PULITZER PRIZE WINNER The definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OPPENHEIMER J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s. They declared that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America’s nuclear secrets.In this magisterial biography twenty-five years in the making, which won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for biography, the authors capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. Read more

One of AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks of 2019!The definitive, dramatic untold story of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, based on original reporting and new archival research.April 25, 1986 in Chernobyl was a turning point in world history. The disaster not only changed the world’s perception of nuclear power and the science that spawned it, but also our understanding of the planet’s delicate ecology. With the images of the abandoned homes and playgrounds beyond the barbed wire of the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone, the rusting graveyards of contaminated trucks and helicopters, the farmland lashed with black rain, the event fixed for all time the notion of radiation as an invisible killer.Chernobyl was also a key event in the destruction of the Soviet Union, and, with it, the United States’ victory in the Cold War. For Moscow, it was a political and financial catastrophe as much as an environmental and scientific one. With a total cost of 18 billion rubles - at the time equivalent to $18 billion - Chernobyl bankrupted an already teetering economy and revealed to its population a state built upon a pillar of lies.The full story of the events that started that night in the control room of reactor number four of the V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant has never been told - until now. Through two decades of reporting, new archival information, and firsthand interviews with witnesses, journalist Adam Higginbotham tells the full dramatic story, including Alexander Akimov and Anatoli Dyatlov, who represented the best and worst of Soviet life; denizens of a vanished world of secret policemen, internal passports, food lines, and heroic self-sacrifice for the motherland. Midnight in Chernobyl, award-worthy nonfiction that reads like sci-fi, shows not only the final epic struggle of a dying empire, but also the story of individual heroism and desperate, ingenious technical improvisation joining forces against a new kind of enemy. Read more

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE ACADEMY AWARD®-WINNING MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OPPENHEIMER • "A riveting account of one of history’s most essential and paradoxical figures.”—Christopher Nolan#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • The definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.“A masterful account of Oppenheimer’s rise and fall, set in the context of the turbulent decades of America’s own transformation. It is a tour de force.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review“A work of voluminous scholarship and lucid insight, unifying its multifaceted portrait with a keen grasp of Oppenheimer’s essential nature.... It succeeds in deeply fathoming his most damaging, self-contradictory behavior.” —The New York Times Read more

Master the basics of quantum physics without feeling overwhelmed by complex math!⭐ Over 20,000 copies sold ⭐🏆 BookAuthority's best Wave Mechanics books for beginners 🏆🏆 BookAuthority's best Quantum Mechanics books for beginners 🏆2025 Bonuses included:🎁 Bonus 1 - Quantum Tunnelling: Discover everything you need to know about quantum tunneling, including how particles can pass through barriers, in this brand-new chapter.🎁 Bonus 2 - Physics and Superheroes: In this fully illustrated digital article, Carl J. Pratt explores the superpowers of some of the most famous heroes from the Marvel and DC universes using the laws of classical and quantum physic🎁 Bonus 3 - The Science Behind Galactic Sagas: Join Carl J. Pratt in this digital article as he delves into the physics and quantum physics behind epic galactic sagas. Discover the real-world science that parallels these interstellar adventures.🎁 Bonus 4 - Quantum Horizons Preview: Get a digital sneak peek into Carl J. Pratt's latest book, Quantum Horizons. Explore cosmic mysteries through the lens of quantum physics, traveling through parallel universes, black holes, white holes, antimatter, and more. No complex math, just the marvels of the universe made accessible.Have you always been curious about quantum physics and its mysteries but don’t know where to begin?You have found the right place, your journey to learn quantum physics starts now!Carl J. Pratt, presents the most exhaustive and clear introduction to the topic. “Quantum Physics for Beginners” peels away layers of mystery to reveal what is behind most modern technological innovations.In this book you will find:⚛ What quantum physics is: History, experiments, and achievements in quantum mechanics⚛ Quantum Physics VS Classical Physics⚛ What Light is: Wave theory, electromagnetic theory, and Wave-particle duality dilemma.⚛ Einstein’s theory that changed Physics: The Photoelectric effect explained⚛ Quantum theories: including String Theory, Quantum Gravity, Quantum entanglement, and Quantum Fields Theory⚛ Schrodinger’s equation: is the 🐈 dead or alive?⚛ The Heisenberg uncertainty principle⚛ Three real-world applications: Quantum computing, Quantum key distribution, and ultra-precise clocks⚛ BONUS 1: Physics and Superheroes to download⚛ BONUS 2: New quantum tunneling chapter⚛ AND MORE...Even if this is the first time you hear these terms, don't be discouraged by these big words. This book is written specifically for people approaching this topic for the first time.Professor Pratt will take you by the hand on a two-century journey to discover the principles that govern the universe.Quantum physics can be easy, accessible, and interesting for everyone.Are you ready? Let’s deep dive into quantum physics today!Click BUY NOW and start your journey! Read more

