Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Before The Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshimaby Diana Preston
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. An excellent, enjoyable, and very readable history of nuclear and atomic science from its early days of radium and the Curies to the use of the atomic bomb on Japan in WWII. Preston goes easy on the science, but the book is not dumbed down at all. Instead, she focuses on historical and human implications of this research. Excellent book. ( ) no reviews | add a review
Awards
On December 26, 1898, Marie Curie announced the discovery of radium and observed that "radioactivity seems to be an atomic property." A mere 47 years later, "Little Boy" exploded over Hiroshima. Before the Fallout is the epic story of the intervening half century, during which an exhilarating quest to unravel the secrets of the material world revealed how to destroy it, and an open, international, scientific adventure transmuted overnight into a wartime sprint for the bomb. Weaving together history, science, and biography, Diana Preston chronicles a human chain reaction of scientists and leaders whose discoveries and decisions forever changed our lives. The early decades of the 20th century brought Einstein's relativity theory, Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus, and Heisenberg's quantum mechanics, and scientists of many nations worked together to tease out the secrets of the atom. Only 12 years before Hiroshima, one leading physicist dismissed the idea of harnessing energy from atoms as "moonshine." Then, on the eve of World War II, the power of atomic fission was revealed, alliances were broken, friendships sundered, and science co-opted by world events. Preston interviewed the surviving scientists, and she offers new insight into the fateful wartime meeting between Heisenberg and Bohr, along with a fascinating conclusion examining what might have happened had any number of events occurred differently. She also provides a rare portrait of Hiroshima before the blast. As Hiroshima's 60th anniversary approaches, Before the Fallout compels us to consider the threats and moral dilemmas we face in our still dangerous world. Describes the history of discoveries that led up to the dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)303.483Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Social Processes Social change Causes of change Development of science and technologyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |