Enrico Fermi returned to Europe for the second time after the war. He traveled to Paris, the Alps, and gave physics lectures in Varenna on Lake Como, where he also met Heisenberg. But Enrico Fermi began to experience obvious health problems: he had difficulty swallowing and lost his appetite. He had to vomit several times at dinner, and he lost the energy and enthusiasm for the mountain hikes he had always enjoyed. Enrico led a private seminar for Edoardo Amaldi, his son Ugo Amaldi, and his own son Giulio Fermi. The seminar focused on how to program the new computers in machine language. It was Fermi’s last lecture before his death. Returning to Chicago, he immediately went for a check-up. The doctor diagnosed him with stomach cancer and gave him six months to live. His wife, Laura, returned from her diagnosis and met Leona Libby. He didn’t need to say anything: Libby understood the bad news just by looking at Laura. Anderson and Chandrasekhar were among the first scientists to visit him. Segrè would later recount that Fermi spoke of his impending death with “Socratic serenity.” Fermi asked for his old friend Edward Teller to come to Chicago, arriving a few days later.
