Books - Enrico Fermi
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Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon by P. D. Smith St. Martin's Press (2007) Hardcover Used Price: $5.45  |
 Product Description: This is the gripping, untold story of the doomsday bomb—the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. In 1950, Hungarian-born scientist Leo Szilard made a dramatic announcement on American radio: science was on the verge of creating a doomsday bomb. For the first time in history, mankind realized that he had within his grasp a truly God-like power, the ability to destroy life itself. The shockwave from this statement reverberated across the following decade and beyond. If detonated, Szilard's doomsday device—a huge cobalt-clad H-bomb—would pollute the atmosphere with radioactivity and end all life on earth. The scientific creators of such apocalyptic weapons had transformed the laws of nature into instruments of mass destruction and for many people in the Cold War there was little to distinguish real scientists from that “fictional master of megadeath,” Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. Indeed, as PD Smith’s chilling account shows, the dream of the superweapon begins in popular culture. This is a story that cannot be told without the iconic films and fictions that portray our deadly fascination with superweapons, from H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds to Nevil Shute’s On the Beach and Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Although scientists admitted it was possible to build the cobalt bomb, no superpower would admit to having created one. However, it remained a terrifying possibility, striking fear into the hearts of people around the world. The story of the cobalt bomb is an unwritten chapter of the Cold War, but now PD Smith reveals the personalities behind this feared technology and shows how the scientists responsible for the twentieth century’s most terrible weapons grew up in a culture dreaming of superweapons and Wellsian utopias. He argues that, in the end, the doomsday machine became the ultimate symbol of humanity’s deepest fears about the science of destruction. Customer Review: "Out of the libraries come the killers." - - Bertolt Brecht, "1940": In Brecht's "1940," the "latest inventions of the professors" probably didn't include the atomic bomb. Poison gas and rockets meant to kill civilians were horrific enough. But one of the surprising things (to me, at least) that P. D. Smith's Doomsday Men shows is how newspapers and popular science writing in Europe and America described atomic bombs and atomic power plants in detail decades before Hiroshima. Another interesting thing in Doomsday Men is how fiction writers and scientists inspired each other. Roentgen discovered X-rays in 1895 and the next year H. G. Wells used "Roentgen vibrations" as the rationale for the Invisible Man's experiments. (Wells was the first to use the expression "atomic bomb.") American science fiction magazines published stories about atomic energy years before Pearl Harbor. In Germany Zukunftsromane ("future novels") and Weltuntergangsromane ("end-of-the-world stories") were popular. These stories influenced German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and Hungarian physicists Leo Szilard and Edward Teller, two of the "Hungarian Quartet" that Doomsday Men is primarily about. Most of the best nuclear scientists in Berlin were Jewish and left Germany in the 1930s for Britain or the United States. Fritz Haber, was an ultra-patriotic German-Jewish scientist who developed poison gas during World War I without any qualms. (After the Nazis took power, when Haber was a refuge in England, Ernest Rutherford refused to meet Haber, saying " 'he did not want to shake hands with the inventor of poison gas warfare.' ") Many of Haber's family were killed by Zyklon B gas at Auschwitz. As the truth about the effects of atomic bombs and atomic testing became known, a new kind of story replaced the old pro-technology-at-any-cost stories in American science fiction magazines (where you rarely read about a Faust or a Frankenstein). Actually, it was a return to an older type of story. Movies like Godzilla, Them!, The Amazing Colossal Man, and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms were a return to the "deadly utopian dream" of turn-of-the-century fiction like H. G. Wells's The World Set Free or The War of the Worlds. By the time of the modern era of ICBMs and hotlines, the tragic figure of Goethe's Faust had become Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, an amalgam of von Braun, Edward Teller, and others, who could only be comprehended as a joke, even though the joke was we're doomed. Customer Review: An outstanding history of the cultural impact of superweapons: Doomsday Men is an impressively creative examination of how literature and philosophy influenced the development of superweapons, and how knowledge of their ghastly potential shaped, in turn, the cultural icons of the 20th century. It shows how those involved in the Manhattan Project differed greatly in their temperments and outlooks, and reached drastically different conclusions about the role of nuclear weapons after the Second World War was over. While some scientists, such as Leo Szilard, rallied for arms control, others, such as Herman Kahn, argued that the west should be prepared to accept massive casualties. Kahn's remarks, taken to their terrifying extreme, were incorporated into Kubrick's classic dark comedy, Dr. Strangelove, a film that occupies a central place in this book. Through colorful anecdotes and fascinating connections with popular culture, Smith helps bring the turbulent history of those frightening times to life. Doomsday Men offers a vital and intruging account of the mentality and culture of the Cold War. 
