Atomic - Hardcover

Jim Baggott is an award-winning science writer. A former academic chemist, he maintains a broad interest in science, philosophy, and history, and writes on these subjects for New Scientist and other journals. His books have been widely acclaimed and include A Beginner's Guide to Reality (Pegasus, 2006), The First War of Physics (Pegasus, 2010), The Meaning of Quantum Physics (Oxford, 1992), and Beyond Measure Modern Physics, Philosophy, and the Meaning of Quantum Theory (Oxford, 2004). He lives in England.

*Starred Review* Tasked by the army in 1942 with assembling a new research team, Robert Oppenheimer soon learned that few scientists wanted to join the military. But, as Baggott makes forcefully clear, the reluctant soldiers that Oppenheimer recruited for the Manhattan Project finally coalesced into the most lethal fighting force in history. To illuminate their problematic military prowess, Baggott unfolds a tale in two interwoven narrative strands. Along one strand, readers see physicists as intellectual explorers, plumbing the tantalizing mysteries of the atom. But along the second strand, readers watch these same scientists acting out unscripted personal and political roles that expose their often-flawed humanity, not their impressive expertise. Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, for instance, terminate a long-standing personal relationship when they follow different flags. Perhaps of even more compelling interest, however, is the stunning contrast between the physicists who loyally serve their elected leaders by discovering atomic secrets and the perfidious physicists who betray their country by transmitting these secrets to Soviet leaders already maneuvering for advantage in the postwar world. As readers will recognize while pondering a conclusion outlining the global implications of the 2002 Moscow Treaty on nuclear disarmament, we still live in the shadow of the events chronicled so vividly here. --Bryce Christensen