Splinters of Infinity

The riveting story of a modern age scientific feud between two Nobel Prize-winning scientists over the nature of cosmic rays and the universe.

Set in a revolutionary era of physics and science when a series of rapid-fire discoveries was upending our understanding of the universe, Splinters of Infinity by Mark Wolverton tells a little-known story: the tale of two of America’s foremost physicists, Robert Millikan (1868–1953) and Arthur Compton (1892–1962), who found themselves locked in an intense, often deeply personal, conflict about cosmic rays. Confirmed in 1912, cosmic rays—enigmatic forms of penetrating radiation—seemed to raise all new questions about the origins of the universe, but they also offered the potential to explain everything—or reveal the existence of God.

In engaging, accessible prose, Wolverton takes the reader through the twists and turns of the Millikan-Compton debate, one of the first major public examples of how heated the controversies among scientists could become—and the lengths that scientists would go to settle their disputes. What set them apart, at least in most cases, Wolverton shows, was their ability to concentrate finally on what mattered: the science. Along the way, Wolverton probes the forever elusive question, still unanswered today, about where cosmic rays come from and what they reveal about black holes, distant galaxies, the existence of dark matter and dark energy, and the birth of the universe, concluding that these splinters of infinity may not hold the keys to the secret of creation but do bring us ever closer to it.CONTENTS

PRELUDE: SHAKING HANDS WITH MUSSOLINI 1
1 “A VERY INTERESTING DISCUSSION” 5
2 THE PENETRATING RADIATION 15
3A ONENESS ABOUT THE WHOLE OF NATURE 27
4 THE DIN OF BATTLE 39
5 CHALLENGERS 53
6 MOUNTAINEERS, FLIERS, AND SAVANTS 65
7 TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS 79
8 GLOBETROTTING 93
9 SKYSCRAPING 107
10 THROWING THE GAUNTLET 115
11 THE GATHERING FORCES 129
12 HIGH NOON IN ATLANTIC CITY 141
13 HOORAY FOR THE COSMIC RAYS 153
14 FALLING AND RISING 167
15 RISING AND FALLING 181
16 CREATION AND ANNIHILATION 193
17 QUARRELS IN THE FAMILY 203
18 A SORT OF PEACE 221
POSTLUDE: THE UNITY OF ALL CREATION 231

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 235
NOTES 237
BIBLIOGRAPHY 259
INDEX 263“An interesting reflection of the human nature of science.”
—Popular Science“Splinters of Infinity is Mark Wolverton at his best, offering both a portrait of the elusive nature of our radiation-rich universe and an incisive look at the ways that scientists battle their way toward understanding it.”
—Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
 
“Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Splinters of Infinity follows dueling physicists as they struggled to make sense of mysterious particles that rained down from the sky—marking either a cosmic renewal or a slow cosmic death. Fascinating!”
—David Kaiser, author of Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World

“Mark Wolverton presents a riveting tale that could rival the movie High Noon. This battle of ideas vividly unveils the dark side of the scientific enterprise. Spoiler alert: the good guy wins.”
—Marcia Bartusiak, MIT Professor of the Practice Emeritus and author of The Day We Found the UniverseMark Wolverton is the author of Nuclear Weapons (MIT Press); Burning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space; A Life in Twilight: The Final Years of J. Robert Oppenheimer; The Depths of Space: The Story of the Pioneer Planetary Probes; and The Science of Superman.