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If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens... Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life by Stephen Webb Springer (2002) Hardcover List Price: Used Price: $10.66 |
 Product Description: FROM THE REVIEWS: "Webb offers coherent, understandable, and sometimes humorous coverage of a diverse range of topics. He provides readers with non-trivial insights into research fields they may not have encountered previously . . . I think everyone who has ever considered the possibility that other intelligent civilizations exist elsewhere within our galaxy will enjoy Where Is Everybody? They will find much to agree with, and much to argue about, in this very accessible volume." -SCIENCE "WHERE IS EVERYBODY? is a delightful mental romp. With a light-hearted, enthusiastic tone, Webb offers lively coverage of UFOs, crop circles, and the books of Erich von Däniken, the infamous proponent of the idea that aliens visited the Earth in the distant past. Science-fiction fans will enjoy the frequent references to Star Trek, and science buffs will appreciate mention of the ideas of Carl Sagan, Fred Hoyle, Frank Drake, and Freeman Dyson. This book is a must-read for anyone who has ever pondered the question, "Are we alone?" -ASTRONOMY "[Webb] is a polymath, able to write informatively - even authoritatively - on an exceedingly wide range of subjects, including physics, astronomy, biology, and neurobiology. His writing is encyclopedic in scope, lucid, often poetic - and in the end it is both enormously inspiring and a little sad if he's right, as I'm afraid he might be, in concluding that we are the only advanced civilization in the Galaxy. Readers are free to differ with Webb's conclusion, but they will be surprised to learn how convincing it is. I have read a good number of astronomy books this past year; but this is the one I regard as indispensable. If I were Robinson Crusoe - shipwrecked and lonely on an island in space - I would want this book with me." -MERCURY During a Los Alamos lunchtime conversation that took place more than 50 years ago, four world-class scientists agreed, given the size and age of the Universe, that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations simply had to exist. The sheer numbers demanded it. But one of the four, the renowned physicist and back-of-the-envelope calculator Enrico Fermi, asked the telling question: If the extraterrestrial life proposition is true, he wondered, "Where IS everybody?" In this lively and thought-provoking book, Stephen Webb presents a detailed discussion of the 50 most cogent and intriguing answers to Fermi's famous question, divided into three distinct groups: - Aliens are already here among us. Here are answers ranging from Leo Szilard's suggestion that they are already here, and we know them as Hungarians, to the theorists who claim that aliens built Stonehenge and the Easter Island statues. - Aliens exist, but have not yet communicated. The theories in this camp range widely, from those who believe we simply don't have the technologies to receive their signals, to those who believe the enormities of space and time work against communication, to those who believe they're hiding from us. - Aliens do not exist. Here are the doubters' arguments, from the Rare Earth theory to the author's own closely argued and cogently stated skepticism. The proposed solutions run the gamut from the crackpot to the highly serious, but all deserve our consideration. The varieties of arguments -- from first-rate scientists, philosophers and historians, and science fiction authors -- turn out to be astonishing, entertaining, and vigorous intellectual exercises for any reader interested in science and the sheer pleasure of speculative thinking. Stephen Webb is a physicist working at the Open University in England and the author of Measuring the Universe. |
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We Almost Lost Detroit by John G. Fuller Berkley (1984) Paperback Used Price: $22.44 |
Customer Review: A very clear and cool description of events at the Fermi 1 plant . . .:
By the way, Nuclear Plants can explode. Certainly not in a mushroom cloud . . . but when the fuel rods are extremely hot and they come into contact with the cooling liquid they are bathed in (usually water) a violent steam explosion occurs. As the book explained, this is probably what happened at the Idaho Falls facility when a steam explosion propelled a graphite rod out of the reactor and impaled a technician through the chest pinning him to the ceiling of the containment vessel overhead. Neither did he nuclear fuel at Chernobyl explode, yet there were 56 direct deaths and an estimated 4,600 will die from cancer related deaths. A steam explosion there lifted the 2,000 ton lid off of the reactor. As far as I can make out, one of the major problems with the Fermi 1 plant and Nuclear Energy in general is the huge ego's Nuclear Physicists and engineers have. They think they can take a monster as dangerous as a nuclear reaction and keep it perfectly safe. Throw politics into the stew and their is a recipe for disaster in EVERY nuclear plant every where in the world. This book clearly illustrates the bone head decision to use molten sodium as the coolant in Fermi 1 and the inherent difficulties it presents. Anyone who has taken high school chemistry knows that elemental sodium is extremely unstable and can only be stored under special conditions. A quote from Wikipedia, "Extreme care is required in handling elemental/metallic sodium. Sodium is potentially explosive in water (depending on quantity) and is a corrosive substance, since it is rapidly converted to sodium hydroxide on contact with moisture. The powdered form may combust spontaneously in air or oxygen. Sodium must be stored either in an inert (oxygen and moisture free) atmosphere (such as nitrogen or argon), or under a liquid hydrocarbon such as mineral oil or kerosene." It is also extremely corrosive. I suppose that is why they decided to use zirconium to protect the container vessel. The second bone-head decision as explained by this book was the independent decision made my the lead engineer without consulting or telling anyone. He had zirconium plates installed at the bottom of the containment tank. This was an after thought and was not documented in the engineering plans. One came loose from it's fastenings and blocked the circulation of the sodium coolant thus raising the temperature of several of the fuel rod sub-assemblies. Subsequently, it was determined that the reactor had undergone a partial meltdown. The book describes the difficulties presented by the monumental miscalculation to use molten sodium in the container.This made examination of the interior of the container extremely difficult, and the improvisation of specialized tools were required. It took EIGHT months to drill a hole in the container wall, devise procedures to insert the improvised camera and take pictures of the inside of the vessel. Finally, they were astonished to find a undocumented zirconium plate blocking the cooling system. Repairs were made and in May 1970, this reactor was again "ready for operation." However, a sodium explosion occurred delaying