César Lattes in 1987

Cesare Mansueto Giulio Lattes (b. July 11, 1924, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, d. March 8, 2005, Campinas, São Paulo) was a Brazilian experimental physicist, co-discoverer of the pi meson or pion, one of the nuclear particles. July 11 is the 192nd day (193rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 173 days remaining. ... Curitiba is a city in Brazil, the capital of the state of Paraná. In 2001 it had a population of some 1,600,000 people. ... Other meanings: Paraná, Argentina, Paraná River Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the southern part of the country, bordering Paraguay and Argentina. ... The Federative Republic of Brazil (República Federativa do Brasil in Portuguese) is the largest and most populous country in South America, and fifth largest in the world. ... March 8 is the 67th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (68th in Leap years). ... Campinas is a city and county (município) located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. ... São Paulo is a state in Brazil. ... The word physicist should not be confused with physician, which means medical doctor. ... In particle physics, a meson is a strongly interacting boson, that is, it is a hadron with integral spin. ... In particle physics, pion (short for the Greek pi meson = P middle) is the collective name for three subatomic particles discovered in 1947: π0, π+ and π−. Pions are the lightest mesons. ... Nuclear particles are subatomic particles in the nucleus of an atom. ...

Lattes was born to a family of Italian Jewish immigrants in Curitiba, Southern Brazil. He did his first studies in that town and in São Paulo, and his university studies at the University of São Paulo, graduating in 1943, in Mathematics and Physics. He was part of an initial group of brilliant young Brazilian physicists who worked under European teachers such as Gleb Wataghin (1899-1986) and Giuseppe Occhialini (1907-1993). Lattes was considered the most brilliant of those and was noted at a very young age as a bold researcher. His colleagues, who also became important Brazilian scientists, were Oscar Sala, Mário Schenberg, Roberto Salmeron, Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos and Jayme Tiomno. At the age of 23, he was one of the founders of the Brazilian Center of Physical Research (Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas) in Rio de Janeiro. The word Italian can have these meanings: From or related to Italy The Italian people, or emigrants such as Italian Americans The Italian language Outside Italy, it is also used as an abbreviation for Italian dressing (a vinaigrette with herbs), and Italian sandwich (more commonly called a submarine sandwich). ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Immigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently. ... Sao Paulo and São Paulo (city) redirect here. ... The University of São Paulo (Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is one of the three public universities funded by the State of São Paulo. ... Mathematics, often abbreviated maths in Commonwealth English and math in American English, is the study of abstraction. ... Physics (from the Greek, φυσικός (physikos), natural, and φύσις (physis), Nature) is the science of Nature in the broadest sense. ... Ipanema beach A NASA satellite image of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro (meaning River of January in Portuguese) is the name of both a state and a city in southeastern Brazil. ...

From 1947 to 1948, Lattes launched on his main research line, by studying cosmic rays, which were discovered in 1932 by American physicist Carl David Anderson. He set up a laboratory on top of the 5,000-meter high Andes mountains in Bolivia, using photographic plates to register the rays. Cosmic rays can loosely be defined as energetic particles originating outside of the Earth. ... Carl David Anderson (3 September 1905 – 11 January 1991) was a U.S. experimental physicist. ... Note that the geology in this article currently reflects views from the first decade of the 20th century. ... The Republic of Bolivia is a landlocked country in central South America. ... Lens and mounting of a large format camera Photography is the technique of recording and generating permanent images, by the capturing and preservation of physical stimulus-patterns on a layer of photosensitive material. ...

Traveling to England with his teacher Occhialini, Lattes went to work at the H. H. Wills Laboratory of the University of Bristol, directed by Cecil Frank Powell (1903-1969). After improving on the nuclear emulsion used by Powell, by asking Kodak Co. to add more boron to it, in 1947, he made with them his great experimental discovery, that of a new atomic particle, the pi meson (or pion), which disintegrates into a new kind of particle, the mu meson. Brash young Lattes then proceeded to write a paper for Nature magazine without bothering to ask for Powell's consent. In the same year, he was responsible for calculating the new particle's mass, a painstaking job. A year later, working with Eugene Gardner (1913-1950) at the University of California at Berkeley, USA, Lattes was able to detect the artificial production of pion particles in the lab's cyclotron, by bombarding carbon atoms with alpha particles. He was 24 years old. The University of Bristol was founded in 1876 as the University College, Bristol. ... Cecil Frank Powell (December 5, 1903 _ August 9, 1969) was a British physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1950 for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and for the resulting discovery of the pion (pi-meson), a heavy subatomic particle. ... Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) is a large multinational public company producing photographic equipment. ... General Name, Symbol, Number Boron, B, 5 Series Metalloids Group, Period, Block 13 (IIIA), 2, p Density, Hardness 2460 kg/m3, 9. ... In particle physics, pion (short for the Greek pi meson = P middle) is the collective name for three subatomic particles discovered in 1947: π0, π+ and π−. Pions are the lightest mesons. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a prestigious, public, coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate and its bridge. ... The word Usa has more than one meaning: U.S.A. - The United States of America The United States Army Usa, Oita - A city in Japan The USA cable network USA Today national daily newspaper The University of Southern Alabama goes by the initials U.S.A. The patriotic cheer... 60-inch cyclotron, circa 1939, showing beam of accelerated ions (perhaps protons or deuterons) escaping the accelerator and ionizing the surrounding air causing a blue glow. ... General Name, Symbol, Number Carbon, C, 6 Chemical series Nonmetals Group, Period, Block 14 (IVA), 2, p Density, Hardness 2267 kg/m3 0. ... An alpha particle is deflected by a magnetic field Alpha particles or alpha rays are a form of particle radiation which are highly ionizing and have low penetration. ...

