Some of my favorite courses in my first two years of my history grad program were history of science courses, so this volume of the Landmark series brought back some fond memories. "The Story of Atomic Energy" was also written by the wife (widow) of a luminary in the field, Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi, so its content was drawn from firsthand experience and interviews with some of the world's most renowned scientists in the field of atomic energy at the time.
Laura Capon Fermi (1907 â 1977) was born in Rome, but became a naturalized US citizen in 1944. She had met Enrico while she was a student in general science at the University of Rome, and became a well-known writer and political activist in her own right, having published a biography, "Atoms in the Family," about her life with her husband and his research prior to his death of stomach cancer in 1954. She was one of the fortunate few who emigrated to the US along with her family to escape the anti-Jewish legislation enacted by Mussolini's fascist government as she, and, thus, her children, were considered Jewish. She also wrote another book, "Illustrious Immigrants," about preeminent immigrants who came to the US from 1930-1941.
Enrico Fermi was the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, known as the Chicago Pile-1, a post-pile reactor created at the University of Chicago in 1942. It was the first man-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, created from 45,000 ultra-pure graphite blocks and about 45 tons of uranium oxide. It produced only about one-half watt of power, which pales in comparison to modern nuclear reactors, but it was a vital step toward sustainable nuclear power technology, but also an important advancement for the Manhattan Project.
As such, Fermi has been called the architect of the nuclear age, but also the architect of the atomic bomb. He was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work, and subsequently made additional major contributions to the fields of statistical mechanics, quantum theory and nuclear and particle physics.
This was a timely topic indeed, at the time it was written, in the early 60s, when the Cold War was really heating up. I remember stories from my parents who remember the "duck and cover" drills in school, before the thermonuclear age made just about every survival strategy moot. This book, although, as almost always with this series, somewhat dated, is a good introduction to the history of science, and features a good mix of history, biography and public policy, along with the technical aspects of nuclear energy, addressing both the development of the atomic bomb and peaceful uses of atomic energy, which, the author, back in the 1960s, was a strong advocate for. We now know a bit more about the limitations of nuclear power and the risks and benefits it entails.
This book is certainly a product of its time, but it could, in fact, almost be considered a primary source in its own right. The same could be said of several of the other eyewitness authors of books in this series, as Laura Fermi personally knew many of the individuals discussed in the book and states in the introduction that she discussed the content of the book with them, making it an important read for those researching this topic, even if it was intended as a children's book.
As stated in the synopsis, it begins with early conceptions of what constituted "matter" as we know it, as many people are unaware that the term "atom" is actually very ancient, dating back to Democritus (ÎημÏκÏιÏοÏ), a fifth/fourth-century BC pre-Socratic Thracian philosopher, but much of his work is in doubt, as none has survived. Information about him and his philosophies were passed down solely through the works of later authors. There is also some suggestion that a predecessor, Leucippus, proposed many of the same ideas. This was, specifically, that, "atoms" and void space, or "vacuum" space, composed everything physical, but Democritus's notion of the atom was that it was an inert solid, whereas we now know that "atoms" are highly dynamic. Our term "atom" refers to a particle consisting of a nucleus of protons and neutrons, surrounded by a cloud of moving electrons, which forms the basic particle of chemical elements, which are in turn identified by the number of protons in their atoms.
The book also states that the original Greek terms means 'invisible," but that isn't quite right. It's from the combination of "a," meaning the negative of something (think a-typical) and "Ïομή," the term for "cut." The Greek for "invisible" would probably use á¼ÏÎ±Î½Î®Ï "afanes" or á¼Î¸ÎαÏÎ¿Ï "atheatos" In that sense, the Greeks got it wrong: atoms are VERY cut-able!
So much for the history lesson: it next talks about Galileo and other pre-Modern scholars, but the real substance starts in the nineteenth century, when technology allowed for much greater investigation. Look how far we have come in just a century, compared to the span of time before. The book does an admirable job of making VERY complex ideas and material highly accessible and comprehensible to younger readers, demonstrating the author's deep familiarity with the subject matter. Some of it is dated, and, as above, there are some factual errors and generalizations (I'm not going to quibble or list them here), but overall, I really enjoyed this volume, for a number of reasons. It also addresses some of the controversies regarding atomic energy and particularly, weapons.
