The mystery of Majorana

Ettore Majorana was (by all accounts) a brilliant physicist who had a preternatural grasp of the mathematical description of the physical world. Stories of his genius abound and perhaps those stories are given particular weight by the fact that Majorana disappeared (mysteriously) in March 1938 and was never seen or heard from again.

What happened to Ettore Majorana is the subject of a short book by Leonardo Sciascia called The Mystery of Majorana which appears as an sort of appendix to the English edition of The Moro Affair translated by Peter Robb and published in the US by NYRB. Sciascia’s artful account of Majorana’s life and his disappearance is the best sort of book for the reader who delights in speculation and filling in the curious blanks left in our knowledge of historical events.

Sciascia argues that Majorana’s early understanding of the processes of nuclear fission are what drove the physicist to drop out of circulation. He also believes that Majorana likely sought refuge in a Carthusian monastery where he passed his remaining days in quiet contemplation and devotion. This view is woven from a fine thread and perhaps has the same solidity as a network of cobwebs, but even if you think Sciascia’s romantic view is too much for reality, there is still much that we can think about profitably by allowing Majorana to assume the role of a character in a fiction. Would such a character who saw the destruction of the world in the collision of nuclei excuse himself and retreat into invisible obscurity, or would he do his best to warn mankind of the dangers of this knowledge? History has given us a case study of the second type in the life of Leo Szilard. But what do we know of the first type? The wise man who understands the weight of his insight and who like Bartleby refuses and instead prefers not to...