The Making of the Atomic Bomb
by Richard Rhodes
Book Read on 20 / 8 / 2007
A veritable tome of physics knowledge. It covers a lot of ground. The book has great physics, political science, violence, nerds, presidents, mathematicians. This was an exciting time to be involved in science and the making of the atomic bomb was a huge undertaking. From the moment they found fission they new that they were onto something big and the idea was to create a bomb so powerful that they could end all war. Of course, the government made them test it, even though by all accounts Japan was about to surrender. It was bad. And now the bombs are even worse.
Something very compelling was the fact that they weren't really sure if the Trinity test, the first explosion, was going to end the world. They were doing calculations until the last minute to make sure that there wouldn't be a chain reaction that would cause the world wouldn't blow up.
The book was a challenge because the science wasn't dumbed down. I had to keep flipping back to look up thing-a-ma-jigs.
It's really amazing to think that within nature, the fabric of which we are woven, are these kinds of incredibly destructive powers.
Reviewer: William Koplitz
4 out of 5