So I am remembering. Those of you who have seen the movie “Oppenheimer,” were introduced, in a small sense, to the heady world of American Physics in the 1930’s and 40’s. I realized as I watched that movie that had I been born a generation earlier the world depicted in the film would in all likelihood have been my world. The people depicted in that film were our heroes and teachers a generation later. Hans Bethe, who features prominently was my Professor of Electrodynamics at Cornell in the 1970’s.

This past October, I had the opportunity to wander around on campus again. Cornell, for those of us who went there, was a magical place – maybe even more so for graduate students because it was after all part of someone else’s childhood. Cornell is an amazing place in October, when it is filled with autumn color. Back then the entirety of the Engineering Quad was ablaze with red ivies, long since removed because they were damaging the stone and brick.

So I wandered around in nostagia-land taking in the colors, and I came across the scene of Figure 1 overlooking Libe Slope and in the distance the canal to Lake Cayuga. Like I said yesterday, my heart and mind were filled with lasting memories. Every place had a memory.