I had the great pleasure of interviewing Dr George Baldwin, author of The Science Was Fun. George is 89 years young, and spent his working years as a nuclear physicist. Much of his career was spent trying to create a device called the Graser (Gamma Ray Laser), an illusive goal for the nuclear community. There are significant problems that still need to be solved. Dr Baldwin has been retired for almost 20 years, and his friends and associates persuaded him to write an account of his long and illustrious career.
Much of your career was spent chasing the elusive Graser. My impression is that this is one of the 'holy grails' of the physics world. If you could do it over, would you pursue the Graser?
In the book I say "I wouldn't change a thing!" But I really should have done something else after about 1975. The money for research was just not there. Without the financial backing it is hard to pursue any challenge.
Is the graser any closer today that it was in the '70s?
No, not really. We thought it would be relatively easy to create - unfortunately many of the obstacles that we faced are still there.
Today the Graser is much less likely to be realized than when we thought it might be easy. The problems are many; in fact I do not think that it is feasible to build a Graser. I have spent over 60 years trying to create the Graser - I cannot see a way around some of the engineering issues.
One of the points that you make is the sad lack of bright young minds entering the field. What is the solution to make the science fun again?
When I retired in '87, the executive of the American Institute of Physics urged me to write my memoirs as a help in the recruitment of young physicists. Scientific research is always fun.
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1 - ProfEssays
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