the start. Astonishingly, the decision was made to make repairs and once again attempt to start up. In October 1970 it finally reached a level of 200 megawatts. Operating at this extremely reduced rate, Fermi 1 was online for less than 2 years when someone with a brain denied renewal of its operating license. Oops, I have to revise my number one greatest bone-head decision in this ludicrous technological monster . . . building Fermi 1 near a major city. Duh, hello. Anybody home? Of major interest to me was the documentation this book provided regarding the extent that the government conspired with the nuclear industry in lying to the public about the safety of nuclear power. Several nuclear accidents are cited, the one at Idaho Falls resulting in 3 deaths and one in England. Americans were feed garbage about "nuclear energy being the safest energy there is" even while the industry knew of the extreme hazards of such a power source. They just thought they could make it work safe . . . a great way to make such an important decision, wouldn't you agree. I did not detect any of the sensationalism or bias in this book that others mention. I found it recounted in cool and editorial style the events which occurred. My feelings are expressed exactly in the words of Dr.Ian Malcolm in "Jurassic Park" when he said, "God help us. We are in the hands of engineers." Customer Review: Pure GARBAGE!!: I read this book years ago when it first came out since I lived in suburban Detroit. I am now a nuclear physicist and know that this book is GARBAGE. We came NO WHERE near losing Detroit. A previous reviewer is just plain wrong to say that if a little bit melts the rest is not far behind, and there goes Detroit. Nuclear reactors can NOT explode; and Fermi 1 contained ALL radioactivity. Detroit was NEVER in any danger. Customer Review: About the ONLY Voice on This Subject: As another reviewer notes, there was almost NO public attention paid to the incident at Fermi 1. Yes, Mr Fuller takes somewhat of a 'cautionary tone' - but it is hardly 'shrill' or 'anti-corporation', mostly just very informative. I grew up 40 miles from Monroe and was a child when this occurred. Our farm was downwind of the site, and for over a decade the University of Michigan maintained a 'clinic' in our town to 'monitor childhood development' as part of an 'on-going study'. My folks never knew why they were asked to participate until I sent them a copy of this book. How would that make YOU feel as a parent??? As another reviewer touched on, the fast breeder high pressure sodium plants have been 'upgraded' and most all other/new plants are an entirely different type of reactor altogether. I'm afraid folks missed Mr Fuller's real point - people are people and we ALL make mistakes at one time or another, and ANY mistake with nuclear material is simply ONE too many. Nuclear generated power currently represents less than 20% of energy consumed in the US - is that REALLY worth turning Detroit or Corpus Christi into Chernobyl? Customer Review: A Fabulously Informative Book: I really don't understand why so many people gave this a low rating, don't they care about ceasing to exist? Don't they care if all future generations are degraded genetically because we keep allowing our big bloated corporations to rule us, to control us, to make life and death decisions about us without telling us the truth about what they are doing to our environment, our food and our water? This book is a good expose of how corporations (although it's not written specifically to slam corporations) will screw things up if allowed to decide how to earn money no matter what the risks to others. One other reviewer mentioned how no one heard of this until this book came out, good point, it apparently was covered up quite well, until this writer investigated and exposed the story. This should be required reading for all science majors & all business majors! Customer Review: We almost lost . . . a secret.: Granted the book is a bit sensational - then again I lived in Detroit at that time and you can bet I would have been hyper-ventilating had I known the China Syndrome was potentiating less than 60 miles away. Here's the key point: if this was such an itty-bitty bang why was it NEVER mentioned until this book was published? Rancho Seco, Celilo Village, the Hanford site, 3-mile Island, the USS Thresher -- all nuclear events that blew up in the press for days or weeks - yet NEVER CALLED FORTH A SINGLE MENTION OF FERMI #1. Sounds like a cover-up to me - and the casual mention that 'a little bit of the core melted' is no small matter - if a little melts, a lot is not far behind and Bang! There goes Detroit! Worth a read? Yeah. Worth paying attention to the neighborhood, too.
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Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi by Laura Fermi University Of Chicago Press (1995) Paperback List Price: Used Price: $2.99 |
 Product Description: In this absorbing account of life with the great atomic scientist Enrico Fermi, Laura Fermi tells the story of their emigration to the United States in the 1930s--part of the widespread movement of scientists from Europe to the New World that was so important to the development of the first atomic bomb. Combining intellectual biography and social history, Laura Fermi traces her husband's career from his childhood, when he taught himself physics, through his rise in the Italian university system concurrent with the rise of fascism, to his receipt of the Nobel Prize, which offered a perfect opportunity to flee the country without arousing official suspicion, and his odyssey to the United States. Customer Review: Easy Read and Informative: This was a fairly easy book to read. It was more of a personal account of what life was like for Fermi and his family. Not too technical, but still enjoyable. Customer Review: An endearing portrait of a giant of science: Enrico Fermi was a supremely talented scientist of the twentieth century, perhaps the only scientist who was uniquely accomplished in both experimental and theoretical physics. Fermi contributed massively to almost every branch of modern physics, and almost any one of his discoveries would have been enough to win him a Nobel Prize. In this book, his wife Laura Fermi affectionately and engagingly tells us the story of this singular individual and his all-consuming passion for physics. Laura brings a personal touch to the great man's life that is rarely seen. This is especially valuable for someone like Fermi who was a rather private individual and not fond of talking about personal matters. Laura recounts Fermi's childhood and background, including his taking refuge in physics after a personal tragedy in which his brother and best friend Giulio died when he was 15. After this incident Fermi's life trajectory was set. He quickly rose through the ranks to become Professor of Physics at Rome. Laura describes their meeting and how she was wonderstruck by the intellect and unassuming nature of the young man. She endearingly describes their time together in Italy during a decade that was very important and exciting for the development of modern physics. Much of the book's appeal comes from personal glimpses into Fermi's personal life