{"id":414681,"date":"2021-11-09T18:59:16","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T21:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=414681"},"modified":"2021-11-09T18:59:16","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T21:59:16","slug":"between-stars-politicians-and-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/between-stars-politicians-and-artists\/","title":{"rendered":"Between stars, politicians and artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

The large order of shoes that had just arrived at an apartment building on rua<\/em> S\u00e3o Vicente de Paula, in S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s charming district of Higien\u00f3polis, sometime in the 1950s, was surely some kind of mistake. When asked about it by his wife, Mario Schenberg (1914\u20131990) confirmed that all 25 pairs of shoes were indeed for him. The order had been placed just hours earlier at Mappin, a downtown department store. But far from being an extravagance, buying a car-load of shoes of the same make and model was a way he had found to spare him the task of ever again having to shop for footwear. For a man who devoted his time and energy to reading and debating about science, art, and politics, buying a lifetime supply of shoes all at once was a purely practical matter.<\/p>\n

His relatives saw this carelessness about fashion as the antithesis of his otherwise highly aesthetic nature as a theoretical physicist, mathematician, and art critic. \u201cHe hated shopping for clothes, so he left that task to my mother,\u201d recalls his daughter, Clara Guerrini Schenberg, a retired professor of genetics at the USP Institute of Biomedical Sciences. One of Brazil\u2019s pioneers in the field of theoretical physics and astrophysics, Schenberg taught several Brazilian physicists who would later rise to international prominence, including C\u00e9sar Lattes (1924\u20132005), Jos\u00e9 Leite Lopes (1918\u20132006), and Jaime Tiomno (1920\u20132011).<\/p>\n

Born Mayer Sch\u00f6nberg, the son of Russian Jews originally from Germany, Schenberg completed high school in 1930 in his hometown of Recife before moving to Rio de Janeiro to attend a college prep course. He took an interest in history, art, and mathematics from an early age. He wanted to study in Europe, but because his family couldn\u2019t afford it, he returned to his northeastern home state to study at the Pernambuco School of Engineering.<\/p>\n

In 1933 he transferred to the Polytechnic School of S\u00e3o Paulo (POLI), which a year later became a part of the newly created University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP). He was brought to S\u00e3o Paulo by the \u201cprospects that they would open a school of science there,\u201d he said in an interview for the book Voar tamb\u00e9m \u00e9 com os homens \u2013 O pensamento de M\u00e1rio Schenberg<\/em> (Flying is also for men: Thoughts from M\u00e1rio Schenberg; EDUSP, 1994), authored by Jos\u00e9 Luiz Goldfarb, a professor of physics and history of science at the Catholic University of S\u00e3o Paulo (PUC-SP). While there, Gleb Wataghin (1899\u20131986), an Italian-Ukrainian physicist who had recently arrived at USP, convinced him to switch to physics.<\/p>\n

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IF-USP Archives <\/span><\/a> Schenberg in his office at the USP Polytechnic School in 1937IF-USP Archives <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

After earning a degree in electrical engineering at POLI in 1935 and in mathematics at the now-defunct School of Philosophy, Science, and Literature the next year, he was hired by Wataghin as an assistant lecturer in experimental physics. In 1938, political persecution of university professors during the Estado Novo<\/em> (\u201cNew State\u201d; 1937\u20131945) regime led Schenberg to apply for an education grant from the government of S\u00e3o Paulo and move to Italy.<\/p>\n

It was at the Institute of Physics at the University of Rome that he first began working on cosmic rays, a field in which he would later distinguish himself, alongside physicist Giuseppe Occhialini (1907\u20131993)\u2014years later, Occhialini became a professor at USP on invitation from Wataghin, and in 1947 he, alongside Lattes and others, co-discovered the pi meson, a particle that expanded scientists\u2019 understanding of the subatomic world.<\/p>\n

While in Rome, Schenberg also worked with the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi (1901\u20131954), who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938. In 1932, Fermi coined the name neutrino for the subatomic particle first postulated in 1930 by theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli (1900\u20131958). Neutrinos would only be observed experimentally in 1956. In 1938 Schenberg collaborated with Pauli in Zurich, a few years before the Austrian received the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1945. In Paris he worked with fellow physicist Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Joliot-Curie, a recipient of the Nobel prize in 1935.<\/p>\n

