I just read an obituary of William Bade, a physicist who had – among his other accomplishments – worked with the Nobel laureate Hans Bethe to develop the Bethe-Bade theory of the x-ray effects generated by nuclear explosions in space. The obituary noted that, as a youngster, Bade had a chemistry lab in his basement where he created explosives. This man was a few years older than I, but of the same generation. A chemistry set and a .22 rifle were at the top of the Christmas lists of most boys of that era. I had a chemistry set, and … Continue reading The Death Of a Physicist