SCIENTIST SPLITS ATOM, FINDS TOY PRIZE INSIDE
Promise of Hidden Surprises Has Propelled Fission Research for Decades
Princeton, N.J. - A Princeton physicist recently split an atom of hydrogen
and found a toy prize inside, the journal Science reported in its June issue.
"It was just a cheap plastic clicker you use to make cricket sounds, and it
broke, like, the second time I used it, but it was the surprise I found most
satisfying," said Prof. Harold Lumiere of the Princeton Plasma Physics
Laboratory.
...Enrico Fermi, a pioneer of fission, had to wait nearly 10 years
before discovering a plastic whistle inside a newly split nucleus of uranium.
"He was so happy, he just cried and cried," wrote colleague Edward Teller
in his 1952 book, "The Physicists Guide to Isotopal Isolation and
Collectible Atomic Prizes."
"For days after, Enrico kept running around the lab, his fingers to his lips,
trying to play that whistle," Teller recalled. "Of course, we couldn't hear it,
but he said he could. He was such a goof."
...More than half a century later, perceptibility remains an issue with physicists.
"You can't do much with (the toys) because they're infinitesimally small,"
said Lumiere.