Brighter than a Thousand Suns - A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists
by Robert Jungk
Harvest Books | 1956 | ISBN-10: 0156141507 | PDF | 384 pages | 28.7 mb
https://www.amazon.com/Brighter-than-Thousand-Suns-Scientists/dp/0156141507
The story of the scientific research that led to the development of the first atomic bomb still constitutes one of the great dramas of our age. Based on interviews with the major participants and on official documents and transcripts, this is an account of the remarkable men and women who discovered that nuclear fission was possible and then became morally concerned about its implications. They were an mternational fraternity. freely exchanging the fruits of their research, until the beginnings of World War II, when a number of physicists were forced to flee Germany and neighboring countries. Several important German physicists were left behind for the duration of the war. How long would it take before Getmany developed an atom bomb? This crucial question was put to President Roosevelt. The facts about how he was persuaded to end the race to build a bomb and how scientists later failed to stop the use of the bomb are central to this compelling and horrifying narrative, of which perhaps no aspect is more fascinaring than the controversial case of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
About the Author
Robert Jungk was born in Berlin ot Austrian·Jewrsh parents in 913 and was nineteen when Hitler came to power. He has been an American citizen since 1950. His articles and books have been published in more than a dozen countries.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
One A Time of Change (1918-1923) 3
Two The Beautiful Years (1923-1932) 10
Three Collision with Politics (1932- 1933) 29
Four An Unexpected Discovery (1932-1939) 48
Five The Decay of Confidence (1939) 71
Six The Strategy of Prevention (1939-1942) 82
Seven The Laboratory Becomes a Barrack (1942-1945) 105
Eight The Rise of Oppenheimer (1939-1943) 124
Nine Fission of a Man (1943) 137
Ten The Pursuit of Brains (1944-1945) 156
Eleven Atomic Scientist versus Atomic Bomb (1944-1945) 171
Twelve For They Know Not What They Do (1945) 191
Thirteen The Stricken (1945) 210
Fourteen The Scientist' Crusade (1945-1946) 221
Fifteen The Bitter Years (1947-1955) 239
Sixteen "Joe 1" and "Super" (1949-1950) 260
Seventeen Dilemma of the Conscience (1950-1951) 276
Eighteen In the Sign of the "MANIAC" (1951-1955) 2'J7
Nineteen The Fall of Oppenheimer (1952-1954) 313
Twenty At tbe Bench of the Accused (1954-1955) 322
Bpilosue: Tbe Last Chance? 335
List of Sources 342
Appendixes:
Nle1s Bohr's Memorandum to President Rooseve1t, July 1944 344
"The Franck Report" 348
Index 361
