Philip Morrison, 89; Physicist Built Bomb, Sought Peace
LA Times
Philip Morrison, one of the youngest physicists to work on the Manhattan Project and a leading voice in post-World War II efforts to contain the bomb, has died. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor emeritus, who was also one of the godfathers of the search for extraterrestrial life, was 89.
Morrison died Friday at his home in Cambridge, Mass., according to an announcement from MIT. The cause of death was not reported.
Hindered by the lingering aftereffects of a childhood bout with polio and hounded by the House Un-American Activities committee for a youthful flirtation with communism — as well as later unsubstantiated charges that he was a nuclear spy for Russia — Morrison overcame the obstacles to become a strong moral voice on defense topics and, later, a prolific and popular writer on science.
