John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911April 13, 2008) was an American
theoretical physicist
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimen ...
. He was largely responsible for reviving interest in
general relativity
General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...
in the United States after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Wheeler also worked with
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
in explaining the basic principles behind
nuclear fission
Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radio ...
. Together with
Gregory Breit, Wheeler developed the concept of the
Breit–Wheeler process. He is best known for popularizing the term "
black hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...
,"
as to objects with gravitational collapse already predicted during the early 20th century, for inventing the terms "
quantum foam
Quantum foam or spacetime foam is a theoretical quantum fluctuation of spacetime on very small scales due to quantum mechanics. The theory predicts that at these small scales, particles of matter and antimatter are constantly created and destroye ...
", "
neutron moderator
In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, ideally without capturing any, leaving them as thermal neutrons with only minimal (thermal) kinetic energy. These thermal neutrons are immensely mo ...
", "
wormhole
A wormhole ( Einstein-Rosen bridge) is a hypothetical structure connecting disparate points in spacetime, and is based on a special solution of the Einstein field equations.
A wormhole can be visualized as a tunnel with two ends at separate p ...
" and "it from bit", and for hypothesizing the "
one-electron universe
The one-electron universe postulate, proposed by theoretical physicist John Wheeler in a telephone call to Richard Feynman in the spring of 1940, is the hypothesis that all electrons and positrons are actually manifestations of a single entity m ...
".
Stephen Hawking referred to him as the "hero of the black hole story".
Wheeler earned his doctorate at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
under the supervision of
Karl Herzfeld
Karl Ferdinand Herzfeld (February 24, 1892 – June 3, 1978) was an Austrian- American physicist.
Education
Herzfeld was born in Vienna during the reign of the Habsburgs over the Austro-Hungarian Empire. "He came from a prominent, recentl ...
, and studied under Breit and Bohr on a
National Research Council National Research Council may refer to:
* National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development
* National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome
* National Research Council (United States), part of ...
fellowship. During 1939 he collaborated with Bohr to write a series of papers using the
liquid drop model
In nuclear physics, the semi-empirical mass formula (SEMF) (sometimes also called the Weizsäcker formula, Bethe–Weizsäcker formula, or Bethe–Weizsäcker mass formula to distinguish it from the Bethe–Weizsäcker process) is used to approxi ...
to explain the mechanism of fission. During World War II, he worked with the
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
's
Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago, where he helped design
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...
s, and then at the
Hanford Site
The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including SiteW a ...
in
Richland, Washington
Richland () is a city in Benton County, Washington, United States. It is located in southeastern Washington at the confluence of the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 60,560. Along with the nearby c ...
, where he helped
DuPont
DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
build them. He returned to Princeton after the war ended, but returned to government service to help design and build the
hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s.
For most of his career, Wheeler was a
professor of physics at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
, which he joined in 1938, remaining there until 1976. At Princeton he supervised 46 PhD students, more than any other professor in the Princeton physics department.
Wheeler left Princeton University in 1976 at the age of 65. He was appointed as the director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
in 1976 and remained in the position until 1986, when he retired and became a
professor emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
.
Early life and education
Wheeler was born in
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...
on July 9, 1911, to librarians
Joseph Lewis Wheeler and Mabel Archibald (Archie) Wheeler. He was the oldest of four children, having two younger brothers, Joseph and Robert, and a younger sister, Mary. Joseph earned a
PhD from
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
and a
Master of Library Science
The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), also referred to as the Master of Library and Information Studies, is the master's degree that is required for most professional librarian positions in the United States. The MLIS is a relativ ...
from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. Robert earned a PhD in
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...
from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and worked as a geologist for oil companies and several colleges. Mary studied library science at the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
and became a librarian. They grew up in
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County, Ohio, Mahoning County. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of ...
, but spent a year in 1921 to 1922 on a farm in
Benson, Vermont
Benson is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. The population was 974 at the 2020 census. The town is rural, with a concentration of several homes and businesses in Benson village, at the intersection of Stage Road and Lake Road. Ben ...
, where Wheeler attended a
one-room school
One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...
. After they returned to Youngstown he attended
Rayen High School
The Rayen School (also known as Rayen High School and colloquially as simply Rayen) was a public high school in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. At the time it was closed in 2007, it was the oldest of the three high schools in the city. The high ...
.