It wasn't planned that way - this was just one of the volumes which became available at the library - but it just so happens to have coincided with the release of the much-anticipated "Oppenheimer," about the man who was the primary driving force behind the Manhattan Project. This book would thus constitute great further reading for anyone who is interested in learning more about this vital topic.
Laura Capon Fermi (1907 â 1977) was born in Rome, but became a naturalized US citizen in 1944. She had met Enrico while she was a student in general science at the University of Rome, and became a well-known writer and political activist in her own right, having published a biography, "Atoms in the Family," about her life with her husband and his research prior to his death of stomach cancer in 1954. She was one of the fortunate few who emigrated to the US along with her family to escape the anti-Jewish legislation enacted by Mussolini's fascist government as she, and, thus, her children, were considered Jewish. She also wrote another book, "Illustrious Immigrants," about preeminent immigrants who came to the US from 1930-1941.
Enrico Fermi was the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, known as the Chicago Pile-1, a post-pile reactor created at the University of Chicago in 1942. It was the first man-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, created from 45,000 ultra-pure graphite blocks and about 45 tons of uranium oxide. It produced only about one-half watt of power, which pales in comparison to modern nuclear reactors, but it was a vital step toward sustainable nuclear power technology, but also an important advancement for the Manhattan Project.
As such, Fermi has been called the architect of the nuclear age, but also the architect of the atomic bomb. He was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work, and subsequently made additional major contributions to the fields of statistical mechanics, quantum theory and nuclear and particle physics.
This was a timely topic indeed, at the time it was written, in the early 60s, when the Cold War was really heating up. I remember stories from my parents who remember the "duck and cover" drills in school, before the thermonuclear age made just about every survival strategy moot. This book, although, as almost always with this series, somewhat dated, is a good introduction to the history of science, and features a good mix of history, biography and public policy, along with the technical aspects of nuclear energy, addressing both the development of the atomic bomb and peaceful uses of atomic energy, which, the author, back in the 1960s, was a strong advocate for. We now know a bit more about the limitations of nuclear power and the risks and benefits it entails.
This book is certainly a product of its time, but it could, in fact, almost be considered a primary source in its own right. The same could be said of several of the other eyewitness authors of books in this series, as Laura Fermi personally knew many of the individuals discussed in the book and states in the introduction that she discussed the content of the book with them, making it an important read for those researching this topic, even if it was intended as a children's book.
As stated in the synopsis, it begins with early conceptions of what constituted "matter" as we know it, as many people are unaware that the term "atom" is actually very ancient, dating back to Democritus (ÎημÏκÏιÏοÏ), a fifth/fourth-century BC pre-Socratic Thracian philosopher, but much of his work is in doubt, as none has survived. Information about him and his philosophies were passed down solely through the works of later authors. There is also some suggestion that a predecessor, Leucippus, proposed many of the same ideas. This was, specifically, that, "atoms" and void space, or "vacuum" space, composed everything physical, but Democritus's notion of the atom was that it was an inert solid, whereas we now know that "atoms" are highly dynamic. Our term "atom" refers to a particle consisting of a nucleus of protons and neutrons, surrounded by a cloud of moving electrons, which forms the basic particle of chemical elements, which are in turn identified by the number of protons in their atoms.
The book also states that the original Greek terms means 'invisible," but that isn't quite right. It's from the combination of "a," meaning the negative of something (think a-typical) and "Ïομή," the term for "cut." The Greek for "invisible" would probably use á¼ÏÎ±Î½Î®Ï "afanes" or á¼Î¸ÎαÏÎ¿Ï "atheatos" In that sense, the Greeks got it wrong: atoms are VERY cut-able!
So much for the history lesson: it next talks about Galileo and other pre-Modern scholars, but the real substance starts in the nineteenth century, when technology allowed for much greater investigation. Look how far we have come in just a century, compared to the span of time before. The book does an admirable job of making VERY complex ideas and material highly accessible and comprehensible to younger readers, demonstrating the author's deep familiarity with the subject matter. Some of it is dated, and, as above, there are some factual errors and generalizations (I'm not going to quibble or list them here), but overall, I really enjoyed this volume, for a number of reasons. It also addresses some of the controversies regarding atomic energy and particularly, weapons.
It wasn't planned that way - this was just one of the volumes which became available at the library - but it just so happens to have coincided with the release of the much-anticipated "Oppenheimer," about the man who was the primary driving force behind the Manhattan Project. This book would thus constitute great further reading for anyone who is interested in learning more about this vital topic.