as well as his and Laura's life in the United States after they fled from Mussolini's anti-Semitism (Laura was Jewish). Laura describes the remarkable discoveries Fermi made in Rome with neutrons, his enduring friendship with other extraordinary scientists and their migration to America. She has amusing stories about adjusting in the United States and about Fermi's singularly important work on the Manhattan Project. She describes the great secrecy during the project because of which Fermi could not tell her earlier about what was probably his greatest achievement- the construction of the world's first nuclear reactor, a watershed in world history. She also tells us about amusing aspects of life in the secret and remarkable community of Los Alamos, where there was an entire division created just for Fermi. Accompanying all these stories are anecdotes about the great physicists of the century, most of whom Fermi personally knew well and who respected him tremendously for his knowledge and modesty. All things considered, this is a rare glimpse into the life of a most extraordinary scientist provided by someone who personally knew him as well or better than anyone could. It is a very valuable book and deserves an important place in the history of physics. Customer Review: Atoms in the Family: Excellent book. Very well written, especially considering that it was written in English by a non-native speaker of the language. Regardless of the writing, it tells a story that had largely been kept secret from my husband, even though he received a university degree in Physics. He has found substantial confirmation of what Laura Fermi wrote in several books by Emilio Segre, and at many Web sites. Customer Review: This is the report I wrote from this book!!!: Wrote by Doogie Ortonward Did you wonder what stopped world war 2? Well I helped end it I'm Enrico Fermi the inventor of the nuclear pile. I was born Sep 29,1901 In Rome Italy. When I was born my mom sent me and my brother (Giulio) to live with nurses, because she did not have enough money to take care of me properly. But took me back home when I was two 1/2. I had one sister and one brother, Maria and Giulio. I was the oldest of the bunch. Then I started elementary school when I was 6. Soon I got to be at the top of my class. I stared studying algebra in 5th grade from the books I loaned from my dads co-worker milder. Milder and my dad both worked at the ministry of communication. my mom worked at the elementary school. But soon a tragic event struck my family. My brother Giulio died of a throat abscess I was a young age of 14. so I would not think about his death I immersed my self in to scientific study. I thing that all still stays stuck in my mind I always walked by the hospital where he had died for so long in till the I got inured by the pain of his death. Now I'm in high school and the 3rd year I had skipped. Now the adventure was just beginning, off to the Scuola Normale Superiore (University of Pisa) at the young age of 17. After four years studying at the University of Pisa, I was awarded his doctorate in physics in 1922. For the next several years, I worked with some of the greatest physicists in Europe, including Max Born(Physicist) and Paul Ehrenfest(mathematician), while also teaching at the University of Florence and then at the University of Rome. Then I Got married to Laura Capon in 1928 , soon giving birth to Nella 3 years later. In 1934, I came up with the idea to use neutrons, which have no charge, as projectiles. I would shoot a neutron like an arrow into an atom's nucleus. Many of these nuclei absorbed the extra neutron during this process, creating isotopes for every element. For the next member in my family is Giulio in 1936. He was named after my brother that had died in 1915. Though it doesn't seem to make sense, I found that by slowing down the neutron, it often had a larger impact on the nucleus. I found that the speed at which the neutron was most impacted differed for every element. For these two discoveries about atoms, I was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1938. The timing was just right for the Nobel Prize. Antisemitism was strengthening within Italy at this time and though I was not Jewish, my wife was. I accepted the Nobel Prize in Stockholm and then immediately immigrated to the United States. He arrived in the U.S. in 1939 and began working at Columbia University in New York City as a professor of physics. I continued his research at Columbia University. Though I had unknowingly split a nucleus during his earlier experiments, credit for splitting an atom (fission) was given to Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1939. However, I quickly realized that if you split an atom's nucleus, that atom's neutrons could be used as projectiles to split another atom's nucleus, causing a nuclear chain reaction. Each time a nucleus was split, an enormous amount of energy was released. During World War II, I worked diligently on the Manhattan Project to create an atomic bomb. After the war, however, he believed the human death toll from these bombs was too large. In 1946, I worked as a professor at the University of Chicago's Institute of Nuclear Studies. In 1949, I argued against the development of a hydrogen bomb. It was built anyway. On November 29, 1954, I succumbed to stomach cancer at the age of 53. Then they named the 100th element after me, Fermium. Customer Review: Living with Enrico!: On first glance the title of this book appears to be a play on the ADDAMS FAMILY TV series. However, this book was originally published in 1952 and the TV series didn't come out until a decade later. However, there was apparently a newspaper cartoon that the TV series was based on, and that dates back to the 1930s. Whether Mrs. Fermi made a conscious pun or not I don't know. Would be a bizarre nexus between the Addams family & the great Enrico Fermi, but..... In any case, this book is a biography of Enrico Fermi, who was the greatest Italian physicist of the 20th century. He was probably the greatest Italian scientist since Galileo Galilei. Fermi was in charge of the first team to successfully unleash a controlled nuclear reaction. Also, one major type of photon (the "Fermion") is named after him [the other major type of photon is the "Boson"]. One of the nice things about having a non-scientist (in this case, his wife) write the biography is that we get to see the man "behind the equations." Laura Fermi describes his quirks and we also find out that he had a sense-of-humor almost comparable to Richard Feynman. Another intriguing aspect of the book is that we get a view of the Manhattan Project from a non-scientist's point of view. Mrs. Fermi gives us an inside look at the living conditions and everyday duties / chores of someone who was not actually working on the bomb. This is an interesting viewpoint as I've read several other accounts of Los Alamos as told thru the eyes of the scientists who worked on the bomb. This is an important book that gives insight into one of the biggest names in modern physics. That he ended up settling in the United States is of great fortitude to we Americans. His discoveries have been a monumental boon to science, and in this book is his life story.