After graduating from the
Baltimore City College
Baltimore City College, known colloquially as City, City College, and B.C.C., is a college preparatory school with a liberal arts focus and selective admissions criteria located in Baltimore, Maryland. Opened in October 1839, B.C.C. is the thir ...
high school in 1926, Wheeler entered
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
with a scholarship from the state of
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. He published his first scientific paper in 1930, as part of a summer job at the
National Bureau of Standards
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...
. He earned his doctorate in 1933. His dissertation research work, carried out under the supervision of
Karl Herzfeld
Karl Ferdinand Herzfeld (February 24, 1892 – June 3, 1978) was an Austrian- American physicist.
Education
Herzfeld was born in Vienna during the reign of the Habsburgs over the Austro-Hungarian Empire. "He came from a prominent, recentl ...
, was on the "Theory of the Dispersion and Absorption of
Helium
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
".
He received a
National Research Council National Research Council may refer to:
* National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development
* National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome
* National Research Council (United States), part of ...
fellowship, which he used to study under
Gregory Breit at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
in 1933 and 1934, and then in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
under
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
in 1934 and 1935. In a 1934 paper, Breit and Wheeler introduced the
Breit–Wheeler process, a mechanism by which
photon
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they always ...
s can be potentially
transformed into matter in the form of
electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...
-
positron
The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. It has an electric charge of +1 '' e'', a spin of 1/2 (the same as the electron), and the same mass as an electron. When a positron collides ...
pairs.
Early career
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
made Wheeler an associate professor in 1937, but he wanted to be able to work more closely with the experts in particle physics. He turned down an offer in 1938 of an associate professorship at Johns Hopkins University in favor of an assistant professorship at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
. Although it was a lesser position, he felt that Princeton, which was building up its physics department, was a better career choice.
He remained a member of the faculty there until 1976.
In a 1937 paper "On the Mathematical Description of Light Nuclei by the Method of Resonating Group Structure", Wheeler introduced the
S-matrix
In physics, the ''S''-matrix or scattering matrix relates the initial state and the final state of a physical system undergoing a scattering process. It is used in quantum mechanics, scattering theory and quantum field theory (QFT).
More forma ...
– short for scattering matrix – "a unitary matrix of coefficients connecting the asymptotic behavior of an arbitrary particular solution
f the integral equationswith that of solutions of a standard form".
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent series ...
subsequently developed the idea of the S-matrix in the 1940s. Due to the problematic
divergence
In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of the ...
s present in
quantum field theory
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and ...
at that time, Heisenberg was motivated to isolate the essential features of the theory that would not be affected by future changes as the theory developed. In doing so he was led to introduce a unitary "characteristic" S-matrix, which became an important tool in
particle physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...
.
Wheeler did not develop the S-matrix, but joined
Edward Teller
Edward Teller ( hu, Teller Ede; January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" (see the Teller–Ulam design), although he did not care fo ...
in examining Bohr's
liquid drop model
In nuclear physics, the semi-empirical mass formula (SEMF) (sometimes also called the Weizsäcker formula, Bethe–Weizsäcker formula, or Bethe–Weizsäcker mass formula to distinguish it from the Bethe–Weizsäcker process) is used to approxi ...
of the
atomic nucleus
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment. After the discovery of the neutron i ...
. They presented their results at a meeting of the
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
in New York in 1938. Wheeler's Chapel Hill graduate student
Katharine Way also presented a paper, which she followed up in a subsequent article, detailing how the liquid drop model was unstable under certain conditions. Due to a limitation of the liquid drop model, they all missed the opportunity to predict
nuclear fission
Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radio ...
. The news of
Lise Meitner
Elise Meitner ( , ; 7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968) was an Austrian-Swedish physicist who was one of those responsible for the discovery of the element protactinium and nuclear fission. While working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on rad ...
and
Otto Frisch's discovery of fission was brought to America by Bohr in 1939. Bohr told
Leon Rosenfeld, who informed Wheeler.
Bohr and Wheeler set to work applying the liquid drop model to explain the mechanism of nuclear fission. As the experimental physicists studied fission, they uncovered puzzling results.
George Placzek
George Placzek (; September 26, 1905 – October 9, 1955) was a Moravian physicist.
