Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age by Close, Frank

Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781541605893)

Vendor: Frank Close
Product type: Books
Format: Hardcover
$32.00
$32.00
$32.00
Subtotal: $32.00
Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age by Close, Frank

Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age

$32.00
Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age by Close, Frank

Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age

$32.00
Format: Hardcover
Description
Description
x

The thrilling and terrifying seventy-year story of the physics that deciphered the atom and created the hydrogen bomb

Although Henri Becquerel didn't know it at the time, he changed history in 1895 when he left photographic plates and some uranium rocks in a drawer. The rocks emitted something that exposed the plates: it was the first documented evidence of spontaneous radioactivity. So began one of the most exciting and consequential efforts humans have ever undertaken.

As Frank Close recounts in Destroyer of Worlds, scientists confronting Becquerel's discovery had three questions: What was this phenomenon? Could it be a source of unlimited power? And (alas), could it be a weapon? Answering them was an epic journey of discovery, with Ernest Rutherford, Enrico Fermi, Irene Joliot-Curie, and many others jockeying to decipher the dance of particles in a decaying atom. And it was a terrifying journey as well, as Edward Teller and others pressed on from creating atom bombs to hydrogen bombs so powerful that they could destroy all life on earth.

The deep history of the nuclear age has never before been recounted so vividly. Centered on an extraordinary cast of characters, Destroyer of Worlds charts the course of nuclear physics from simple curiosity to potential Armageddon.

Author: Frank Close
ISBN-10: 1541605896
ISBN-13: 9781541605893
Publisher: Basic Books
Language: English
Published: 06/10/2025
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover
By Frank Close
By Frank Close
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Frank Close, OBE, FRS, is a particle physicist and an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Oxford. He is the author of over two dozen books, including Elusive, Half-Life, and The Infinity Puzzle. He lives near Oxford, UK.

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