Working toward a world without nuclear weapons

Abstract

This article is based on the 2010 Max von Laue Lecture that I was invited to give in March at the German Physical Society meeting in Bonn, Germany. In physics, von Laue is greatly admired for discovering x-ray diffraction by crystals, work for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1914. Von Laue is also universally admired for acting with honor and speaking out with courage against Nazi policies of racial discrimination and in support of scientific integrity during the darkest and most dangerous days of the Hitler regime. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.