Check out Brilliant: brilliant.org/biographics

One thing that you may have pointed out, is where the other scientists - from Oppenheimer to Szilard to Bohr - cleared the mechanics of the nuclear reactions, Enrico Fermi was the only one to get into the "minutia" of the reactions, and actually conducted all the mathematical calculations on quantities, timings, and the likes. Without Fermi, the other scientists should have executed many experiments by trial and error; while with Fermi doing the calculations, they always knew what and how much material to use, and what result they had to expect. In only one occasion - in the Hanford reactor for the production of plutonium, he didn't initially consider the dampening delayed effects of radioactive xenon on the chain reaction, but he found the solution (in agreement with Bohr) the day after the malfunction; they added 500 more uranium rods to the reactor, achieving a permanent and balanced criticality. The fact that in the entire period of discovery and invention there had been no serious incident, should be ascribed to the ability of Fermi to calculate the result of the experiments in advance. Fermi was was an outstanding scientist as he was unique. But - possibly - the continued vicinity with radioactive materials had a nefarious effect on his health. Thank you for the video...

My Physics Professor used to say that the first half of XX century is an statistical outlier when it comes to number of geniuses that lived in it. Emilio Segrè wrote that Fermi was the last “universal” physicist, someone who could discuss topics across all physics: from subatomic particles to the expansion of the universe.

He is my favorite nuclear scientist. I wish you could have told these two stories about Fermi. Fisrt, his understanding of the physics of CP-1, the first man-made nuclear reactor, was such that as the control rod was inched out, he accurately predicted with a slide rule the power level the reactor would steady out at after each pull. Second, when the larger versions of CP-1 for producing plutonium were mysteriously shutting down by themselves, he knew befote anyone else it was because of the buildup of specific isotopes left over from splitting of uranium that would absorb enough neutrons to stop the chain reaction until they decayed away.

Fermi: Where is everybody? Probably built nuclear weapons and wiped themselves out...

Fermi was a great mind and he surrounded himself with many other brilliant scientists, the so called “Via Paninsperna Boys” (you posted a picture of them but didn’t mention it…). Among those guys was Ettore Majorana: his talent and abilities even exceeded those of Fermi. His life and mysterious disappearance would make a great biographics video !

Fermi paradox isn't really a paradox and this is what Fermi actually said: “... he went on to conclude that the reason that we hadn’t been visited might be that interstellar flight is impossible, or, if it is possible, always judged to be not worth the effort, or technological civilization doesn’t last long enough for it to happen.”

“It no good to try stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge” Enrico Fermi

My favorite Fermi story: When the Trinity test took place, no one knew how powerful it would be. He measured how far some scraps of paper flew in the wind of the explosion to get a pretty good, seat of the pants estimate.

We all know that the Bikini Atoll island "tests" weren't tests, they were trying to kill Godzilla.

Fermi had a student who got his phD in physics at age 21 years old. Fermi called him the only genius he ever met. At age 25 he was one of the main designers of the hydrogen bomb. He is still alive today. Research Richard Garwin

My uncle was also a physicist who worked on the bomb at Los Alamos during WWII. After the war he stayed on and had a career working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He died in Los Alamos of stomach cancer at the age of 73 in 1995.

It is claimed that Enrico Fermi worked out the yield of the first atomic bomb on a notepad much faster, and more accurately, than the primitive computers at Los Alamos could.

Please consider the amazing *_Niels Bohr_* soon, eh? Thanks as always for keeping me sane during these times!

Can you do one on Marshall Applewhite?

Thanks for this one! Fermi was a totally underrated genius.

"How I learned to stop worrying..." - great Dr. Strangelove reference!

Sounds like Nolan should have done a movie about this guy.

Ettore Majorana (who was one of Fermi's collaborators and disappeared in mysterious circumstances) would make a great Biographics.

Basically they lost the bomb because they threatened his wife and family. Life sure is cliche sometimes

Have you considered doing one on Ian Fleming?(creator of James Bond)

Brilliant presentation...as usual. Thank you Simon for your own contribution to a deep awareness of history that had a deep impact to humankind but not necessarily known to the latter in general.