On returning to Brazil in 1940, Schenberg was \u201ca different person,\u201d noted Wataghin. \u201cHe had done fine work in cosmic rays and had later begun working in electrodynamics,\u201d he remarked in an interview with sociologist Simon Schwartzman for the book, A forma\u00e7\u00e3o da comunidade cient\u00edfica no Brasil<\/em> (The formative years of Brazil\u2019s scientific community; Companhia Editora Nacional and FINEP, 1979). Wataghin felt that Schenberg had learned a great deal in Rome and, with nothing more to do in Brazil, he would do well to work abroad again.<\/p>\n

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Archives, Centro Mario Schenberg de Documenta\u00e7\u00e3o da Pesquisa em Artes \u2013 ECA-USP <\/span><\/a> Schenberg with art critic Maria Eug\u00eania Franco in the 1940sArchives, Centro Mario Schenberg de Documenta\u00e7\u00e3o da Pesquisa em Artes \u2013 ECA-USP <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Schenberg followed his advice and departed that same year for George Washington University on a Guggenheim Fellowship, where he joined a team led by Russian-born American physicist George Gamow (1904\u20131968). \u201cSchenberg introduced the neutrino into astrophysics to explain the stellar collapse that causes cosmic explosions known as novae and supernovae,\u201d wrote Alberto Luiz da Rocha Barros (1930\u20131999), a former professor at the USP Institute of Physics (IF-USP) and once an assistant lecturer to Schenberg, in an article published in the journal Estudos Avan\u00e7ados<\/em> in April 1991.<\/p>\n

His work on neutrinos, which he published in 1941, made Schenberg internationally renowned. \u201cIt was during a conversation with Gamow that Schenberg had an epiphany and realized that the loss of neutrinos from a star could cause a supernova,\u201d wrote Antonio Carlos da Silva Miranda, a professor of physics at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), in a chapter of the book Hist\u00f3ria da astronomia no Brasil<\/em> (The history of astronomy in Brazil; Mast, MCTI, 2014).<\/p>\n

The discovery of this phenomenon, which Gamow called the Urca effect, helped to solidify his theory of the Big Bang\u2014the explosion that is believed to have given rise the Universe about 13.8 billion years ago. Gamow chose this name after visiting a casino in the Rio de Janeiro district of Urca with his wife and Schenberg. \u201cIn a tribute to Brazil, we\u2019re calling it the Urca effect, because energy disappears in a star\u2019s core as fast as money does at the Urca casino,\u201d Schenberg would later explain to Schwartzman.<\/p>\n

At the University of Chicago, Schenberg worked for a time with Indian-born American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910\u20131995). In 1942, they introduced the Sch\u00f6nberg-Chandrasekhar limit (Schenberg would sign his scientific papers as Mario Sch\u00f6nberg, using his father\u2019s original surname) in a paper they co-authored about star evolution, which was seminal in the development of the field of stellar astrophysics.<\/p>\n

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Mast\u2009\/ CNPq <\/span><\/a> Schenberg between Jos\u00e9 Leite Lopes (right<\/em>) and C\u00e9sar Lattes during a meeting with Ant\u00f4nio Moreira Couceiro, then head of the CNPq, in 1958Mast\u2009\/ CNPq <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The Sch\u00f6nberg-Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass of a star\u2019s core above which it will enter into gravitational collapse, initiating nuclear fusion of helium. Schenberg considered this to be the most important paper in his career. He was 28 at the time. In 1983, Chandrasekhar would receive a Nobel Prize in Physics for his theoretical research about physical processes within stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cFew Brazilians have worked with as many brilliant scientists and Nobel laureates, including names like Fermi, Chandrasekhar, and Gamow,\u201d says physicist Lu\u00eds Carlos Menezes of IF-USP, who was first a student then a friend of Schenberg\u2019s. \u201cHe was highly respected and admired internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

