The Via Panisperna boys (Italian:I ragazzi di Via Panisperna) were a group of young scientists led by Enrico Fermi. In Rome in 1934, they made the famous discovery of slow neutrons which made possible the nuclear reactor and later on the atomic bomb. The nickname of the group comes from the address of the Physics Department, at the University of Rome La Sapienza. The street Via Panisperma took the name of a nearby monastery, San Lorenzo in Panisperna.

The other members of the group were Edoardo Amaldi, Oscar D'Agostino, Ettore Majorana, Bruno Pontecorvo, Franco Rasetti and Emilio Segrè. All of them were physicists, except for D'Agostino who was a chemist.

The group grew under the supervision of the physicist, minister, senator and director of the Institute of physics Orso Mario Corbino. Corbino recognized the qualities of Enrico Fermi, appointed him in 1926 and created the first Chair of Theoretical Physics in Italy for him. From 1929, Fermi and Corbino dedicated themselves to the transformation of the institute into a modern research centre.

The first version of their research laboratory was mainly dedicated to atomic and molecular spectroscopy; afterwards they moved towards experimental studies of the atomic nucleus. Research included the bombarding of various substances with neutrons, obtained by irradiating beryllium with alpha particles emitted by radon, which is a strongly radioactive gas that renders possible numerous stable artificial radioactive elements. On the theoretical side, the work of Majorana and Fermi enabled the understanding of the structure of the atomic nucleus and the forces acting in it, known as the Majorana Forces. In 1933 and 1934 they published the fundamental theory of beta decay.

In 1938, because of the Fascist racial laws, the group dispersed and most of its members emigrated. Only Edoardo Amaldi remained in Italy. In the post-war reconstruction of Italian physics, Amaldi contributed significantly to the foundation of CERN.

The director Gianni Amelio has told their story in a film, I ragazzi di via Panisperna (1989).

The building in Via Panisperna is today included in the complex of the Viminale, on the same homonymous Roman hill as the Ministry of the Interior. In the near future, the building is planned to host a centre for research and a museum of physics named for Enrico Fermi.

References

• La scienza. Molecole, atomi, particelle. Vol. 12. La biblioteca di Repubblica. Rome, La Repubblica-UTET, 2005.

External links

• Enrico Fermi and the Via Panisperna Boys from the Museum of Physics of "La Sapienza" University in Rome

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