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Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet Soft Skull Press (2005) Hardcover List Price: Used Price: $0.01 |
 Product Description: Acclaimed author Lydia Millet's latest novel is a black-comic tour de force depicting atomic bomb creators Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and Leo Szilard. Despite being dead, these scientists are spotted in Santa Fe by a shy librarian named Ann. She becomes convinced they are real and, to the dismay of her husband, devotes herself to them. The trio quickly acquire a sugar daddy — a young pothead millionaire from Tokyo — and a vast cult following of hippies, Christians, New Agers, bikers, A-bomb survivors, and curious anthropologists who join them on an RV pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. Heroes to some, lunatics or con artists to others, the scientists finally become messianic religious figureheads to fanatics who believe Oppenheimer is the Second Coming. This imaginative novel, rich with incident, brilliantly marries their journey to a history of atomic and thermonuclear weapons and to the emotionally intimate tale of a middle-class couple trying to stay hopeful about the future as they grow close to the men who gave birth to the nuclear threat. Customer Review: A Sad Light: Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet Interspersed with Ben & Ann's personal story is Ann's contemporary 21st Century caregiving to 3 mysteriously arrived 1945 nuclear scientists are powerful factoid clips regarding the horror et al of the use of nuclear weapons & the after effects of tests at Bikini, in Nevada, at Almagordo. These are powerful & ugly reminders of what we have done as a country. But it is a rather discontinuous sort of book, one of the sort that one has frequently to turn back a page to make sure one has not been passed over unintentionally. The narrative is often like log book entries. Or like card file notes that haven't been integrated into a cogent theme. Stream of consciousness-like & very bumpy. Textual breaks are helpfully marked with a wingding; quotations marks are nowhere, with the em dash indicating the beginning of a speaker's words. Not bad ideas for this piecemeal style. As these cuts are shown perhaps Millet was hoping for a movie. It would make a good one, with the usual Hollywood alterations. It has fantasy & a cast of characters that includes Oppenheimer, Szilard & Fermi, as well as assorted Jesus freaks, rich former hippies, junkies, feds & government spooks, it suits the screen (but would not please anyone wearing "establishment" colors). The powerful & bitter medicinal truth about the atomic weapons & related industries needs to be taken, but the honey is missing from this very long (532 pp), many mouthsful of a book. Yet the persistent reader will be relieved at the end, which rises to something like a consistent & nicely written philosophy, even though not one that seems to value mundane life or secular meaning, but rather seems to offer an existentialist anomie. Customer Review: Imaginative and Informative: Oh Pure and Radiant Heart I first discovered Lydia Millet with My Happy Life, as I was wandering aimlessly through the library waiting for my husband to be finished with his browsing. It was a happy find. When I went back to return the book I looked for more Lydia Millet and discovered Oh Pure and Radiant Heart. A larger book, with much more of an informative side. I loved it. It was the kind of book I found myself thinking about even when I wasn't reading it. I used to think I had an imagination, but Millet's idea to bring 3 dead physicists largely responsible for the first atom bomb back to life in 2003 is pure and radiant genius. The characters were engaging and believable. The story the stuff science fiction is made of, but compelling drama, even if that is not your favorite genre. A lot of allegories. A lot of very understated satire. And a lot of factual knowledge about the making and deployment of atomic weapons and the men and the countries that moved that era forward into today. While there is some political statement here, it is not heavy-handed. Millet directs but leaves it up to you to choose to follow or just enjoy the story. I like a book that educates and entertains. I'm going back for more Millet books. --Sandra Customer Review: I was so much older then . . . .: I'm torn. The first 150 pages of this book is just about the best modern fiction crafting I've read, with perfectly tuned phrases on nearly every page. Then the last 330 pages take a direction with the odd plotting that, while well-written, just doesn't work for me. Part of the problem is how to resolve what must be one of the more imaginative but bizarre plot setups in modern fiction: Leo Szilard, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Enrico Fermi, the three main scientists responsible for America's atomic bomb project in World War Two, come back to life in what for them is the day after the Trinity test--the first explosion of an atomic bomb in human history--in the New Mexico desert near Los Alamos. One wakes up in a hotel and one in a ditch by the side of the road in Santa Fe, and Fermi, who was working at the University of Chicago at the time of the test, wakes up under a table at the cafeteria there. A Santa Fe librarian, through a series of, it turns out, unfortunate events and a mystical dream, discovers the scientists, confronts them, and ends up supporting providing financial support and living space despite her husband's unbelief and hesitance. At first alone and completely adrift in a world and a culture that has changed so dramatically in just 50 years that they are nearly incapable of independent survival, they learn about their past by reading biographies and new stories of events in their lives after the test, including their own deaths. They seek a reason and a purpose, at first trying to figure out the scientific theory that would explain their presence, but with a forceful, hyper-energetic and overbearing Szilard taking the lead, decide to go public, prove their identity and speak out for world peace and nuclear disarmament. From then, the plot follows that path downward that parallels the scientists travels around the world to Japan and the Pacific Islands, and then back to the US for a cross-country road trip toward Washington with a growing entourage. But those first pages are so good, this was still worth my time: p. 34: "Once a few particles can exterminate people by the billions, never again can it be argued that small and trivial are in the same family." p. 61: "These people, the ones I've never been able to stand, she thought, these