After returning again to Brazil, in the late 1950s and early 1960s Schenberg helped to create the Department of Materials and Mechanics and the Solid-State Physics Laboratory at IF-USP, and bought the first computer at USP. \u201cHe believed the next revolution would come from the field of materials physics and the use of silicone and crystals,\u201d says Goldfarb, who met him at USP during a seminar about Isaac Newton (1643\u20131727). \u201cAnd he was right, of course: that very field provided the foundation for the development of computers and the entire information technology industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he was used to abstraction, invisible particles, and immaterial fields, Schenberg ventured with ease into the colorful and vibrant world of art. His fondness of paintings, sculptures, and architecture came from his childhood. \u201cI\u2019ve always been keenly interested in art since the age of 8, when I visited Europe for the first time with my parents,\u201d he wrote in what he referred to as his artistic biography in 1983. \u201cI visited countless museums, cathedrals, and palaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Archives, Centro Mario Schenberg de Documenta\u00e7\u00e3o da Pesquisa em Artes \u2013 ECA-USP <\/span><\/a> Regarded by artists as a friend and mentor, Schenberg also collected paintings (shown in the larger photo taken at his home in 1950<\/em>)…Archives, Centro Mario Schenberg de Documenta\u00e7\u00e3o da Pesquisa em Artes \u2013 ECA-USP <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Schenberg would often entertain young artists at his home. \u201cSometimes the art they showed him was not particularly interesting and still immature, but Mario would still give it his attention and was always very encouraging,\u201d said poet and translator Haroldo de Campos (1929\u20132003) in an interview for Goldfarb\u2019s book, Di\u00e1logos com Mario Schenberg<\/em> (Dialogs with Mario Schenberg; Nova Stella, 1985).<\/p>\n

\u201cI attended several meetings at Schenberg\u2019s home,\u201d says artist Jos\u00e9 Roberto Aguilar. \u201cIn the same evening, he\u2019d be discussing atomic particles with Lattes one minute, and the next he\u2019d be talking to musician Jorge Mautner about his \u2018Atomic Maracatu.\u2019\u201d Lygia Clark (1920\u20131988) and H\u00e9lio Oiticica (1937\u20131980) also enjoyed presenting their work to Schenberg as a \u201cpoetic sounding board,\u201d as Campos put it, referring to his ability to listen carefully before making any critiques\u2014which he always did tactfully.<\/p>\n

Like fellow physicists Roberto Salmeron (1922\u20132020) and Leite Lopes, Schenberg reconciled his academic interests with politics, and was elected for two terms as state deputy in S\u00e3o Paulo: the first in 1946 as a member of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), and the second in 1962 via the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB).<\/p>\n

He helped draft the S\u00e3o Paulo State Constitution in 1947, alongside intellectuals such as Caio Prado J\u00fanior (1907\u20131990). Article 123 of the new Constitution called for research funding to be provided by the State, leading to the creation of FAPESP in 1962.<\/p>\n

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IF-USP Archives<\/span><\/a> …and reconciled art with books about astrophysics and theoretical physics (in 1983<\/em>)IF-USP Archives<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

He remained in Brazil throughout the worst of the military dictatorship (1964\u20131985). Because of his membership of the PCB, he was removed from his position, arrested, and forced to retire under Institutional Act No. 5 (AI-5), but still he chose not to flee the country. When they raided his apartment, the police confiscated a Baroque sculpture of a Catholic saint, mistaking it for a sculpture of Vladmir Lenin (1870\u20131924). They also confiscated several books, among them a copy of Plato\u2019s Dialogues<\/em>, which the authorities considered subversive.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter he was released, the court gave my father permission to go to the police station and explain that there was no way Plato could have been a communist,\u201d recalls Ana Clara Schenberg. \u201cHe managed to get his book back, but not before spending several hours expounding on Platonic philosophy at the police station. For several months, he went to the police station every Thursday and spent the afternoon explaining the contents of the books they had seized until he was able to recover them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs his friends had dispersed, during this period he became more devoted to art criticism and occasionally painting,\u201d says Aguilar. Without abandoning physics altogether, he became a regular at biennials, art galleries, and artists\u2019 studios. He was a member of the judging panel at the S\u00e3o Paulo Biennial in 1965 and 1967, and joined the Brazilian Association of Art Critics and the International Association of Art Critics.<\/p>\n

Although an atheist, when his health took a turn for the worse he asked a Buddhist monk to attend his funeral. \u201cHe was very interested in religions and would often visit Umbanda houses, synagogues, and temples,\u201d says Goldfarb. \u201cHe said religion had something deep down that we didn\u2019t understand, but one day we might understand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mario Schenberg was a prominent theoretical physicist, congressman, and art critic ","protected":false},"author":421,"featured_media":414686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[235,204],"coauthors":[740],"class_list":["post-414681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retrospect","tag-physics","tag-visual-arts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/421"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414710,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414681\/revisions\/414710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414681"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=414681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}