Biography
Placzek was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Brünn, Moravia (now Brno, Czech Republic), the grandson of Chief Rabbi Baruch Placzek.PDF He studied ...
asked Bohr why
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
seemed to fission with both very fast and very slow
neutron
The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons beh ...
s. Walking to a meeting with Wheeler, Bohr had an insight that the fission at low energies was due to the
uranium-235
Uranium-235 (235U or U-235) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that exis ...
isotope
Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers (mass numbers) ...
, while at high energies it was mainly due to the far more abundant
uranium-238
Uranium-238 (238U or U-238) is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature, with a relative abundance of 99%. Unlike uranium-235, it is non-fissile, which means it cannot sustain a chain reaction in a thermal-neutron reactor. However, it ...
isotope. They co-wrote two more papers on fission. Their first paper appeared in ''
Physical Review
''Physical Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1893 by Edward Nichols. It publishes original research as well as scientific and literature reviews on all aspects of physics. It is published by the American Physical S ...
'' on September 1, 1939, the day
Germany invaded Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
, starting
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in Europe.
Considering the notion that positrons were electrons that were traveling backwards in time, he came up in 1940 with his
one-electron universe
The one-electron universe postulate, proposed by theoretical physicist John Wheeler in a telephone call to Richard Feynman in the spring of 1940, is the hypothesis that all electrons and positrons are actually manifestations of a single entity m ...
postulate: that there was in fact only one electron, bouncing back and forth in time.
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superflu ...
, his graduate student, found this hard to believe, but the idea that positrons were electrons traveling backwards in time intrigued him and Feynman incorporated the notion of the reversibility of time into his
Feynman diagram
In theoretical physics, a Feynman diagram is a pictorial representation of the mathematical expressions describing the behavior and interaction of subatomic particles. The scheme is named after American physicist Richard Feynman, who introduc ...
s.
Nuclear weapons
Manhattan Project
Soon after the Japanese
bombing of Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Haw ...
brought the United States into World War II, Wheeler accepted a request from
Arthur Compton to join the
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
's
Metallurgical Laboratory at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. He moved there in January 1942, joining
Eugene Wigner
Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner ( hu, Wigner Jenő Pál, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his con ...
's group, which was studying
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...
design. He co-wrote a paper with
Robert F. Christy
Robert Frederick Christy (May 14, 1916 – October 3, 2012) was a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and later astrophysicist who was one of the last surviving people to have worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He briefly ...
on "Chain Reaction of Pure Fissionable Materials in Solution", which was important in the
plutonium
Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...
purification process.
It would not be declassified until December 1955. He gave the
neutron moderator
In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, ideally without capturing any, leaving them as thermal neutrons with only minimal (thermal) kinetic energy. These thermal neutrons are immensely mo ...
its name, replacing the term "slower downer" used by
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...
.
![B Reactor Tube Loader](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/B_Reactor_Tube_Loader.JPG)
After the
took over the Manhattan Project, it gave responsibility for the detailed design and construction of the reactors to
DuPont
DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
. Wheeler became part of the DuPont design staff. He worked closely with its engineers, commuting between Chicago and
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...
, where DuPont had its headquarters. He moved his family to Wilmington in March 1943. DuPont's task was not just to build nuclear reactors, but an entire plutonium production complex at the
Hanford Site
The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including SiteW a ...
in
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
. As work progressed, Wheeler relocated his family again in July 1944, this time to
Richland, Washington
Richland () is a city in Benton County, Washington, United States. It is located in southeastern Washington at the confluence of the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 60,560. Along with the nearby c ...
, where he worked in the scientific buildings known as the
300 area.
Even before the Hanford Site started up the
B Reactor
The B Reactor at the Hanford Site, near Richland, Washington, was the first large-scale nuclear reactor ever built. The project was a key part of the Manhattan Project, the United States nuclear weapons development program during World War II. I ...
, the first of its three reactors, on September 15, 1944, Wheeler had been concerned that some
nuclear fission product
Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons, the release ...
s might turn out to be
nuclear poison
In applications such as nuclear reactors, a neutron poison (also called a neutron absorber or a nuclear poison) is a substance with a large neutron absorption cross-section. In such applications, absorbing neutrons is normally an undesirable eff ...
s, the accumulation of which would impede the ongoing
nuclear chain reaction
In nuclear physics, a nuclear chain reaction occurs when one single nuclear reaction causes an average of one or more subsequent nuclear reactions, thus leading to the possibility of a self-propagating series of these reactions. The specific nu ...
