DescriptionJ. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s. They declared that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America's nuclear secrets. In this magisterial biography, 25 years in the making, the authors capture Oppenheimer's life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War.
DescriptionLike a story by Victor Hugo as told to Neil Simon, the events leading up to the creation of the atomic bomb involved accidental encounters among larger-than-life figures, especially two who did not get along - but had to. William Lanouette profiles the disciplined Italian physicist Enrico Fermi and the brilliant but lackadaisical Leo Szilard.
DescriptionOne of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman possessed an unquenchable thirst for adventure and an unparalleled ability to tell the stories of his life. What Do You Care What Other People Think? is Feynman's last literary legacy, prepared with his friend and fellow drummer, Ralph Leighton. Among the book's many tales we meet Feynman's first wife, Arlene, who taught him of love's irreducible mystery as she lay dying in a hospital bed while he worked nearby on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. We are also given a fascinating narrative of the investigation of the space shuttle Challenger 's explosion in 1986, and we relive the moment when Feynman revealed the disaster's cause by an elegant experiment: dropping a ring of rubber into a glass of cold water and pulling it out, misshapen.
DescriptionWhat if Hitler had won the war, if Japan had another sneak attack, or if the cold war turned hot? What If? provides a fascinating new perspective on history's most pivotal events. Featuring today's foremost historians speculating on what could have happened, we discover where we might be if history had not unfolded the way it did. Listen to these never-before-published essays in which the keenest minds of our time ask big, tantalizing questions about our history and why, how, and when our fortune was made. The answers promise to be surprising, frightening, and entertaining...oh my!
DescriptionWhen Hitler came to power in the 1930s, Germany had led the world in science, mathematics, and technology for nearly four decades. But while the fact that Hitler swiftly pressed Germany's scientific prowess into the service of a brutal, racist, xenophobic…
DescriptionOne of the greatest physicists of the 20th century, Richard Feynman possessed an unquenchable thirst for adventure and an unparalleled ability to tell the story of his life. What Do You Care What Other People Think? is Feynman's last literary legacy, which he prepared as he struggled with cancer. Among its many tales, some funny, others intensely moving, we meet Feynman's first wife, Arlene, who taught him of love's irreducible mystery as she lay dying in a hospital bed while he worked nearby on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. We are also given a fascinating narrative of the investigation of the space shuttle Challenger 's explosion in 1986. Not as humorous as his other memoirs, but in many ways more profound.