people are the normal background noise of the world. They are a guarantee. She thought: It is wrong but even not liking them, even not being able to stand them, all of a sudden I feel grateful." p. 77: "Time travel? This is like science fiction?" "I make no claims as to genre." (this is clearly the author's voice addressing without answering a question every reader will have about this book) p. 78: "There is a real world, of course. This just isn't it." (one of the scientists trying to explain their presence) p. 86: "Love of knowledge can draw on its credit indefinitely." p. 95: "'When I died I was older,' said Szilard. '--You see?'" p. 101: "There have always been alarmists, mused Oppenheimer with his library books spread out in front of him on the hotel room table, those Chicken Littles who believe the end times are upon us, the apocalypse is nigh, the world is coming to an end. But that does not mean that it won't." p. 122: "In my day there was ignorance too: ignorance is timeless. But at least we were ashamed of it." p. 130: "Because finally all the most obsessive work in the world is done not for profit but for pure devotion." p. 148: "They had raised her with high hopes of social status and she had turned out to be a librarian." For a grounding in more realistic, if no less idolizing, historical viewpoints, go to 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos The Making of the Atomic Bomb Customer Review: Thought Provoking Read: I had read a two sentance recommendation of this book some time ago, and as such, it had landed on my reading list. I'm glad it did. This is a thought provoking look at three scientists responsible for the creation of a weapon of immense danger as they see the full power of their creation and its aftermath. The displacement of the scientists from 1940s America to 2003 America is a great means to reflect on modernity. Contrasting the displaced scientists are Ann, a librarian and her husband Ben. Their relationship with each other and with the scientists speaks to celebrity, the cult of personality, marriage, and life. Throw in a touch of fundamentalist rapture, a looking for something to believe in bazillionare, a fascinating look at the American nuclear program along with some gentle humor, and you have a worthwhile read. Customer Review: what a concept: the premise of this book is HUGE. who wouldn't want to return to the future and atone for the consequences of their decisions. Ms Millett presents us with the the inventors of the atomic bomb returning to see the legacy of the Manhattan project. The characterizations are faithful to the personalities of the scientists and their interactions with the disparate personalities and politics of the late 20th century are at times comic and tragic. I recommend this book highly and perhaps our current politicians could take note and consider their legacy.
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Enrico Fermi: And the Revolutions of Modern Physics (Oxford Portraits in Science) by Dan Cooper Oxford University Press, USA (1999) Hardcover Our Price: $32.95 Used Price: $13.41 |
 Product Description: In 1938, at the age of 37, Enrico Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. That same year he emigrated from Italy to the United States and, in the course of his experiments, discovered nuclear fissiona process which forms the basis of nuclear power and atomic bombs. Soon the brilliant physicist was involved in the top secret race to produce the deadliest weapon on Earth. He created the first self-sustaining chain reaction, devised new methods for purifying plutonium, and eventually participated in the first atomic test. This compelling biography traces Fermis education in Italy, his meteoric career in the scientific world, his escape from fascism to America, and the ingenious experiments he devised and conducted at the University of Rome, Columbia University, and the Los Alamos laboratory. The book also presents a mini-course in quantum and nuclear physics in an accessible, fast-paced narrative that invokes all the dizzying passion of Fermis brilliant discoveries. Customer Review: Fermi made accesible to all: This is the perfect biography for anyone wanting to learn more about a great man, one of the greatest physicists. Enough of his physics were mentioned or included to make it non-trivial to me (junior astrophysics major, with Fermi distribution functions currently flying out of my ears) and yet I would have no compunctions handing this book to my little cousins in elementary school if they needed to read/write a book report on the life and accomplishments of one of the greatest and most influential scientists of our era. In fact, I would say that is the preferred audience, all physics students have heard of Fermi, but most children (and indeed, most adults) are unaware of his contributions to the way we see the world around us, and to history. All of that is here, in this biography easily accesible to anyone. Customer Review: The spirit and mind that led to a Nobel Prize and much more: I'm the author of this book. I sought to show how physics is done and how one of the greatest scientists of our time used his fine mind and friendly yet competitive ways to succeed. I believe I've made Fermi, the man, and the physics he did accessible to a wide range of readers. Don't be put off if you found physics hard in school -- this isn't like that, and it ain't brain surgery. Fermi was famous for being one of those very rare physicists who are good at both theory and experiment. That helped as he and his team did the neutron experiments that led to his 1938 Nobel Prize. After a dramatic escape from fascist Italy, he and his family emigrated to America. There he went on to create the first nuclear chain reaction (on December 2, 1942) and to play a major role in the development of the atom bomb. After helping to win World War II, he helped set sensible science policy and did more great physics. His name is enshrined in the element Fermium, in the Fermi National Accelerator Lab, and in some of the most impotant concepts of physics. This book is a good way to learn about a great man and about the way the physical world works. I hope you'll enjoy it; let me know what you think of it. |
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Fermi Remembered University Of Chicago Press (2004) Hardcover List Price: Used Price: $10.47 |
 Product Description: Nobel laureate and scientific luminary Enrico Fermi (1901-54) was a pioneering nuclear physicist whose contributions to the field were numerous, profound, and lasting. Best known for his involvement with the Manhattan Project and his work at Los Alamos that led to the first self-sustained nuclear reaction and ultimately to the production of electric power and plutonium for atomic weapons, Fermi's legacy continues to color the character of the sciences at the University of Chicago. During his tenure as professor of physics at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, Fermi attracted an extraordinary scientific faculty and many talented students—ten Nobel Prizes were awarded to faculty or students under his tutelage. Born out of a symposium held to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Fermi's birth, Fermi Remembered combines essays and newly commissioned reminiscences with private material from Fermi's research notebooks, correspondence, speech outlines, and teaching to document the profound and enduring significance of Fermi's life and labors. The volume also features extensives archival material—including correspondence between Fermi and biophysicist Leo Szilard and a letter from Harry Truman—with new introductions that provide context for both the history of physics and the academic tradition at the University of Chicago. Edited by James W. Cronin, a University of Chicago physicist and Nobel laureate himself, Fermi Remembered is a tender tribute to one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century. Contributors: Harold Agnew Nina Byers Owen Chamberlain Geoffrey F. Chew James W. Cronin George W. Farwell Jerome I. Friedman Richard L. Garwin Murray Gell-Mann Maurice Glicksman Marvin L. Goldberger Uri Haber-Schaim Roger Hildebrand Tsung Dao Lee Darragh Nagle Jay Orear Marshall N. Rosenbluth Arthur Rosenfeld Robert Schluter Jack Steinberger Valentine Telegdi Al Wattenberg Frank Wilczek Lincoln Wolfenstein Courtenay Wright Chen Ning Yang Gaurang Yodh Customer Review: Fermi Remembered-A magical time for 20th Century Physics: This book is based on a symposium held at the University of Chicago to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Enrico Fermi's birth on September 29, 2001. The editor, James Cronin, was principal organizer of the symposium. A distinguished list of speakers was assembled, and written versions of their reports are included in the book. Extensive research in the U of C archives produced many interesting documents, including letters to Fermi and by Fermi, and notes written in Fermi's hand on a wide range of topics. The results of this archival search are also included in the book. The decade immediately after World War II was a magical time for physics. The success of the Manhattan Project, Radar, and many other defence applications of physical science attracted much talent to the field. It seemed that almost everyone wanted a PhD in physics, and graduate schools like Chicago were mobbed. Fermi was the center of attention, and the students that he trained, both individually and in classes, went on to illustrious careers. This book covers many aspects of this exciting time. Space limitations in this review restrict my comments to only a few specifics. Fermi's computer program to calculate charged particle orbits in the cyclotron, written for the Los Alamos Maniac computer, is wonderful. It should be read by every programmer. The review talks by Fermi's colleagues, Richard Garwin, Murray Gell-Mann, and Marvin Goldberger, are not to be missed. The reading public interested in the history of 20th century science, in particular the period 1945-1954 when government support of peacetime research came into being, will find this book full of information not easily obtained elsewhere.
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Enrico Fermi, Physicist by Emilio Segre University of Chicago Press (1970) Hardcover Used Price: $11.70 |
Product Description:
Student, collaborator and lifelong friend of Enrico Fermi, Emilio Segrè presents a rich, well-rounded portrait of the scientist, his methods, intellectual history, and achievements. Explaining in nontechnical terms the scientific problems Fermi faced or solved, Enrico Fermi, Physicist contains illuminating material concerning Fermi's youth in Italy and the development of his scientific style. Customer Review: Andrew Ullrich Enrico Fermi review2: Overall, the book "Enrico Fermi Physicist" was very informative and interesting. The long time friend and first graduate of Fermi, Mr. Emilo Segre, stood by Fermi's side for many years. Mr. Serge also wrote the book, and was able to do so in a very all-inclusive manner. Not only does the book teach us everything that Fermi's has accomplished through his long and illustrious career as a physicist, but it also shows us a very human side of this brilliant mind. There are stories about Enrico's childhood dispersed intermittently throughout the book, so we can look at Fermi as a regular person, rather than as a series of brilliant mathematical laws and experiments. Due to the chronological design of the book, we see Enrico grow from a young and furtive mind, with an unrestrained sense of enthusiasm for math and science, into an old and wise master of physics. I think that Emilio Segre was compelled to write his book on Fermi for several reasons. By reading the book it is very clear that Segre has the utmost respect and appreciation for Fermi because when he describes the man it is in a tone of awe. He spends almost a page later on in the book talking about how impressed everyone was by Fermi, and how the man's brilliant mind warranted respect form all who could see him work. I also think that Segre felt some type of duty, almost a responsibility, to share Fermi's story with the rest of the world because he knew he was better qualified for the task than anyone, thanks to his close relationship with Fermi. By reading this book one learns of Fermi's classical experiments, which would eventually come to yield the atomic pile, and later help foster the construction of the atom bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. There is also a myriad of additional scientific details in the book, depicted in confusing and esoteric jargon. Personally, I think the book could have been more simplistic in the explanations of Fermi's work, instead of spending so much time with detailed information of little significance to the average reader. Overall, the book was engrossing, but excess scientific information gets a bit cumbersome later on in the book. Science buffs who also like a bit of history and want to learn about a scientist's life should read this story. As far as scientists go, I found Enrico Fermi to be one of the more fascinating scientists to ever live. Through reading the book, Fermi is revealed not only as a scientific and mathematical genius, but also a fun loving kid, who was almost expelled from school for a prank he pulled. Customer Review: Detailed Work on a Most Interesting Character: I found this entire work to be well written and very informative on both the more personal life of Enrico Fermi, and on his various accomplishments and work regarding radioactivity and physics. Despite being written from a more personal view, as it was authored by a friend, the book maintains its commtittment to detailing the events in his life, including what influenced him and what he in turn influenced. A fascinating tale of a Nobel Prize Winner who worked on the infamous Manhattan Project, this book lists the many discoveries Fermi came upon and what his work later led to in the discovery of producing the fission needed for reactor and atomic weapons. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in this area of physics, and those interested in the people tied to the Manhattan project. As a scientist, Enrico Fermi was an accomplished individual, and this book is able to bring to light the depth of his character and efforts in his respective field. Written from his friend's perspective, the retelling of his life is very well planned and thought out, and I commend the detail Segre put into its creation. With various interviews and detailed accounts of his life, this book is an invaluable resource for understanding more about the atomic bomb and the people who helped bring it to life. One of the most important things books serves to do is to remind American citizens how lucky they are to have gotten such great physicists and scientists to come support this country and how invaluable they are today, as they gave us a chance for the future. Customer Review: Great Story-Man on a Mission, Time Magazine Top 20 of 20th Century: I've always been fascinated with Fermi's life and knew very little about him. I'm spending too much time reading on present day problems and people complaining about their rights being violated. Time Magazine rated Fermi one of the Top 20 scientists of the 20th century, including Einstein, Salk, Wright Brothers, Hubble and others. Fermi's wife was Jewish so in the late 1930's they left Italy to come to America (real lucky for us). Imagine adding Fermi to the Nazi research and subtracting him from our research. I think we would all be talking German today if Fermi assisted the Nazi's. I am not a scientific person (like the prior reviewer has so expertly depicted)but a realist. After America declared war on Italy, Germany and Japan, Fermi was declared an enemy alien, like many Italian Americans. Fermi's travel was limited and his mail read by the government. Did Fermi leave America, did he ask the Supreme Court to rule if his rights were violated, did he go to the newspapers, no he continued his work to help defeat the Nazi's and Imperial Japan. Imagine Fermi one of the greatest of the 20th century being restricted in his travel. Today, every two bit con artist complains today their human rights are being violated if their back packs are searched. I did not understand any of the scientific writing but the man was remarkable and history has judged him one of the best. Not many people real know his story, unless you are in the scientific community. I'm not sure why, history would be a lot different if Fermi had not come to America. If you do not understand the scientific part read the War Years and Professor at Chicago. With Salk, Einstein, Hubble, Fermi changed the world. Think where we would be today without him. Think about all the great scientist in the last cenury, only 20 picked, Fermi was one of them. Customer Review: Very informative: I thought this book was great and did a great job of pacing the reader through Enrico's life, as well as superbly establishing a connection between the reader and Enrico. Emilio Serge did a great job of making it feel like you actually knew Enrico Fermi in real life which made the book that much more engaging and enjoyable. To be honest I found the beginning of the book the most interesting, more specifically Enrico's childhood experiences, influences and how he became interested in physics altogether. After checking multiple online sources, I found the book itself to be one of the most comprehensive sources for information on Fermi, as it includes the entire scope of his accomplishments, dreams, failures and life changing experiences. Written in a very simple yet elegant manner, Serge writes with an embedded loving friendship that still exists despite Enrico's untimely death at the young age of 53. Every page is filled with a seemingly endless number of intriguing facts about Enrico's life, whether it be his troubles and resistances along the way to success or the outcome that occurred after his development of the atomic bomb. Recommended. Customer Review: From one physisict to another: This is an interesting biography for it is written by a friend with same interests and loyalty to each other. No jealosy, no envie but appreciation and loyalty how nice. This is the story of Fermi mostly about his intellectual and social life and not about his private life and that part is in fact covered very nicely by his wife in her beautiful book. Segre without any short cuts describe Fermi, his behaior, his mastery in physics with all important documents reproduced and day by day their successes and few dissappointments. There are certain scientific explanations about the experiments they conducted days in and days out and if you are not into Atomic physics those explanations are just words but even if you do not know what they are doing you still get the pleasure of visualising masters in action. descriptions are very vivid. Hard work is necessary but knowing what you are doing is more important and this book along with the biographies of other master Physisist shows the same. Prof Serge is exteremely good in writing biography, you do not get bored while reading the book. All the surroundings, social and political world conditions are clearly described, showing the conditions these people had to go through and yet was exteremely productive.
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Eine kleine Nachtphysik: Geschichten aus der Physik (German Edition) by Wolfgang Rößler Birkhäuser Basel (2008) Hardcover Our Price: $29.95 Used Price: $24.56 |
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Biography - Fermi, Enrico (1901-1954): An article from: Contemporary Authors by Gale Reference Team Thomson Gale (2003) Digital Our Price: $9.95 |
 Product Description: This digital document, covering the life and work of Enrico Fermi, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2820 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:
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