Re: [ATM] Dobson

[Guy Brandenburg <gfbrandenburg@yahoo.com>]

Are you sure he was involved in the Manhattan Project?
I seriously doubt that. I also don't think he knows
nearly as much physics as you seem to think. 
According to the 'Biographical Sketch of John Dobson'
in his book "How and Why to Build a Sidewalk
Telescope", Dobson graduated from HS in 1934, and went
to UCalBerkeley "determined to be a biochemist for the
sole purpose of finding out how to keep Einstein
alive." (!!!) "He felt that Einstein was the best
chance to get the cosmos figured out. 'I never knew
I'd inherit the job.' After 2 years at Cal, he saw
that the curriculum didn't suit him, so he quit in the
middle of a semester and stayed out for 2 years "...
(that's on page 2)

Then he joined a dance group and grew long hair (about
1937 - an early Beat or Hippie?) that did dances
supporting the 1937 Longshoremen's strike in San
Francisco, among other things.

He then went back to UCalBerkeley for a semester after
a leg injury, then quit again for 2 more years, and
"went back again at Swami Ashokanada's suggestion and
graduated in chemistry and mathematics in 1943."
(still all on page 2).

Now, do you seriously think that somebody who had just
graduated from college in 1943 in chemistry and math
would be a central or even a peripheral figure in the
Manhattan Project? I doubt it.

On page 3:

"Swami Ashokananda sent Dobson back to UC to finish.
By then World War II was on, and to avoid going to the
Front he would need a war-related job like teaching
chemistry. [...] he knew that when he graduated he had
to have a war job the very next day.  [...] He
graduated in 1943. The very next day, he took a job
for Caltech. It was a war-work job in Berkeley and was
later transferred from Caltech to the University of
California there. it involved a great deal of field
work around California. When the boss of that job was
killed in a chemical accident, Dobson re-applied at
the Berkeley Radiation Lab, where he worked till he
joined the monastery in 1944." (page 4 now.)

(May 8, 1944, it says a bit later on.)

(I don't know about you, but in 1944, had I been
alive, I would have been doing anything in my power to
defeat the Nazis and the Japanese Empire!)

Also, his story of his leaving the monastery is very
different from the story you relate. In general, most
of what you wrote is very much at odds with John
Dobson's own written biographical sketch of himself. I
wonder where you heard those stories? From John
himself? Hmmmm...

Guy
--- artbianconi@blast.net wrote:

> Dobson was NOT kicked out of the monastery for
.....
> Dobson is a physicist and was a key figure in the
> theoretical 
> dialogue that was taking place at the Manhattan
> Project in the 
> early 40's and whose intent was to build the first
> nuclear 
> weapon. 
> 
> I am a little distracted by the fact that a
> monastically inclined 
> spirit of his caliber would knowingly contribute to
> the 
> development of such a device. I am not suggesting
> that such 
> weapons are evil; I am just perplexed that a man of
> such 
> spiritual temperament would help build one. 
> 
> By contrast, Enrico Ferme was not, in public, nearly
> as obvious a 
> man of deep spiritual convictions as a Dobson. Yet,
> when the 
> first successful nuclear pile was taken critical
> under his watch, 
> Fermi is said to have seen it's potential as a 
> weapon of mass 
> destruction. He withdrew from any further
> experiments and ceased 
> contributing to the project. Dobson has spoken
> relatively little 
> on his own activity during that period, choosing
> instead to focus 
> on his first love, astronomy. Is it avoidance of a
> difficult 
> moral issue or simply a priority of passion? I don't
> know.
....


=====
Guy  Brandenburg
Washington, DC
My home page:
http://home.earthlink.net/~gfbranden/GFB_Home_Page.html
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