10 results for "Physics"

The Los Alamos Primer

Robert Serber
Unabridged declassified value reproduction of The Los Alamos Primer by Robert Serber, in full color with all censor markings. This is the booklet given to new workers at Los Alamos during World War II, to catch them up on how to build a practical fission bomb. The Primer was driven by Robert Oppenheimer asking his protégé Robert Serber to summarize all knowledge and possible solutions known as of April 1943 in a series of lectures. Serber did such an excellent job that the notes from the series was turned into The Los Alamos Primer. Serber was known as an expert that bridged theory and reality, and so was also chosen to be one of the first Americans to enter Hiroshima and Nagasaki to assess the atomic damage in 1945. Touch a piece of history in this slim volume with the full text at an affordable price.
Chump Change 1943-04 32 pages

The Pope of Physics Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age

Gino Segrè,Bettina Hoerlin
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Named a Best Book of the Year by Bloomberg (Chosen by Philip Tetlock), Booklist ’s Top 10 Science Books of the Year, and Shortlisted for Physics World ’s Book of the Year A Major Biography of the Nobel Prize–Winning Physicist, Enrico Fermi, a Leading Architect of the Atomic Age Enrico Fermi is unquestionably among the greats of the world’s physicists, the most famous Italian scientist since Galileo. Called “the Pope” by his peers, he was regarded as infallible in his instincts and research. His discoveries changed our world; they led to weapons of mass destruction and conversely to life-saving medical interventions. This unassuming man struggled with issues relevant today, such as the threat of nuclear annihilation and the relationship of science to politics. Fleeing Fascism and anti-Semitism, Fermi became a leading figure in America’s most secret project: building the atomic bomb. An examination of the human dramas that touched Fermi’s life as well as a thrilling history of scientific innovation in the twentieth century, this is the comprehensive biography that Fermi deserves.
Picador 2017-10-10 384 pages

Atom An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth . . . And Beyond

Lawrence M. Krauss
This is both the story of life and the history of the cosmos, but not as you have ever read before. Best-selling science writer Lawrence Krauss takes as his narrative the twisted and improbable tale of a single atom of oxygen, a history that starts at the dawn of time, and journeys beyond the death of stars and people to the death of all matter itself. The atom at the center of this book travels a dangerous and extraordinary path: exploding supernovas, solar winds and collapsing stars preceded the rise of life on earth and one day may foretell its end. Throughout this astonishing work, Krauss manages to stoke our wonder at the powers and unlikely events that conspired to create our solar system, our ecosystem and us.
DIANE Publishing Company 2004-03 394 pages

Uncommon Sense

J. Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer, a leading physicist in the Manhattan Project, recognized that scientific inquiry and discovery could no longer be separated from their effect on political decision-making, social responsibility, and human endeavor in general. He openly addressed issues of common concern and as a scientist accepted the responsibility brought about by nuclear physics. This collection of essays and speeches, only a few of which have been previously published, presents an extraordinary thinker and scientist as well as a compassionate human being. No issue is too small or too large if it is in some way connected to the emergence of a weapon as terrible and powerful as the atom bomb. Oppenheimer discusses the shift in scientific awareness and its impact on education, the question of openness in a society forced to keep secrets, the conflict between individual concerns and public and political necessity, the future of science and its effects on future politics---in short, the common and uncommon sense we find in our modern day reality. Uncommon Sense presents a responsible scientist and a concerned man who foresaw the problems the discovery of fission would create. And we should no neglect to read between the lines: The peak of Oppenheimer’s career coincided with the McCarthy era, the repercussions of which strongly affected his personal and professional life. The themes of openness and freedom becomes, therefore, recurring concerns in this collection of essays and speeches.
Birkhäuser Boston 2012-03-08 196 pages

From the Atomic Bomb to the Landau Institute Autobiography. Top Non-Secret

Isaak M. Khalatnikov
The book is an expanded autobiography of the famous theoretical physicist Isaak Khalatnikov. He worked together with L.D. Landau at the Institute for Physical Problems lead by P.L. Kapitza. He is the co-author of L.D. Landau in a number of important works. They worked together in the frame of the so-called Nuclear Bomb Project. After the death of L.D. Landau, I.M. Khalatnikov initiated the establishment of the Institute for Theoretical Physics, named in honour of L.D. Landau, within the USSR Academy of Sciences. He headed this institute from the beginning as its Director. The institute inherited almost all traditions of the Landau scientific school and played a prominent role in the development of theoretical physics. So, this is a story about how the institute was created, how it worked, and about the life of the physicists in the "golden age" of the Soviet science. A separate chapter is devoted to today ́s life of the institute and the young generation of physicists working now in science. It is an historically interesting book on the development of Soviet and Russian science and presents the background of the Soviet nuclear bomb program in the cold war age. In war times, Khalatnikov was a chief of the military staff of nuclear research. He writes about the internal conditions of Soviet society, the way of operating of the Soviet authorities and ways for scientists to interact with them. It gives many interesting insights into the development of superconductivity and superfluidity. The book is written by the most experienced and best informed person among the few living Russian scientists in the environment of Landau. Many stories of the book were never published before and considered as "top secret".
Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2014-06-11 216 pages