When Simon started talking about Fermi's question of "where is everybody" I played the Force Theme in the background and boy the moment didn't disappoint on bringing me to tears.

And that’s from where the term “SCRAM the Reactor” comes: Safety Control Rod Axe Man.

Do one on the strasser brothers, and one on Ernst jünger.

Einstein didn’t believe in Enrico when he told him about it. He wrote a letter to Roosevelt not really understanding the details. Enrico was truly inteligente much beyond our capacity to grasp

Excellent content as always

Awesome work. Thanks so much. I had heard of Fermi, but knew no details. It is scary to consider how close it came to the Axis getting the bomb first. Good luck for us!

Fermi is one of my favorite physicist. Great video as usual!

Excellent account. Thank you.We look forward to more.

Thanks for the video brother ❤️❤️

Wow please keep the great videos coming. Love them!!!

Thank you for this ... Knew about Fermi, but not the details ... great video, as always!!

I don’t think anyone in Chicagoland doesn’t know who Enrico Fermi is, at least everyone who works at Fermi Labs.

Video: "Now, before we continue. I hope that you aren't going to develop any nuclear bombs" Me: "Darn, there goes my easter isolation plans."

Annnd he's backk Finally, thank you great video

Wonderful work, sir. Even your "commercial interruptions" are enjoyable. That is a rare gift.

Very interesting 👌 and educative!! Thanks

Fantastic. Thanks!

Loving Business blaze btw 👍

I will not rest until you do a video on Vincent Price, he is such an interesting and multi faceted human being he definitely deserves a video in my opinion.

There’s also Fermilab about 40 miles outside of Chicago. :)

There's a book about the man called 'the last man who knew everything' !

“Disaster wasn’t struck” I think that 120,000 Japanese people would disagree if they hadn’t been instantly vaporized

Need a biographics on mongol general Subodai. Wolf of Genghis. Most successful general in history. Father of command and control, conquered russia in winter with tactics not seen till barberossa in WW2.

thanks so much brother you're carrying me on my research project 🙏

The first time I watched a Biographics video you reminded me of a British "Rod Serling" doing an intro to a Twilight Zone episode. That's a compliment cause I love Rod Serling. Your videos are excellent and well informed.

You forgot to add that Fermilab in Batavia Illinois was named after him and was the largest particle accelerator in the world for a while

Incredible story!

What a story. This man was brilliant and a lovely family. ☘

I love this channel : )

Can you do one on Gustav Adolphus🙏 love your vids👍

Great video as always, another great possibility would be a bio of Anton LaVey

I have a sneaking suspicion that Ferme may have actually worked out how to make the atomic bomb, but chose not to. He certainly seems smart enough.

There was zero possibility that Fascist Italy or Nazi Germany could have developed the atomic bomb- the Manhattan Project employed 130,000 people in a dozen cities and cost $2Billion ($23 Billion in constant dollars), and over 10% of the total electrical capacity of the entire US- resources FAR beyond the capacity of the Axis powers. But a fascinating bio!

You will be awesome history college teacher Thanks for the video💯♥️

I’ve lived near Fermilab for years.

That was BOMB! Sejong The Great, a South Korean King and national hero, as well as the founder of their alphabet 'Hangul' I'd really like to see a Biographic on him

finally know why my elementary school was named after him.

would love to see one of these on Richard Feynman!

Also famous for his paradox!

The story about Fermi getting his family out of Italy by collecting the Nobel Prize is just amazing! The USSR declared war on Japan the same day Nagasaki was destroyed. I understand there is some differing of opinion as to which was more influential on the Japanese decision to surrender when they did. This made more sense to me when I realized that Japan found itself at war with BOTH of the world's superpowers at the same time.

Good video as always! I have a request/ a tip though. Look into Axel von Fersen the younger. He has a really interesting story being around most of the biggest figures of the 18th century, from the founding fathers to Marie Antoinette. His incredibly brutal murder is a lesson in his courage, and the source of stories of haunting in Stockholm to this day.

