Fermi's Β-decay Theory

Fermi gave the first account of this theory to several of his Roman friends while we were spending the Christmas vacation of 1933 in the Alps. It was in the evening after a full day of skiing; we were all sitting on one bed in a hotel room, and I could hardly keep still in that position, bruised as I was after several falls on icy snow. Fermi was fully aware of the importance of his accomplishment and said that he would be remembered for this paper, his best so far. He sent a letter to Nature advancing his theory, but the editor refused it because he thought it contained speculations that were too remote from physical reality; and instead the paper (“Tentative Theory of Beta Rays” [FP 76]) was published in Italian and in the Zeitschrift für Physik.