Nuclear Science

A nuclear priesthood has arisen in Russia. From portable churches to the consecration of weapons systems, the Russian Orthodox Church has been integrated into every facet of the armed forces to become a vital part of Russian national security, politics, and identity. This extraordinary intertwining of church and military is nowhere more visible than in the nuclear weapons community, where the priesthood has penetrated all levels of command and the Church has positioned itself as a guardian of the state's nuclear potential.

Covering the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War, the origins and early course of the Cold War and the advent of the hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s, Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War explores a still neglected aspect of Winston Churchill's career: his relationship with and thinking on nuclear weapons.

Tim Koeth peered into the crumpled brown paper bag; inside was a surprisingly heavy black metal cube. He recognized the mysterious object instantly—he had one just like it sitting on his desk at home. It was uranium metal, taken from the nuclear reactor that Nazi scientists had tried—and failed—to build at the end of World War II. This unexpected gift, wrapped in a piece of paper inscribed with a few cryptic but crucial lines, would launch Koeth, a nuclear physicist and professor, and his colleague Miriam Hiebert, a cultural heritage scientist, on an odyssey to trace the tale of these cubes.

A timely reflection in the midst of an increasingly nuclear age, this book offers a sobering look at the implications of scientific advancement and our shared future. It is an essential listen for anyone interested in the complexities of history, science, or the delicate dance between human achievement and moral introspection.

In this Very Short Introduction, John Heilbron draws on sources never before presented in English to cover the life and work of one of the most creative physicists of the 20th century. In addition to his role as a scientist, Heilbron considers Bohr as a statesman and Danish cultural icon, who built scientific institutions and pushed for the extension of international cooperation in science to all nation states. As a humanist he was concerned with the cultivation of all sides of the individual, and with the complementary contributions of all peoples to the sum of human culture.

Kristen Iversen grew up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated "the most contaminated site in America." Full Body Burden is the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and--unknown to those who lived there--tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium.

In Earth-Shattering, astronomy writer Bob Berman guides us through an epic, all-inclusive investigation into these instances of violence both mammoth and microscopic. From the sudden creation of dazzling "new stars" to the furiously explosive birth of our moon, from the uncomfortable truth about ultra-high-energy cosmic rays bombarding us to the incredible ways in which humanity has harnessed cataclysmic energy for its gain, Berman masterfully synthesizes some of our worst fears into an astonishing portrait of the universe.

Trashing the Planet is the one book you need to get a common-sense grasp on the contentious issues of environmentalism, where science and politics overlap and well-meaning idealism turns to counterproductive eco-terrorism. Dixy Lee Ray, a marine biologist and former chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, calls for environmentalists to regain a sense of perspective and not let their ardor carry them into the realm of “noble lies.”

This comprehensive biography delves into the life of the "Father of the Atomic Bomb" and his profound impact on science, ethics, and nuclear physics. Discover Oppenheimer's journey from a precocious child in New York City to his groundbreaking role in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Uncover the evolution of his intellect and character with meticulous research and engaging storytelling. But this biography goes beyond the atomic bomb. Delve into Oppenheimer's post-war years and his enduring legacy in the fields of nuclear physics and theoretical science.

Tensions between multiple nations continue to erupt, while the coronavirus variants continue to spread throughout the world. A vaccine initially meant to cure infected patients from the variants causes them to have a chemical reaction with the radiation of the nuclear blast. Bus riders find themselves between life and death as an outbreak occurs on the bus during a nuclear attack. Nuclear Coronavirus Zombies have infected the world. In the midst of the zombie apocalypse, the main character, James, survives and seeks shelter in a convenience store.

Tensions between multiple nations continue to erupt, while the coronavirus variants continue to spread throughout the world. A vaccine initially meant to cure infected patients from the variants causes them to have a chemical reaction with the radiation of the nuclear blast. Bus riders find themselves between life and death as an outbreak occurs on the bus during a nuclear attack.

Nuclear coronavirus zombies have infected the world. In the midst of the zombie apocalypse, the main character, James, survives and seeks shelter in a convenience store. He soon realizes that the world he once knew no longer exists, and his nation has already been taken over by a combination of foreign nations.

In this 1972 treatise, Isaac Asimov takes the listener on an historic journey through the development of man's understanding of electricity, chemistry, and - ultimately - nuclear energy. Asimov's incomparable ability to simplify the complex is apparent as he guides you through the milestones of scientific thought that connected ideas about electricity and magnetism to the nature of matter, and led to the advances in discovery through the first half of the 20th century that resulted in the harnessing of previously unknown energy directly from the heart of the atom.

The End of Victory recounts the costs of failure in nuclear war through the work of the most secret deliberative body of the National Security Council, the Net Evaluation Subcommittee (NESC). From 1953 onward, US leaders wanted to know as precisely as possible what would happen if they failed in a nuclear war—how many Americans would die and how much of the country would remain. The NESC told Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy what would be the result of the worst failure of American strategy.

William L. Laurence was fascinated with atomic science and its militarization. When the Manhattan Project drew near to perfecting the atomic bomb, he was recruited to write much of the government's press materials that were distributed on the day that Hiroshima was obliterated. That instantly crowned Laurence as one of the leading journalistic experts on the atomic bomb.

Centered on the inter-war years—within the ivy clad walls of Cambridge University's famed Cavendish Laboratory, amid the windswept valleys of north Wales, and in the industrial heartland of Birmingham—The Basis of Everything is the story of the coming of the atomic bomb, and how the unlikely union of two scientists—Ernest Rutherford, the son of a New Zealand farmer, and Mark Oliphant, a peace-loving vegetarian from a tiny Australian hills village—would change the world.

Illuminating the very human conversation around nuclear for the first time, from the roots of the American environmental movement to the present, Atomic Dreams offers a look at why we fear certain things, how people’s minds can change, and what a grand-scale political reversal looks like up close, even when it feels, so often, like change is impossible.

The most important place in American nuclear history are the Marshall Islands - an idyllic Pacific paradise that served as the staging ground for more than 60 US nuclear tests. It was here, from 1946 to 1958, that America perfected the weapon that preserved the peace of the post-war years. It was here - with the 1954 Castle Bravo test over Bikini Atoll - that America executed its largest nuclear detonation, a thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima.

Adrian will soon discover if the choices he’s made have cost him a son. Even Angela can’t be sure. Neither can any of the others like her. The power of the descendants is growing, and so is Safe Haven's awareness of having magic in their midst. Angela is no longer the only seer in Adrian’s camp of survivors…if she ever was.

In Rad Future, Boemeke proves that nuclear is not just the most effective form of energy production, it’s also the key to unlocking even more important and revolutionary technology. What's more, she shows why nuclear energy is actually safe, and how a negative public image paired with a few highly preventable disasters have led us to fumble the bag on the cleanest, most environmentally friendly and powerful form of energy available to us.