"[Greene] develops one fresh new insight after another...In the great tradition of physicists writing for the masses, The Elegant Universe sets a standard that will be hard to beat." --George Johnson, The New York Times Book ReviewIn a rare blend of scientific insight and writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of 11 dimensions where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter-from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas-is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy.Green uses everything from an amusement park ride to ants on a garden hose to illustrate the beautiful yet bizarre realities that modern physics is unveiling.Dazzling in its brilliance, unprecedented in its ability to both illuminate and entertain, The Elegant Universe is a tour de force of science writing-a delightful, lucid voyage through modern physics that brings us closer than ever to understanding how the universe works. Read more

Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years. What began as merely an interesting speculative problem in physics grew into the Manhattan Project and then into the bomb with frightening rapidity, while scientists known only to their peers - Szilard, Teller, Oppenheimer, Bohr, Meitner, Fermi, Lawrence, and yon Neumann - stepped from their ivory towers into the limelight. Richard Rhodes takes us on that journey step by step, minute by minute, and gives us the definitive story of man's most awesome discovery and invention. The Making of the Atomic Bomb has been compared in its sweep and importance to William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It is at once a narrative tour de force and a document as powerful as its subject. Read more

A New York Times Best Book of the Year A Time Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Winner One of NPR’s Best Books of 2019 Journalist Adam Higginbotham’s definitive, years-in-the-making account of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster—and a powerful investigation into how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the twentieth century’s greatest disasters.Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering history’s worst nuclear disaster. In the thirty years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers its citizens and the entire world. But the real story of the accident, clouded from the beginning by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a masterful nonfiction thriller, and the definitive account of an event that changed history: a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. Midnight in Chernobyl is an indelible portrait of one of the great disasters of the twentieth century, of human resilience and ingenuity, and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will—lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats, remain not just vital but necessary. Read more

Would you like to know how the universe works? Scientists have been asking that question for a long time and have found that many of the answers can be found in the study of particle physics, the field that focuses on those impossibly tiny particles with unbelievably strange names - the hadrons and leptons, baryons and mesons, muons and gluons - so mystifying to the rest of us. And now, in a fascinating and accessible series of 24 lectures, you can take the mystery out of the remarkable field that in only 100 years has unlocked the secrets of the basic forces of nature. Professor Pollock will make you familiar with the fundamental particles that make up all matter, from the tiniest microbe to the sun and stars. And you'll also learn the "rules of the game" - the forces that drive those particles and the ways in which they interact - that underlie the workings of the universe. The lectures have been designed to be enriching for everyone, regardless of scientific background or mathematical ability. Virtually all you'll need as you enter this fascinating world are your curiosity, common sense, and, as Professor Pollock notes, "an open mind for the occasional quantum weirdness." As you move through the lectures, you'll also gain a knowledge of how those particles fit into perhaps the greatest scientific theory of all time: the Standard Model of particle physics; a grasp of key terms like "gauge symmetry," "quantum chromodynamics," and "unified quantum field Theory;" and an appreciation of how particle physics fits in with other branches of physics - including cosmology and quantum mechanics - to create our overall understanding of nature. Read more

An Invisible Danger on the RiseYou eat organic and non-GMO food. You only drink purified water. You take care of yourself and your family's health. But could there be a silent, invisible danger causing potential harm to you and your loved ones? There could. And it's called electromagnetic frequency (EMF) radiation and it's one of fastest growing health issues facing our society. EMF radiation produced by modern technology such as 5G, cell phones, tablets, laptops, Wi-Fi, and smart meters is an emerging health threat, and we are all guinea pigs in a giant experiment with many unknown consequences.But Aren't These Technologies Regulated and Safe?Surely the government and other regulatory agencies make sure these technologies are completely safe before they are approved for wide-spread use, right? Think again. Ninety-five percent of American adults use cell phones regularly. Most households have Wi-Fi. And even schools are increasingly becoming dependent on wireless devices. And yet none of these technologies have been proven safe to humans for long-term exposure.In fact, science confirms that the EMF emitted from common electronic devices can cause definite biological changes in the body, and mounting research has already shown it can lead to a long list of health concerns – some of which can be pretty serious.The explosive use of mobile devices only occurred over the last twenty years, yet we have only scratched the surface of what technology is yet to come. Children born today will be exposed to much higher doses of EMF radiation than those born just ten years ago. What are the ramifications and what can we do now to minimize the fallout?Is There a Solution?Fortunately, there are simple and effective steps you can take to minimize the risks of dirty electricity. Education is key. With a foreword by Bulletproof's Dave Asprey, Radiation Nation is info-packed with all the essential education you need to make smart choices to stay safe when it comes to technology.In Radiation Nation, you will learn:» The most practical precautions to protect yourself and your loved ones from EMF radiation» What EMF radiation is and how it affects the body biologically» The major health risks including fertility issues for both men and women, DNA damage, cell mutation, cancer and other serious health risks» The EMF sources of greatest concern» What is 5G and what are the possible health risks» The latest scientific studies broken down by disease or condition» How EMF radiation specifically affects children and those suffering with electromagnetic hypersensitivity» Why the current safety standards for EMF are insufficient and need to be rewritten» Do stickers, diodes, harmonizers and other products marketing as protection have any grounding in science? Read more

