Uranium Wars

Starred review from August 31, 2009
Author and Boston University research fellow Aczel (Fermat's Last Theorem) shares a scientist's history of nuclear chemistry in the 20th century, and its eventual application in the form of the atomic bomb. In the first half, Aczel covers figures of early modern science like the Curies in Paris, the Meitner-Hahn group in Berlin, and Italian physicists before they were driven out by the Fascists. (One of WWII's greatest ironies is that the science Nazis dubbed "Jewish physics" gave the Allies their conquering weapon.) Newly released documents and post-war memoirs also help Azcel chronicle German scientists, like Werner Heisenberg, who participated in the Nazi bomb project. Aczel is at his most intriguing analyzing Truman's decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima; further declassified U.S. documents reveal that the U.S. knew Japanese ambassadors were making peace offers in Moscow before the bombing, and that the destruction of Hiroshima was also meant to send a message to the Soviets. Using a wealth of new source material, Azcel covers the triumphs and mistakes that come from powerful, cutting-edge science, while sounding a cautionary alarm regarding ongoing global conflicts with terrorists and nations.

July 15, 2009
No story in the modern history of science has been told more times from a greater number of perspectives than that of the discoveries in 20th-century atomic physics that led to the creation of the bomb. While the drama is perhaps endlessly compelling and contains new lessons for each generation, the main story is thoroughly known. Aczel is a skilled science writer whose most popular prior works (e.g., "The Jesuit and the Skull") have seized upon previously obscure scientific tales. Here, he writes a lucid account of the major researchers, their contributions, and the sociopolitical forces that influenced them, with a few speculative "what if" digressions and brief references to today's nuclear issues that give general readers something to ponder. VERDICT While satisfying a novice curiosity in an engaging way, this is an optional purchase, where need or demand warrants. Most libraries probably already have other histories that serve the same needs, such as Diana Preston's "Before the Fallout" or Gerard J. DeGroot's "The Bomb: A Life", and others might want to consider, instead, Tom Zoellner's "Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World".Gregg Sapp, Evergreen State Lib., Olympia, WA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2009
Tracking the scientific discoveries that culminated in the first atomic bombs, Aczel acquaints general-interest readers with the dawn of understanding that uranium could be induced to undergo a nuclear chain reaction. He constructs this realization within the physics experiments that culminated in the 1938 interpretation by Lise Meitner that her former colleague, Otto Hahn, had split uranium. To illuminate the detective work of peering into the scientific unknown, Aczel describes the laboratory processes used to deduce that understanding, and dramatizes his narrative by emphasizing the lives, such as Meitners career in a male-dominated field and her escape from the Nazis, of the principal physicists as a reminder that the creation of nuclear weapons was as much a human as a technological drama. Reinforced by Aczels intent review of the historical controversy surrounding the 1941 meeting between physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, and of the decision (which Aczel criticizes) to use the new doomsday weapon on Japan, this synthesis of early atomic history strengthens Aczels reputation for writing accessible, well-received popular works on physics and mathematics.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)