by absorbing many of the
thermal neutron
The neutron detection temperature, also called the neutron energy, indicates a free neutron's kinetic energy, usually given in electron volts. The term ''temperature'' is used, since hot, thermal and cold neutrons are moderated in a medium with ...
s that were needed to continue a chain reaction. In an April 1942 report, he predicted that this would reduce the reactivity by less than one percent so long as no fission product had a
neutron capture
Neutron capture is a nuclear reaction in which an atomic nucleus and one or more neutrons collide and merge to form a heavier nucleus. Since neutrons have no electric charge, they can enter a nucleus more easily than positively charged protons, ...
cross section
Cross section may refer to:
* Cross section (geometry)
** Cross-sectional views in architecture & engineering 3D
*Cross section (geology)
* Cross section (electronics)
* Radar cross section, measure of detectability
* Cross section (physics)
**Abs ...
of more than 100,000
barns
A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. ...
. After the reactor unexpectedly shut down, and then just as unexpectedly restarted about fifteen hours later, he suspected
iodine-135
There are 37 known isotopes of iodine (53I) from 108I to 144I; all undergo radioactive decay except 127I, which is stable. Iodine is thus a monoisotopic element.
Its longest-lived radioactive isotope, 129I, has a half-life of 15.7 million year ...
, with a
half life
Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable at ...
of 6.6 hours, and its daughter product,
xenon-135
Xenon-135 (135Xe) is an unstable isotope of xenon with a half-life of about 9.2 hours. 135Xe is a fission product of uranium and it is the most powerful known neutron-absorbing nuclear poison (2 million barns; up to 3 million barns under reactor ...
, which has a half life of 9.2 hours. Xenon-135 turned out to have a neutron capture cross-section of well over 2 million barns. The problem was corrected by adding additional fuel slugs to burn out the poison.
Wheeler had a personal reason for working on the Manhattan Project. His brother Joe, fighting in Italy, sent him a postcard with a simple message: "Hurry up".
It was already too late: Joe was killed in October 1944. "Here we were," Wheeler later wrote, "so close to creating a nuclear weapon to end the war. I couldn't stop thinking then, and haven't stopped thinking since, that the war could have been over in October 1944." Joe left a widow and baby daughter, Mary Jo, who later married physicist
James Hartle
James Burkett Hartle (August 20, 1939) is an American physicist. He has been a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 1966, and he is currently a member of the external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. Hartle ...
.
Hydrogen bomb
In August 1945 Wheeler and his family returned to Princeton, where he resumed his academic career. Working with Feynman, he explored the possibility of physics with particles, but not fields, and carried out theoretical studies of the
muon
A muon ( ; from the Greek letter mu (μ) used to represent it) is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 '' e'' and a spin of , but with a much greater mass. It is classified as a lepton. As wi ...
with
Jayme Tiomno
Jayme Tiomno (April 16, 1920 in Rio de Janeiro – January 12, 2011 in Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian experimental and theoretical physicist with interests in particle physics and general relativity. He was member of the Brazilian Academy of ...
, resulting in a series of papers on the topic, including a 1949 paper in which Tiomno and Wheeler introduced the "Tiomno Triangle", which related different forms of radioactive decay. He also suggested the use of muons as a nuclear probe. This paper, written and privately circulated in 1949 but not published until 1953,
resulted in a series of measurements of the Chang radiation emitted by muons. Muons are a component of
cosmic rays
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...
, and Wheeler became the founder and first director of Princeton's Cosmic Rays Laboratory, which received a substantial grant of $375,000 from the
Office of Naval Research
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...
in 1948. He received a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in 1946, which allowed him to spend the 1949–50 academic year in Paris.
![Ivy Mike Sausage device](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Ivy_Mike_Sausage_device.jpg)
The 1949 detonation of
Joe-1 by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
prompted an all-out effort by the United States, led by Teller, to develop the more powerful
hydrogen bomb in response.
Henry D. Smyth, Wheeler's department head at Princeton, asked him to join the effort. Most physicists were, like Wheeler, trying to re-establish careers interrupted by the war and were reluctant to face more disruption. Others had moral objections. Those who agreed to participate included
Emil Konopinski,
Marshall Rosenbluth,
Lothar Nordheim and
Charles Critchfield
Charles Louis Critchfield (June 7, 1910 – February 12, 1994) was an Americans, American mathematical physicist. A graduate of George Washington University, where he earned his Doctor of Philosophy, PhD in Physics under the direction of Edward T ...
