When one studies the atomic bomb era, it is easy to get lost in the brilliance of the science and forget about the personal lives of the men and women involved. And sometimes, those personal lives are incorporated into their work.
A case in point is renowned physicist Enrico Fermi. In 1939 at New York’s Columbia University, Fermi confirmed the discovery of fission and began work on the first sustained nuclear reaction. In 1942 he moved to the University of Chicago, where he continued his work on that project, which culminated in such a reaction in December of that year.
During my own research into the early development of the atomic bomb, I ran across several references to Fermi’s fondness for Winnie-the-Pooh stories, apparently as a way to help him learn English. 1 In particular, it seemed that Fermi named some of his instruments after characters in the Pooh...
