GREAT BRITAIN: Missing Fissionist

Scholarly Dr. Bruno Pontecorvo, 37, was well-liked by his fellow nuclear physicists at Britain's Harwell atomic research plant. The Italian-born Briton was jolly and fun-loving, a good dancer, an enthusiastic tennis player. His pretty Swedish wife Helena Marianne was just as gay, had a flair for flamboyant clothes, including red slacks.

A Rome University Ph.D., a pupil of famed Enrico Fermi, Physicist Pontecorvo fled Italy in the 1930s to escape Mussolini's Hitler-inspired antiSemitism. He spent some time in France and the U.S., finally settled in Canada, where he became a British subject...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!