, but there was also now a body of experienced weapons physicists at the
Los Alamos Laboratory
The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Ro ...
, led by
Norris Bradbury
Norris Edwin Bradbury (May 30, 1909 – August 20, 1997), was an American physicist who served as director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 25 years from 1945 to 1970. He succeeded Robert Oppenheimer, who personally chose Bradbur ...
. Wheeler agreed to go to Los Alamos after a conversation with Bohr. Two of his graduate students from Princeton,
Ken Ford and
John Toll
John Toll, (born June 15, 1952) is an American cinematographer and television producer. Toll's filmography spans a wide variety of genres, including epic period drama, comedy, science fiction, and contemporary drama. He won the Academy Awa ...
, joined him there.
At Los Alamos, Wheeler and his family moved into the house on "
Bathtub Row" that had been occupied by
Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is often ...
and his family during the war. In 1950 there was no practical design for a hydrogen bomb. Calculations by
Stanisław Ulam
Stanisław Marcin Ulam (; 13 April 1909 – 13 May 1984) was a Polish-American scientist in the fields of mathematics and nuclear physics. He participated in the Manhattan Project, originated the Teller–Ulam design of thermonuclear weapon ...
and others showed that Teller's "Classical Super" would not work. Teller and Wheeler created a new design known as "Alarm Clock", but it was not a true thermonuclear weapon. Not until January 1951 did Ulam
come up with a workable design.
In 1951 Wheeler obtained permission from Bradbury to set up a branch office of the Los Alamos laboratory at Princeton, known as
Project Matterhorn
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a United States Department of Energy United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory for plasma physics and nuclear fusion science. Its primary mission is research into and develo ...
, which had two parts. Matterhorn S (for
stellarator
A stellarator is a plasma device that relies primarily on external magnets to confine a plasma. Scientists researching magnetic confinement fusion aim to use stellarator devices as a vessel for nuclear fusion reactions. The name refers to the ...
, another name coined by Wheeler), under Lyman Spitzer, investigated
nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifest ...
as a power source. Matterhorn B (for bomb), under Wheeler, engaged in nuclear weapons research. Senior scientists remained uninterested and aloof from the project, so he staffed it with young graduate and post-doctoral students. Matterhorn B's efforts were crowned by the success of the
Ivy Mike
Ivy Mike was the codename given to the first full-scale test of a thermonuclear device, in which part of the explosive yield comes from nuclear fusion.
Ivy Mike was detonated on November 1, 1952, by the United States on the island of Elugelab in ...
nuclear test at
Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific, on November 1, 1952, which Wheeler witnessed. The yield of the Ivy Mike "Sausage" device was reckoned at , about 30 percent higher than Matterhorn B had estimated.
In January 1953 he was involved in a security breach when he lost a highly classified paper on
lithium-6
Naturally occurring lithium (3Li) is composed of two stable isotopes, lithium-6 and lithium-7, with the latter being far more abundant on Earth. Both of the natural isotopes have an unexpectedly low nuclear binding energy per nucleon ( for ...
and the hydrogen bomb design during an overnight train trip. This resulted in Wheeler being given an official reprimand.
Matterhorn B was discontinued, but Matterhorn S endures as the
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory for plasma physics and nuclear fusion science. Its primary mission is research into and development of fusion as an energy source. It is known ...
.
Later career in academia
After concluding his Matterhorn Project work, Wheeler resumed his academic career. In a 1955 paper, he theoretically investigated the
geon, an
electromagnetic
In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of a ...
or
gravitational wave
Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity generated by the accelerated masses of an orbital binary system that propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. They were first proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1 ...
that is held together in a confined region by the attraction of its own
field
Field may refer to:
Expanses of open ground
* Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes
* Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport
* Battlefield
* Lawn, an area of mowed grass
* Meadow, a grass ...
. He coined the name as a contraction of "gravitational electromagnetic entity".
He found that the smallest geon was a
toroid
In mathematics, a toroid is a surface of revolution with a hole in the middle. The axis of revolution passes through the hole and so does not intersect the surface. For example, when a rectangle is rotated around an axis parallel to one of its ...
the size of the Sun, but millions of times heavier.
Geometrodynamics
During the 1950s, Wheeler formulated
geometrodynamics
In theoretical physics, geometrodynamics is an attempt to describe spacetime and associated phenomena completely in terms of geometry. Technically, its goal is to grand unification, unify the fundamental forces and reformulate general relativity ...
