★ 12/08/2014
When Italian physicist Bruno Pontecorvo (1913–1993) disappeared in 1950, everyone believed he had fled to the U.S.S.R. to escape the fate of physicist Klaus Fuchs, arrested earlier that year “for passing atomic secrets” to the Soviets. Five years later, Pontecorvo surfaced in Moscow, explaining that he had moved to escape persecution for antiwar views and that his work had no military applications. Proof that Pontecorvo spied remains elusive, but Close, a professor of physics at Oxford, delivers an intensively researched, engrossing biography that turns up some suspicious behavior and mildly incriminating documents. Pontecorvo was a science prodigy who studied under Enrico Fermi in Rome, contributing to Fermi’s 1938 Nobel–winning studies on neutron bombardment of the atomic nucleus. In 1936 he joined the Paris laboratory of Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie, where he enhanced his reputation, absorbed their left-wing views, and joined the Communist Party. Work on various projects brought him to the U.S., Canada, and finally Britain before his disappearance at the height of Cold War spy hysteria. Whether or not he was a spy, he was undoubtedly a brilliant scientist. Close serves Pontecorvo well in this outstanding biography, illuminating his work as well as the painful political conflicts of his time. Agent: Patrick Walsh, Conville & Walsh. (Feb.)
Aberdeen Press and Journal (UK)
“At times [Half-Life] feels more like a cold war spy novel as Pontecorvo's life takes some extraordinary twists and turns, which will keep readers new and old glued until the end.”
Times Higher Education Supplement (UK)
“[Half-Life] is a tale whose le Carré-esque cast of spies, double agents, couriers, intercepted messages and clandestine escapes cries out for dramatisation. Close tells it well, but eschews any novelistic invention of scenes whose details he cannot know.”
The Scotsman (Scotland)
“[Close] shows flair for writing a biography that is both rivetingly fascinating for those of us who are interested in the history of science and highly readable for those who have a taste for mystery thrillers.... [An] excellent biography.”
John Gribbin, author of In Search of Schrödinger's Cat
“Frank Close's books get better and better. Half-Life is an enthralling insight into the life and times of one of the most mysterious characters of twentieth century science. Weaving together a fascinating personal life and the politics of the Cold War with his usual insightful exposition of physics, Close has produced a triumph of scientific biography. For once, truth really is stranger than fiction.”
Library Journal
“Close does an excellent job of describing the personal and professional lives of his subject, as well as the international intelligence community's investigations of Pontecorvo before and after he defected to the Soviet Union. This fascinating and well-researched account will appeal to a wide range of readers, including those interested in World War II and the foundation of the Manhattan Project, the Cold War, particle physics, the process of scientific investigation, and the life of scientists.”
Publishers Weekly
“[A]n intensively researched, engrossing biography that turns up some suspicious behavior and mildly incriminating documents.... Close serves Pontecorvo well in this outstanding biography, illuminating his work as well as the painful political conflicts of his time.”
Kirkus Reviews
“[An] insightful biography.... Close's intense research turns up hints that [Pontecorvo] spied and, warned by other spies, fled to avoid arrest. A fine account, heavy on science and politics, of a long, productive, peripatetic and ultimately inexplicable life.”
Graham Farmelo, The Guardian (UK)
“Frank Close brings a fresh perspective to the story.... [I]mpressively researched.”
Nature
“Too many books are fêted as reading ‘like spy novels', but Close's work deserves the accolade. He makes a good circumstantial case for Pontecorvo being a spy.”
Open Letters Monthly
“[U]tterly absorbing.... Close brings a great deal of new and groundbreaking research to the question of whether or not Pontecorvo had been an active spy even before he and his family defected.... Half-Life is a remarkably thorough analysis…a grim and depressing double-history of one of the worst and most fascinating traitors of the atomic arms race that defined a generation. The fact that the book's readers will close its final page knowing much, much more about nuclear physics than they did when they started it is a very pleasing by-product, to use a loaded term.”
Washington Post
“[Half-Life] ranges over physics, the arms race, Cold War politics and, most poignantly, the personal costs of the elder Pontecorvo's choice.”
Peter Woit, Not Even Wrong
“[A] gripping spy story, investigating the question of exactly why Pontecorvo fled with his family to the Soviet Union in 1950.... Besides the fascinating spy story, there's also a lot of history of nuclear physics during the 30s, 40s and 50s…as well as quite a bit about Pontecorvo's later work on neutrinos. If you're interested in the history of 20th century physics, this is something you'll find well worth reading.”
