Corey Robin

Tag: Richard Garwin

Richard Garwin, 1928-2025

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According to the New York Times, the scientist Richard Garwin has died. Garwin, as his biographer wrote, was “the most influential scientist you’ve never heard of.” At the age 0f 23, he built the H-bomb. He advised every president from Eisenhower to, who knows, probably Biden, on everything from nuclear deterrence to the MX Missile to arms control and more. Enrico Fermi said that he was “the only true genius I have ever met.” As it happens, I met him, too. It was the summer of 1985. I had just graduated high school and gotten a scholarship for college from IBM, where my dad worked. As part of my scholarship, I had the option of taking summer jobs with the […]

My First Seven Jobs

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There’s a meme going around on Facebook: list your first seven jobs. Here are mine. With some commentary. First seven jobs: Not exactly a job, but my sisters and I sold coffee and doughnuts to customers waiting to buy gas on one of those epic lines of the Carter era (ca. 1978?) The line stretched from the gas station at the corner of King Street and Bedford Road, all the way down Elm Street, and up and around Ridgewood Terrace, to the corner of Ridgewood Terrace and King Street, caddy corner from our driveway. Newspaper route. Colossal failure. Lasted only a few days. Too active. A scary dog named Caesar, which my sisters and I always heard as “Seize her.” Babysitting. […]