, a program of physical and ontological reduction of every physical phenomenon, such as
gravitation
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...
and
electromagnetism
In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of a ...
, to the geometrical properties of a curved space-time. His research on the subject was published in 1957 and 1961. Wheeler envisaged the fabric of the universe as a chaotic sub-atomic realm of
quantum fluctuation
In quantum physics, a quantum fluctuation (also known as a vacuum state fluctuation or vacuum fluctuation) is the temporary random change in the amount of energy in a point in space, as prescribed by Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. ...
s, which he called "
quantum foam
Quantum foam or spacetime foam is a theoretical quantum fluctuation of spacetime on very small scales due to quantum mechanics. The theory predicts that at these small scales, particles of matter and antimatter are constantly created and destroye ...
".
General relativity
General relativity
General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...
had been considered a less respectable field of physics, being detached from experiment. Wheeler was a key figure in the revival of the subject, leading the school at Princeton University, while
Dennis William Sciama
Dennis William Siahou Sciama, (; 18 November 1926 – 18/19 December 1999) was a British physicist who, through his own work and that of his students, played a major role in developing British physics after the Second World War. He was the PhD ...
and
Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich
Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich ( be, Я́каў Бары́савіч Зяльдо́віч, russian: Я́ков Бори́сович Зельдо́вич; 8 March 1914 – 2 December 1987), also known as YaB, was a leading Soviet physicist of Bel ...
developed the subject at
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
and the
University of Moscow
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
, respectively. Wheeler and his students made substantial contributions to the field during the
Golden Age of General Relativity
General relativity is a theory of gravitation that was developed by Albert Einstein between 1907 and 1915, with contributions by many others after 1915. According to general relativity, the observed gravitational attraction between masses results ...
.
While working on mathematical extensions to Einstein's general relativity in 1957, Wheeler introduced the concept and word ''
wormhole
A wormhole ( Einstein-Rosen bridge) is a hypothetical structure connecting disparate points in spacetime, and is based on a special solution of the Einstein field equations.
A wormhole can be visualized as a tunnel with two ends at separate p ...
'' to describe hypothetical "tunnels" in
space-time
In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three-dimensional space, three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Minkowski diagram, Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize S ...
. Bohr asked if they were stable and further research by Wheeler determined that they are not. His work in general relativity included the theory of gravitational collapse. He used the term ''
black hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...
'' in 1967 during a talk he gave at the
NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS), although the term had been used earlier in the decade. Wheeler said the term was suggested to him during a lecture when a member of the audience was tired of hearing Wheeler say "gravitationally completely collapsed object". Wheeler was also a pioneer in the field of
quantum gravity
Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics; it deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vi ...
due to his development, with
Bryce DeWitt
Bryce Seligman DeWitt (January 8, 1923 – September 23, 2004), was an American theoretical physicist noted for his work in gravitation and quantum field theory.
Life
He was born Carl Bryce Seligman, but he and his three brothers, including th ...
, of the
Wheeler–DeWitt equation
The Wheeler–DeWitt equation for theoretical physics and applied mathematics, is a field equation attributed to John Archibald Wheeler and Bryce DeWitt. The equation attempts to mathematically combine the ideas of quantum mechanics and general ...
in 1967.
Stephen Hawking later described Wheeler and DeWitt's work as the equation governing the "
wave function
A wave function in quantum physics is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. The wave function is a complex-valued probability amplitude, and the probabilities for the possible results of measurements mad ...
of the Universe".
Quantum information
Wheeler left Princeton University in 1976 at the age of 65. He was appointed as the director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
in 1976 and remained in the position until 1986, when he retired
and became a
professor emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
.
[ ] Misner, Thorne and
Wojciech Zurek
Wojciech Hubert Zurek ( pl, Żurek; born 1951) is a theoretical physicist and a leading authority on quantum theory, especially decoherence and non-equilibrium dynamics of symmetry breaking and resulting defect generation (known as the Kibble–Zu ...
, all former students of Wheeler, wrote that:
Wheeler's delayed choice experiment
Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment describes a family of thought experiments in quantum physics proposed by John Archibald Wheeler, with the most prominent among them appearing in 1978 and 1984. These experiments are attempts to decide whether ...
is actually several
thought experiment
A thought experiment is a hypothetical situation in which a hypothesis, theory, or principle is laid out for the purpose of thinking through its consequences.
