| View Larger Image | Uranium Wars: The Scientific Rivalry that Created the Nuclear Age (MacSci) | Hardcoverby Amir D. Aczel (Author)
| List Price: | $27.00 | | Price: | $13.90 | | You Save: | $13.10 (49%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan | | Edition: | 1st Edition | | Page Count: | 256 Pages | | Publication Date: | September 01, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 102,542nd |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780230613744
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Uranium, a nondescript element when found in nature, in the past century has become more sought after than gold. Its nucleus is so heavy that it is highly unstable and radioactive. If broken apart, it unleashes the tremendous power within the atom—the most controversial type of energy ever discovered. Set against the darkening shadow of World War II, Amir D. Aczel's suspenseful account tells the story of the fierce competition among the day's top scientists to harness nuclear power. The intensely driven Marie Curie identified radioactivity. The University of Berlin team of Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner--he an upright, politically conservative German chemist and she a soft-spoken Austrian Jewish theoretical physicist--achieved the most spectacular discoveries in fission. Curie's daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, raced against Meitner and Hahn to break the secret of the splitting of the atom. As the war raged, Niels Bohr, a founder of modern physics, had a dramatic meeting with Werner Heisenberg, the German physicist in charge of the Nazi project to beat the Allies to the bomb. And finally, in 1942, Enrico Fermi, a prodigy from Rome who had fled the war to the United States, unleashed the first nuclear chain reaction in a racquetball court at the University of Chicago. At a time when the world is again confronted with the perils of nuclear armament, Amir D. Aczel’s absorbing story of a rivalry that changed the course of history is as thrilling and suspenseful as it is scientifically revelatory and newsworthy. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 1 review)
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Science and war comes from scientists and warriors by Paul Weiss (Arlington, MA USA)  5 Stars
November 09, 2009
The atomic bomb, and the doctrine of "mutually assured destruction",
has cast its dark shadow over the foreign policy of the second half of
the twentieth century, and, sadly, continues into the present century.
What this book does is tell the story of the element that made it
possible. The author does this by exploring the lives and careers of
the men and women, from many different countries of Europe and the US,
who had a hand in turning this element into something that can both
bring great benefit and great destruction to mankind.
I've read a number of Amir Aczel's books, and what I enjoy about them
the most is how he tells a scientific story by telling us about what
motivates the people who are involved in doing that science. Why does
Enrico Fermi decide to come to the US when he does? What events cause
Lise Meitner to fail to get the recognition that she deserves for her
discoveries. Why does Heisenberg stay in Germany and why does that
country fail to produce an atomic bomb during the Second World War?
The book also explores the decision of the Truman administration to
deploy the two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Citing recently declassified documents Aczel takes a new
look at the justifications that we have heard for decades. How would
the Japanese war have ended had the bombs not been used? Could the
four decades of cold war have been avoided? Give this book a read and
form your own opinion.
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