Do one please about Charles Dewey. The inventor of the Dewey decimal system. He pioneered library science.

You forgot to mention the physics laboratory outside of Chicago named after him.

This is a necessary biography to know for those who do not understand that time in the world

Simon Tesoro. Brilliant piece.

This video is the BOMB! And if you dropped your own biography, Simon, it'd be even bigger!

Simon, that stray mustache on your left side almost convinced me to sign up to Dollar Shave Club

I had never heard of Enrico Fermi but if Simon thinks he deserves a video, I'm going to watch it. Then I find out about the Fermi paradox Then I find out about the Dark Forest Theory Then I find out about the Drake Equation Then I find out about the Prisoner Dilemma Wow! Thank you Simon PS Do you know who Rutgur Hauer or Benny Hill are yet? ;-)

I truly enjoy your channel, please never stop. Can you make a video please about Nebuchadnezzar King of the Neo-Babylonian Empire? I would love to see more Biographics related to rulers of Mesopotamia or Babylonia :).

The US Department of engery hosts free tours of Hanford B reactor. They still have his office set up for historical purposes. I highly recommend going if you are interested in history. Tri-cities in Washington are amazingly beautiful too with a lot of local dive spots.

If I remember correctly, he wasn't even watching the Trinity test when it went off; he was turned away from the blast, throwing pieces of paper into the air at timed intervals to measure the size of the blast wave

I'd like to suggest a Biographics video on the lives of Robert and Clara Schumann.

He also had an American national laboratory named after him in Batavia, Illinois (Fermilab).

Why must such brilliant minds perish so quickly

Dr. Fermi essentially knew his days were numbered by doing the kind of work he was doing by blasting neutrons and creating new elements/particles-the radiation emitted would eventually catch up to him (he ultimately passed away from stomach cancer in 1953_--nevertheless although knowing the dangers involved he pressed on for as he said the work was simply too important to worry about his own well being--that's the kind of person Dr. Fermi was--he only thought about how his work would benefit others--we have electricity generated by nuclear power plants/CT and MRI machines that operate on the principals he discovered--thank you Dr. Fermi RIP

Please do a video on the "Fermi Paradox."

16:46 Oppenheimer didn't just think it, it's from the Bhagavad Gita

Do Oswald Mosley

Now you guys probably need to do one on Heisenberg!

Very good video as always, but please do a video about Marcus Aurelius. Thanks.

Sir James Chadwick also played a great part of the development of the Atom Bomb as he discovered the Neutron and the UK sent the Tizard Trunk to the USA with all technology info in 1940

Hi Simon could you do a video about Jasper Maskelyne The War Illusionist please thank you

Particle Research at Fermi Lab in Chicago. Small version of Hadron collider

thank you.

"like an out-of-control weather balloon" Great description.

You should really consider doing a biography on Fela, the father of the Afrobeat music genre. He led a very interesting life.

Could you maybe make a video about Clarence Darrow?

As they say "well you live and learn". Even old history majors can still learn a thing or two from your sites. 👍

I really want you to do a video on lola montez. Her story is crazy!

At 23:13, that's the 1946 test known as Crossroads Baker (a 20 KT Nagasaki-type bomb). The first H-Bomb was Ivy Mike in 1952.

Good vid

Knowledge is key wisdom even better

Y’all should do a video on Blaze Foley

Love watching your videos. I was wondering if you’ll ever do a biographic on Nicolae Ceaușescu?

Watch to the end like a BB OG LEGEND.

This video was extremely interesting and educational! I enjoy it immensely! And learned a lot too! Have you ever done a video on Ernest Rutherford, or Kate Shepperd, both New Zealanders who made history in their own way?

Michael Collins Irish leader please

Good bio! Not to be pedantic, but there was no doctoral program in Italy when Fermi attended university. In fact, the first PhDs in Italy were only granted in the 1970s. But Fermi's undergraduate degree was much more impressive than a PhD - the Scuola Normale Superiore was, and remains, one of the most exclusive undergraduate institutions in the world. In any case, Fermi never received a PhD, although with his degree he was able to qualify for a professorial teaching position.