In 1949, Lattes returned as a professor and researcher with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Brazilian Center for Physical Research. After another brief stay in the USA (from 1955 to 1957), he returned to Brazil and accepted a position at his alma mater, the Department of Physics of the University of São Paulo. The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Portuguese: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ) is the largest federal university of Brazil, where state-owned colleges are the best and most qualified institutions. ...

In 1967, Lattes accepted a position of full professor with the new "Gleb Wataghin" Institute of Physics at the State University of Campinas, named after his former professor, which he helped to found. He became also the chairman of the Department of Cosmic Rays, Chronology, High Energies and Leptons. In 1969, he and his group discovered the mass of the so-called fire balls, a phenomenon induced by naturally occurring high-energy collisions, and which was detected by means of special lead-chamber nuclear emulsion plates invented by him, and placed at the Chacaltaya peak of the Bolivian Andes. The State University of Campinas (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, shorlty Unicamp) is one of the public universities of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. ... For the lead in news writing, see news style. ...

Lattes retired in 1986, when he received the titles of doctor honoris causa and professor emeritus of that university. After retirement he continued to live in a house in the suburban area very near to the University's campus. He died of a heart attack on March 8, 2005. Honoris causa (plural: Causae) is a Latin term meaning for the sake of honor, abbreviated as . ... A professor is a senior teacher and researcher, usually in a college or university. ... A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ...

Lattes is one of the most distinguished and honored Brazilian physicians, and his work was fundamental for the development of atomic physics. He was also a great scientific leader of Brazilian Physics and was one of the main personalities behind the creation of the all-important Brazilian National Research Council (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico). He figures as one of the few Brazilians in Isaac Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, as well as in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Although he was the main researcher and the first author of the historical Nature article describing the meson pi, Cecil Powell alone was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1950 for "his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method". The reason for this apparent neglect is that the Nobel Committee policy until 1960 was to give the award to the research group head, only. Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov (c. ... 1913 advertisement for the 11th edition, with the slogan When in doubt - look it up in the Encyclopædia Britannica The Encyclopædia Britannica (properly spelt with æ, the ae- ligature) is the oldest English-language general encyclopedia. ... The Nobel Prizes (pronounced no-BELL or no-bell) are awarded annually to people who have done outstanding research, invented groundbreaking techniques or equipment, or made outstanding contributions to society. ...

Quote

"Science should be universal, without a doubt. However, one should not believe unconditionally in this."

Bibliography

• Lattes, C. M. G., Muirhead, H., Occhialini, G. P. S. & Powell, C. F. Processes involving charged mesons. Nature, 159, 694 - 697, (1947).
• Lattes, C. M. G.; Occhialini, G. P. S.; Powell, C. F. A determination of the ratio of the masses of pi-meson and mu-meson by the method of grain-counting. Proceedings of the Physical Society, v.61, p.173-183, 1948.
• Gardner, E.; Lattes, C. M. G. Production of mesons by the 184-inch Berkeley cyclotron. Science, v.107, p.270-271, 1948.
• Lattes, C. M. G.; Orsini, C. Q.; Pacca, I. G.; Cruz, M. T.; Okuno, E.; Fujimoto, Y.; Yokoi, K. Observation of extremely high energy nuclear events with emulsion chamber exposed on Mt. Chacaltaya. Il Nuovo Cimento, v.XXVIII, n.3, p.2160-, 1963.

External links

• C.M.G. Lattes (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9047310). Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Special Dedication to Cesar Lattes (http://www.unicamp.br/siarq/lattes/). UNICAMP Archive System, March 2005.
• To Cesar What Belongs to Lattes (http://www.unicamp.br/unicamp/unicamp_hoje/ju/outubro2004/ju271pag06.html). State University of Campinas (in Portuguese).
• Cesar Lattes, a Brief Biography (http://www.cbpf.br/Staff/Hist_Lat.html). Brazilian Center of Physical Research (In Portuguese)