Ettore Majorana (1942): The Value of Statistical Lawas in Physics and the Social Sciences

Abstract

Ettore Majorana (Catania, 1906- ?) was accepted into Enrico Fermi’s group due to his renowned talent for Physics. He spent the winter of 1933 studying with Heisenberg in Germany, when Hitler was at the height of his powers. However, the young Sicilian was also a religious man, who contemplated with horror the possibilities of nuclear fission. On his return to Italy, when Mussolini began to be interested in his work, he took a decision: in no way would he collaborate in the making of an atomic bomb. He organized his own disappearance, and he was last seen on the night of March 25th 1938 on the deck of the Naples-Palermo post-boat. Some days later, his distraught mother found, in a box in his worktable, this article, which we publish here translated into English.

In addition to this translation, we provide the reader an interpretation of the life and work of Majorana and a brief sociological commentary.