The special report dedicated to the 110th anniversary of Academician G.N.Flerov

"Those omnipresent ions"
or "On the fruits of luminiferous science"

Having described one day of Academician Flerov in 1983, I had no idea that soon fate would bring us together again and we would become co-authors of a popular science brochure on practical applications of the techniques developed in research on heavy ion physics.

In the 1980s, a series of small paperback books called "Science to people" were issued in the publishing house "Sovetskaya Rossiya". The authors of these series were scientists and journalists, writers that presented modern scientific ideas and technical solutions "in two voices" quite popularly. In the editorial office of popular science literature, where I came with the proposal, my request was received favorably - the name of Academician Flerov worked like magic here, opened all the doors. Having enlisted the support of the publishing house, I came to Georgy Nikolaevich with a draft outline plan and the author's application to the publishing house. Having advised me to change and correct something, Georgy Nikolaevich suddenly agreed to prepare a brochure ... However, our joint work turned out to be long and painstaking. The initial idea changed beyond recognition. In the last, fourth edition, hardly a quarter of the first version remained.

Today, some twenty years after the successful completion of that paper, going over all its vicissitudes in my memory, I would hardly agree to start again "this endless hassle," as it was once sung in a song about newspapermen. Georgy Nikolaevich turned out to be, to put it mildly, a very restless co-author. Probably, if I had happened to ask for advice from Alexander Ilyinov that worked together with G.N. over the book "On the way to superelements", I would have abandoned the intended mission. But Sasha had already left Dubna by that time and I heard some remarks "about such co-authorship" from Flerov's employees much later when about half the way had been passed and many book pages had been shoveled, Flerov's monologues and his answers to my questions had been written down.

But after all, as one ancient philosopher used to say, it is not our question but its answer matters in our dialogue with life. Georgy Nikolayevich had life with its unexpected twists and turns under his belt, while I only asked questions and rewrote some of my reports from the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. About how the IC-100 accelerator, having been modernized in recent years and re-operating today, was launched at FLNR, how complex and multifaceted the process of producing nuclear membranes was, how detectors designed to search for traces of nuclei were adapted to predict earthquakes, how the percentage composition of nitrogen in cereals is analyzed using a microtron, how radiation materials science develops in Dubna, all these issues were presented in these reports ... Much of what was described then falls under today's definition of nanotechnology, once again confirming the foresight of Georgy Nikolaevich. The initial coverage of the "seed fields" turned out to be extremely wide, but by the third edition of the brochure, having completely abandoned the declared publishing plan, Georgy Nikolaevich left only one, but the main topic - nuclear membranes: their production and application.

Now, I think I understand the reason: this is the style of the laboratory, established by its founder - to focus all efforts on the main area, rejecting everything secondary, to go our own way...

The process of writing seemed simple at first: in the evenings we gathered at Georgy Nikolaevich's house in Dubna, on weekends we sometimes met in his Moscow flat or "methodological study" in the house on Sokol, built for Kurchatov's employees during the "nuclear assault". Flerov generously scattered images, ideas, recalled episodes of his bright life. Some facts and plots were borrowed from scientific reports, popular articles in periodicals. Then everything written was once again subjected to merciless criticism.

This text was passed from hand to hand and was the subject of strict examination by the Academician's colleagues and students. For myself, I realized that there were two circles of consultants - the "small", Dubna one and the "big", Moscow academic one. That is why everything dragged on for so long, until finally, one fine spring day in the Moscow flat, the last point was put. I described the history of the creation of this brochure in the preface to the edition that was printed in 1998 ... in the Publishing Department of JINR, although according to the plans of "Soviet Russia" it was scheduled for 1990. But - the plan of the publishing house at that time was bursting at the seams, there was no paper, the publishing house was forced to terminate contracts with most authors...

In some respects, by the time it was published, this little book, of course, was already outdated. The development of nuclear physics technologies does not stand still. Although I see the undoubted role of Academician Flerov, as well as the founders of other scientific schools in our Institute, in the fact that Dubna won in early 2006 the Russian competition for the status of a special economic zone. However, this pamphlet is still dear to me today because it preserved the thoughts and ideas of Georgy Nikolayevich about the development of science, its practical significance. The need for its restructuring. About disastrous for science administrative-bureaucratic approaches. About new plans and hopes. He was by nature an optimist. These lines were written in the first years of perestroika (now this name is often enclosed in quotation marks). Life was in full swing. Spiritual liberation brought hope that creative work would finally become the main meaning of life.

Georgy Nikolaevich was very much looking forward to the publication of "These omnipresent ions", anticipating how he would send the brochure to his colleagues, friends and associates of whom he had a great many. He was disappointed when the publishing house once again replied that it was not technically possible to issue a brochure with illustrations. "Well, that's all right," he said to himself in consolation. "Tumanov has wonderful photographs, we will send them along with the book to all addresses."

K.A.Petrzhak, Yu.Ts.Oganessian, G.N.Flerov. Dubna, 1988

In Dubna, the JINR Publishing Department, Yury Tumanov and I tried to take into account the wishes of Georgy Nikolaevich. It's a pity that it happened so late. And yet, the reflections of the scientist that dreamed during his lifetime to obtain the "fruits of luminiferous science" and strove strenuously to make this goal come true, remain on the pages of this brochure and today seem to be modern and timely, characterizing the way of thinking of one of the brightest representatives of the galaxy of pioneers.

Every now and then I remember the evenings we spent together at Georgy Nikolayevich's cottage on the manuscript of "These omnipresent ions", I recall the words he said: "In science it is very important to go your own way, however risky and difficult, but only on this way can real victories be won. They will not only enrich the global stock of scientific knowledge, ideas, results, but will also be a vivid expression of our fighting spirit."

He puts cookies on the table, takes out a box of tea bags and before starting to work offers:

- Come on, Zhenya, let's have some tea first ...

The materials of the special issue prepared by Evgeny MOLCHANOV,
Illustrations from the JINR photo archive