S Bureau of Standards adopted, 42 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:58,480 Speaker 1: but as World War Two broke out, his career shifted gears. 43 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: In nineteen forty, Avarez went to work on radar technology 44 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:06,519 Speaker 1: at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked on 45 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:11,040 Speaker 1: a microwave early warning system and the Eagle high altitude 46 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:16,200 Speaker 1: bombing system. He also invented the Vixen radar system, which 47 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:20,040 Speaker 1: deceived skippers into thinking an Allied plane was flying away 48 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:23,520 Speaker 1: from a German submarine and allowed attack planes to destroy 49 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:26,920 Speaker 1: the U boats. Luise also figured out a way to 50 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 1: help planes land and bad weather when he invented ground 51 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 1: control approach. When Louise left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 52 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 1: he went to work on the Manhattan Project. He worked 53 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: on nuclear bombs in Chicago, created detonators for plutonium bombs 54 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 1: in New Mexico, and was on the plane that conducted 55 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: the first ever atomic bomb test. He was also on 56 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:53,880 Speaker 1: the plane that dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy on Hiroshima. 57 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:58,320 Speaker 1: Before Fat Man, the second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki. 58 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:01,760 Speaker 1: Alvarez wrote a letter to a Japanese physicist he knew, 59 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: urging him to tell Japanese leaders that if they continued 60 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 1: in the war, another bomb would be dropped on the country. 61 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: Though Avarez recognized the horror and devastation that the bombs caused, 62 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:16,280 Speaker 1: he believed that the bombs would end the war and 63 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:19,559 Speaker 1: bring some sort of peace to the world. He also 64 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:22,400 Speaker 1: thought that the U. S should continue research and develop 65 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:27,000 Speaker 1: a hydrogen bomb. After the war, he went back to Berkeley. 66 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:31,240 Speaker 1: He designed and constructed a forty foot proton linear accelerator. 67 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:34,520 Speaker 1: He also did a lot of work with large liquid 68 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:39,040 Speaker 1: hydrogen bubble chambers, and he helped identify many new particles. 69 00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:43,520 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty eight, Luis won the Nobel Prize for 70 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:48,960 Speaker 1: his quote decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular 71 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,599 Speaker 1: the discovery of a large number of resident states, made 72 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:56,360 Speaker 1: possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen 73 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:00,919 Speaker 1: bubble chamber and data analysis. After this point, he spent 74 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: a lot of his time studying in cosmic raise. His 75 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:08,520 Speaker 1: later life took another surprising, yet not indecipherable turn. He 76 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:11,520 Speaker 1: put a lot of effort into figuring out the details 77 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:15,720 Speaker 1: of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and he 78 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:19,320 Speaker 1: and his geologist son Walter theorized that an asteroid impact 79 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:22,960 Speaker 1: had led to the extinction of dinosaurs and the end 80 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:26,719 Speaker 1: of the Cretaceous period. The new theory caused an uproar 81 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:29,640 Speaker 1: in the scientific community, as it was believed that a 82 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:34,200 Speaker 1: volcano had killed the dinosaurs. Alvarez died of cancer in 83 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:38,080 Speaker 1: nine By the time of his death, he had received 84 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 1: several awards in honorary degrees. I'm Eve jeffco and hopefully 85 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,120 Speaker 1: you know a little more about history today than you 86 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:49,760 Speaker 1: did yesterday. And if you haven't gotten your fill of 87 00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:53,480 Speaker 1: history after listening to today's episode, you can follow us 88 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:59,440 Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at T D I HC podcast. 89 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:03,320 Speaker 1: And if you'd like to learn more about Louis Alvarez, 90 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:05,919 Speaker 1: listen to the two part episode of Stuff You Missed 91 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:10,160 Speaker 1: in History Class called Louise w. Alvarez. The link is 92 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:13,520 Speaker 1: in the description. If you listen to this show every day, 93 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:16,200 Speaker 1: you probably already know that I have a new show 94 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: that's called Unpopular about people in history, and if you 95 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:21,640 Speaker 1: haven't gotten a chance to check it out yet, please do. 96 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:31,240 Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening and we'll see you tomorrow. For 97 00:06:31,279 --> 00:06:33,440 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I heart 98 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:36,040 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 99 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:36,719 Speaker 1: favorite shows.