History
The ancient Greek ''deiknymi'' (), or thought experiment, "was the most anc ...
s in
quantum physics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...
that he proposed, with the most prominent among them appearing in 1978 and 1984. These experiments are attempts to decide whether light somehow "senses" the experimental apparatus in the
double-slit experiment
In modern physics, the double-slit experiment is a demonstration that light and matter can display characteristics of both classically defined waves and particles; moreover, it displays the fundamentally probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics ...
that it will travel through, and adjusts its behavior to fit by assuming the appropriate determinate state, or whether light remains in an indeterminate state, neither wave nor particle, and responds to the "questions" asked of it in either a wave-consistent manner or a particle-consistent manner, depending on the experimental arrangements that ask these "questions".
Teaching
Wheeler's graduate students included
Jacob Bekenstein
Jacob David Bekenstein ( he, יעקב בקנשטיין; May 1, 1947 – August 16, 2015) was an American and Israeli theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics and to other aspects of ...
,
Hugh Everett
Hugh Everett III (; November 11, 1930 – July 19, 1982) was an American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum physics, which he termed his "relative state" formulation. In contrast to the then-dominant Cope ...
,
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superflu ...
, David Hill, Bei-Lok Hu,
John R. Klauder,
Charles Misner
Charles W. Misner (; born June 13, 1932) is an American physicist and one of the authors of '' Gravitation''. His specialties include general relativity and cosmology. His work has also provided early foundations for studies of quantum gravity ...
,
Kip Thorne
Kip Stephen Thorne (born June 1, 1940) is an American theoretical physicist known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. A longtime friend and colleague of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan, he was the Richard P. Fey ...
,
William Unruh
William George "Bill" Unruh (; born August 28, 1945) is a Canadian physicist at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver who described the hypothetical Unruh effect in 1976.
Early life and education
Unruh was born into a Mennonite family i ...
,
Robert M. Wald,
Katharine Way, and
Arthur Wightman
Arthur Strong Wightman (March 30, 1922 – January 13, 2013) was an American mathematical physicist. He was one of the founders of the axiomatic approach to quantum field theory, and originated the set of Wightman axioms. With his rigorous treatm ...
.
Wheeler gave a high priority to teaching, and continued to teach
freshman
A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions.
Ara ...
and
sophomore physics, saying that the young minds were the most important. At Princeton he supervised 46 PhDs, more than any other professor in the Princeton physics department. With Kent Harrison,
Kip Thorne
Kip Stephen Thorne (born June 1, 1940) is an American theoretical physicist known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. A longtime friend and colleague of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan, he was the Richard P. Fey ...
and Masami Wakano, Wheeler wrote ''Gravitation Theory and Gravitational Collapse'' (1965). This led to the voluminous general relativity textbook ''
Gravitation
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...
'' (1973), co-written with Misner and Thorne. Its timely appearance during the golden age of general relativity and its comprehensiveness made it an influential relativity textbook for a generation. Wheeler teamed up with
Edwin F. Taylor to write ''Spacetime Physics'' (1966) and ''Scouting Black Holes'' (1996).
Alluding to Wheeler's "mass without mass", the
festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
honoring his 60th birthday was titled ''Magic Without Magic: John Archibald Wheeler: A Collection of Essays in Honor of his Sixtieth Birthday'' (1972). His writing style could also attract parodies, including one by "John Archibald Wyler" that was affectionately published by a relativity journal.
Participatory Anthropic Principle
Wheeler speculated that reality is created by observers in the universe. "How does something arise from nothing?", he asked about the existence of space and time. He also coined the term "Participatory Anthropic Principle" (PAP), a version of a
Strong Anthropic Principle.
In 1990, Wheeler suggested that information is fundamental to the physics of the universe. According to this "it from bit" doctrine, all things physical are information-theoretic in origin:
In developing the Participatory Anthropic Principle (PAP), an
interpretation of quantum mechanics
An interpretation of quantum mechanics is an attempt to explain how the mathematical theory of quantum mechanics might correspond to experienced reality. Although quantum mechanics has held up to rigorous and extremely precise tests in an extraord ...
