Hans Bethe talks with his neighbors about the quantum theory Cornell Media Services records the first of Hans Bethe's three weekly lectures on quantum theory May 6 in Kendal at Ithaca.
Many people have neighbors with skills, from fixing lawn mowers to playing a concert grand.
Bethe and his wife, Rose, have been Kendal residents for the past three years, and the renowned scientist, who is the John Wendell Anderson Professor of Physics Emeritus at Cornell, regularly has been asked to talk to his neighbors about an important scientific subject. In the past he has discussed Los Alamos and the making of the atom bomb and the processes that fuel the stars. This year he turned to the weighty subject of quantum theory. Dean of Faculty J. Robert Cooke decided this would be a perfect opportunity to record the great man for posterity on videotape. He approached Cornell President Emeritus Dale Corson, a distinguished physicist in his own right whose associations with Bethe go back more than five decades and who is himself a Kendal resident.