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Energy for Tomorrow
78 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
About the author
Philip Abelson
13 books4 followersPhilip Hauge Abelson (April 27, 1913 – August 1, 2004) was an American physicist, a scientific editor, and a science writer.
Abelson was born in 1913 in Tacoma, Washington. He attended Washington State University where he received degrees in chemistry and physics, and the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), where he earned his PhD in nuclear physics. As a young physicist, he worked for Ernest Lawrence at the UC Berkeley. He was among the first American scientists to verify nuclear fission in an article submitted to the Physical Review in February 1939. From 1939 until 1941, he worked as an assistant physicist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC. It was while he was here that he worked on a substance that emitted beta rays and was produced by irradiation of uranium with neutrons. After he collaborated with the Nobel Prize laureate Luis Alvarez they isolated the material, and became the co-discoverer of neptunium on 8 June 1940 with Edwin McMillan. McMillan was awarded the Nobel Prize for this discovery among other elements.
Abelson was a key contributor to the Manhattan Project during World War II, while working with the Naval Research Laboratory. Although he was not formally associated with the atom bomb project, the liquid thermal diffusion isotope separation technique that he invented at the Philadelphia Navy Yard was used in the S-50 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and proved a critical step in creating the large amount of nuclear fuel required for building atomic bombs.
After the war, he turned his attention under the guidance of Ross Gunn to applying nuclear power to naval propulsion. While not written at an engineering-design level, he wrote the first physics report detailing how a nuclear reactor could be installed in a submarine, providing both propulsion and electrical power. His report anticipated the nuclear submarine's role as a missile platform. This concept was later supported by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover and others. Under Rickover, the concept became reality in the form of USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine.
In 1946, he returned to work at the Carnegie Institution, and from 1953 until 1971 he served as the director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Geophysical Laboratory, and as president from 1971 to 1978, and as a trustee from 1978 on. From 1962 to 1984 he was editor of Science, one of the most prestigious academic journals, and served as its acting executive officer in 1974, 1975 and 1984. From 1972 until 1974 he served as the president of the American Geophysical Union.
In a 1965 article he described his work in paleobiology and reported evidence of amino acids recovered from fossils hundreds of millions of years in age and fatty acids in rocks dating over a billion years old. He estimated that based on his experiments alanine would be stable for billions of years.
Perhaps his most famous work from this time period is an editorial entitled "Enough of Pessimism" ("enough of pessimism, it only leads to paralysis and decay"). This became the title of a 100 essay collection.
Abelson received many distinguished awards, including the National Medal of Science in 1987, the National Science Foundation's Distinguished Achievement Award, the American Medical Association's Scientific Achievement Award, the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal and the Waldo E. Smith Medal in 1988. In 1992 he was awarded the Public Welfare Medal, the National Academy of Sciences's highest honor. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958.
The mineral abelsonite is named after Abelson in recognition of his contribution to organic geochemistry.
Abelson was born in 1913 in Tacoma, Washington. He attended Washington State University where he received degrees in chemistry and physics, and the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), where he earned his PhD in nuclear physics. As a young physicist, he worked for Ernest Lawrence at the UC Berkeley. He was among the first American scientists to verify nuclear fission in an article submitted to the Physical Review in February 1939. From 1939 until 1941, he worked as an assistant physicist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC. It was while he was here that he worked on a substance that emitted beta rays and was produced by irradiation of uranium with neutrons. After he collaborated with the Nobel Prize laureate Luis Alvarez they isolated the material, and became the co-discoverer of neptunium on 8 June 1940 with Edwin McMillan. McMillan was awarded the Nobel Prize for this discovery among other elements.
Abelson was a key contributor to the Manhattan Project during World War II, while working with the Naval Research Laboratory. Although he was not formally associated with the atom bomb project, the liquid thermal diffusion isotope separation technique that he invented at the Philadelphia Navy Yard was used in the S-50 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and proved a critical step in creating the large amount of nuclear fuel required for building atomic bombs.
After the war, he turned his attention under the guidance of Ross Gunn to applying nuclear power to naval propulsion. While not written at an engineering-design level, he wrote the first physics report detailing how a nuclear reactor could be installed in a submarine, providing both propulsion and electrical power. His report anticipated the nuclear submarine's role as a missile platform. This concept was later supported by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover and others. Under Rickover, the concept became reality in the form of USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine.
In 1946, he returned to work at the Carnegie Institution, and from 1953 until 1971 he served as the director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Geophysical Laboratory, and as president from 1971 to 1978, and as a trustee from 1978 on. From 1962 to 1984 he was editor of Science, one of the most prestigious academic journals, and served as its acting executive officer in 1974, 1975 and 1984. From 1972 until 1974 he served as the president of the American Geophysical Union.
In a 1965 article he described his work in paleobiology and reported evidence of amino acids recovered from fossils hundreds of millions of years in age and fatty acids in rocks dating over a billion years old. He estimated that based on his experiments alanine would be stable for billions of years.
Perhaps his most famous work from this time period is an editorial entitled "Enough of Pessimism" ("enough of pessimism, it only leads to paralysis and decay"). This became the title of a 100 essay collection.
Abelson received many distinguished awards, including the National Medal of Science in 1987, the National Science Foundation's Distinguished Achievement Award, the American Medical Association's Scientific Achievement Award, the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal and the Waldo E. Smith Medal in 1988. In 1992 he was awarded the Public Welfare Medal, the National Academy of Sciences's highest honor. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958.
The mineral abelsonite is named after Abelson in recognition of his contribution to organic geochemistry.
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