, Wheeler used a variant on
Twenty Questions, called Negative Twenty Questions, to show how the questions we choose to ask about the universe may dictate the answers we get. In this variant, the respondent does not choose or decide upon any particular or definite object beforehand, but only on a pattern of "Yes" or "No" answers. This variant requires the respondent to provide a consistent set of answers to successive questions, so that each answer can be viewed as logically compatible with all the previous answers. In this way, successive questions narrow the options until the questioner settles upon a definite object. Wheeler's theory was that, in an analogous manner, consciousness may play some role in bringing the universe into existence.
From a transcript of a radio interview on "The Anthropic Universe":
Opposition to parapsychology
In 1979, Wheeler spoke to the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
(AAAS), asking it to expel
parapsychology
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...
, which had been admitted ten years earlier at the request of
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...
. He called it a
pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfa ...
, saying he did not oppose earnest research into the questions, but he thought the "air of legitimacy" of being an AAAS-Affiliate should be reserved until convincing tests of at least a few so-called psi effects could be demonstrated. In the question and answer period following his presentation "Not consciousness, but the distinction between the probe and the probed, as central to the elemental quantum act of observation", Wheeler incorrectly stated that
J. B. Rhine
Joseph Banks Rhine (September 29, 1895 – February 20, 1980), usually known as J. B. Rhine, was an American botanist who founded parapsychology as a branch of psychology, founding the parapsychology lab at Duke University, the ''Journ ...
had committed fraud as a student, for which he apologized in a subsequent letter to the journal ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
''. His request was turned down and the
Parapsychological Association
The Parapsychological Association (PA) was formed in 1957 as a professional society for parapsychologists following an initiative by Joseph B. Rhine. Its purpose has been "to advance parapsychology as a science, to disseminate knowledge of the fie ...
remained a member of the AAAS.
Personal life
For 72 years, Wheeler was married to Janette Hegner, a teacher and social worker. They became engaged on their third date, but agreed to defer marriage until after he returned from Europe. They were married on June 10, 1935, five days after his return. Employment was difficult to obtain during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.
Arthur Ruark offered Wheeler a position as an
assistant professor
Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada.
Overview
This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree and general ...
at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
, at an annual salary of $2,300, which was less than the $2,400 Janette was offered to teach at the Rye Country Day School.
They had three children: Letitia, James English and Alison Wheeler.
Wheeler and Hegner were founding members of the
Unitarian Church of Princeton, and she initiated the Friends of the
Princeton Public Library
The Princeton Public Library serves the town of Princeton, New Jersey. It is the most visited municipal public library in New Jersey with over 860,000 annual visitors who borrow 550,000 items, ask more than 83,000 reference questions, log onto li ...
.
In their later years, Hegner accompanied him on sabbaticals in France, Los Alamos, New Mexico, the Netherlands, and Japan.
Hegner died in October 2007 at the age of 96.
Death and legacy
Wheeler won numerous prizes and awards, including the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement
The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...
in 1966,
the
Enrico Fermi Award
The Enrico Fermi Award is a scientific award conferred by the President of the United States. It is awarded to honor scientists of international stature for their lifetime achievement in the development, use, or production of energy. It was establ ...
in 1968, the
Franklin Medal
The Franklin Medal was a science award presented from 1915 until 1997 by the Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the Am ...
in 1969, the
Einstein Prize in 1969, the
National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...
in 1971, the
Niels Bohr International Gold Medal in 1982, the
Oersted Medal
The Oersted Medal recognizes notable contributions to the teaching of physics. Established in 1936, it is awarded by the American Association of Physics Teachers. The award is named for Hans Christian Ørsted. It is the Association's most prest ...
in 1983, the
J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize in 1984 and the
Wolf Foundation Prize in 1997.
He was a member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
, the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
, the
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...
, and the
Century Association. He received honorary degrees from 18 different institutions. In 2001, Princeton used a $3 million gift to establish the John Archibald Wheeler/Battelle Professorship in Physics.
After his death, the University of Texas named the John A. Wheeler Lecture Hall in his honor.
On April 13, 2008, Wheeler died of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
at the age of 96 in
Hightstown, New Jersey.
Bibliography
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External links
Voices of the Manhattan Project
1986 Audio Interview with John Wheeler by S. L. Sanger Voices of the Manhattan Project
A Collection of John Archibald Wheeler's Published and Unpublished Works*
*
John Wheelertelling his life story a
Web of StoriesWheeler —Biographical storiesJohn Archibald Wheeler: A Study of Mentoring in Modern PhysicsKip S. Thorne, "John A. Wheeler", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2019)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, John Archibald
American nuclear physicists
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