Freeman Dyson, New York Review of Books
“Close tells the story of Pontecorvo's life in sharp detail, with all the facts and conjectures carefully documented.”
Wall Street Journal
“It is a remarkable story–part physics and part Cold War intrigue–and it is wonderfully told in Half-Life, a biography by the Oxford physicist Frank Close.... There is much about this tale that has the flavor of a le Carré novel, with the additional advantage that it is all true.”
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
“[D]elves into a man and a mystery that deserve to be better known.”
The Economist
“[A]n engrossing new book.... But [Pontecorvo's] alleged deceit is only half of the story. Mr. Close, a physicist himself, also explains the science that made him so valuable.”
PRAISE FOR HALF-LIFE:
Physics World, Top Physics Books of 2015
“Close's book digs deeply into the history and science of this still-unsolved mystery of 20th-century physics, and according to reviewer Simone Turchetti (himself the author of a major Pontecorvo study), Close's ‘contagious enthusiasm' brings us closer to answers than ever before.”
Laura Helmuth, New York Times Book Review
“The five-year disappearance of the brilliant Italian physicist Bruno Pontecorvo is one of the Cold War's enduring mysteries, and the subject of this riveting study.”
Nature Physics
“What sets Close's work apart is that, in addition to bringing to light new archival material obtained from the UK intelligence agency MI5, it also describes in detail the context and significance of Pontecorvo's research over the course of his career.... Whereas the book will inevitably attract readers interested in a good story about espionage, Half-Life is also a masterful reappraisal of Pontecorvo's scientific achievements.”
Science
“Half-Life is more of a general biography of Pontecorvo, one simultaneously personal, political, and scientific.... [Close anchors] the narrative in archival discoveries, personal connections, and interviews.
01/01/2015
In this absorbing biography of Italian physicist Bruno Pontecorvo (1913–93), a pioneer of the Standard Model of particle physics, notable British physicist Close (emeritus, physics, Oxford Univ.; The Infinity Puzzle) takes a scientific approach, differentiating this account from other biographies such as Simone Turchetti's The Pontecorvo Affair: A Cold War Defection and Nuclear Physics. Close provides engaging descriptions of physics research in the 20th century, starting with fellow Italian physicist Enrico Fermi's lively group of "boys," among them Pontecorvo. The author's discussion of his subject's support of communism and the largely unplanned impact this had on the neutrino physicist's family and career, are equally clear and engrossing. Close does an excellent job of describing the personal and professional lives of his subject, as well as the international intelligence community's investigations of Pontecorvo before and after he deflected to the Soviet Union. VERDICT This fascinating and well-researched account will appeal to a wide range of readers, including those interested in World War II and the foundation of the Manhattan Project, the Cold War, particle physics, the process of scientific investigation, and the life of scientists.—Sara R. Tompson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lib., Archives & Records Section, Pasadena, CA
2014-11-11
Months after the 1950 arrest of British nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs, Bruno Pontecorvo (1913-1993) vanished behind the Iron Curtain. Everyone assumed that he was also a Soviet spy, but extensive investigation found no evidence that he provided secrets to the Soviets.In this insightful biography, British physicist and writer Close (Physics/Univ. of Oxford; The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe, 2011, etc.) does not ignore Pontecorvo's brilliant research and the tortuous political turmoil of his era. (The United States Congress described him as "the second deadliest spy in history.") Born into a wealthy, superachieving Italian family, he was 18 when he joined Enrico Fermi in Rome and contributed to groundbreaking 1934 experiments showing that slowing neutrons made them vastly more efficient in exploring the atom. Moving to France and then fleeing to America after the 1940 German invasion, Pontecorvo spent three years in a Canadian laboratory building the first heavy water reactor. Although only peripherally related to the Manhattan project, its scientists often consulted colleagues who were directly involved. In 1948, popular and highly respected, Pontecorvo moved to Britain and was working on the British atom bomb when he disappeared. Five years passed before he reappeared to express his pleasure at being a Soviet citizen, an opinion he did not publicly change until the Soviet Union collapsed. A privileged member of its scientific elite, he continued world-class research into neutrons and neutrinos. The Nobel committee has no objection to communists but dislikes controversy, so Pontecorvo's defection probably deprived him of the prize. Close's intense research turns up hints that he spied and, warned by other spies, fled to avoid arrest. A fine account, heavy on science and politics, of a long, productive, peripatetic and ultimately inexplicable life.
