Nuclear Weapons

What You Need to Know
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-521-12637-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 316 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 515 g

This book is a history of nuclear weapons. From their initial theoretical development at the start of the twentieth century to the recent tests in North Korea, Jeremy Bernstein seeks to describe the basic science of nuclear weaponry at each point in the narrative. At the same time, he offers accounts and anecdotes of the personalities involved, many of whom he has known firsthand. Dr Bernstein writes in response to what he sees as a widespread misunderstanding throughout the media and hence among the general public of the basic workings and potential impact of nuclear weaponry. For example, he points out that it has been nearly thirty years since anyone has even seen a nuclear detonation. Likewise, the Nagasaki bomb, primitive when compared to more modern devices, generated an explosion roughly the equivalent of eight thousand copies of the truck bomb used by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bernstein, Jeremy

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Friedens- und Konfliktforschung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Nationale und Internationale Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Konflikt- und Friedensforschung, Rüstungskontrolle, Abrüstung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Ausrüstung & Waffen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. The nucleus; 2. Neutrons; 3. Fissions; 4. Chain reactions; 5. MAUD; 6. Eka-Osmium; 7. Serber's primer; 8. The 'gadget'; 9. Smoky and the need to know; 10. Fusion; 11. Spies; 12. Proliferation.

Über Autor(innen)

Bernstein, Jeremy
Jeremy Bernstein is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was a staff writer for the New Yorker from 1961 to 1995. He has written some fifty technical papers, three monographs, and twelve books, including Albert Einstein, which was nominated for a National Book Award; Hitler's Uranium Club; a biography of Robert Oppenheimer entitled Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma; and most recently Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element.