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE ACADEMY AWARD®-WINNING MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OPPENHEIMER • "A riveting account of one of history’s most essential and paradoxical figures.”—Christopher Nolan#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • The definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.“A masterful account of Oppenheimer’s rise and fall, set in the context of the turbulent decades of America’s own transformation. It is a tour de force.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review“A work of voluminous scholarship and lucid insight, unifying its multifaceted portrait with a keen grasp of Oppenheimer’s essential nature.... It succeeds in deeply fathoming his most damaging, self-contradictory behavior.” —The New York Times Read more

The inside story of how nuclear energy—long considered scary, controversial, and even apocalyptic—has become the hot topic of the climate debate, and perhaps a vital power source of the futureOn June 21, 2016, Pacific Gas & Electric Company announced a plan to shutter California’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, in 2025. The plan was hailed by environmental groups and politicians around the country. Then, suddenly, the state’s Democratic establishment reversed the decision, and in 2024 the Biden-Harris administration awarded the plant $1.1 billion in credits to extend its life. What happened in between?In Atomic Dreams, journalist and lifelong environmentalist Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow unearths the surprising answers—and the deep-seated conflicts behind them. She follows the fascinating and lively cast of characters who are immersed in the fight over Diablo Canyon and nuclear energy, among them a world-renowned climate scientist, a fashion model turned “nuclear influencer,” and two radically opposed groups of mothers, both fiercely advocating for the kind of planet they want their children to inherit. And she chronicles how nuclear power has morphed from the stuff of cinematic nightmares—associated with world-ending weapons and terrifying meltdowns—to a rare issue with strong bipartisan support.Tuhus-Dubrow takes listeners to nuclear plants and research facilities, to the halls of Congress and into the streets with activists as she explores the big questions wrapped up in the nuclear debate: questions about risk and responsibility, about nature and technology, about whether humans should be humble caretakers of the Earth or audacious innovators. She explores how these issues affect real people’s lives, and personally grapples with the viability of this controversial energy source. Can the power of the atom be freed from its historical baggage and reinvented? Could something that once threatened to doom us now hold the potential to save us? Read more

One of Booklist’s Top 10 Science Books of the Year: “A superb biography . . . A definite study of Fermi’s life and work.” —The Wall Street JournalA Bloomberg Best Book of the YearA Finalist for Physics World’s Book of the YearA New York Times Book Review Editor’s ChoiceNobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi is unquestionably among the world’s greatest 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. The last physicist who mastered all branches of the discipline, Fermi was a rare mixture of theorist and experimentalist. His rich legacy encompasses key advances in fields as diverse as cosmic rays, nuclear technology, and early computers.The Pope of Physics by Gino Segré and Bettina Hoerlin is “an engaging portrait of a man with boundless curiosity who delighted in his work” and an “entertaining and accessible biography of a scientist who deserves to be better understood” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).“Intimate, often charming stories of the famed physicist’s personal life . . . a book that’s both intelligent and extremely engaging.” —The Washington Post Read more

How everything is made of only one particle—defined as one unit of Planck's Constant. Trillions of times smaller than a proton, these new tinier particles form subatomic particles—like protons, quarks, and electrons—as ring vortexes. These vortexes are vaguely similar to smoke rings, except that they are four-dimensional, have a variety of shapes, and spin at the speed of light.Presented in an accessible way, for the scientifically curious general reader, this book offers a complete set of theories covering matter and energy, and explores how they relate to spacetime, gravity and electromagnetism. It also provides suggestions for experiments and computer simulations that could confirm or invalidate these ideas. Read more

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Have you ever wondered how a nuclear power station works? This lively book will answer that question. It’ll take you on a journey from the science behind nuclear reactors, through their start-up, operation and shutdown. Along the way it covers a bit of the engineering, reactor history, different kinds of reactors and what can go wrong with them. Much of this is seen from the viewpoint of a trainee operator on a Pressurised Water Reactor - the most common type of nuclear reactor in the world. Colin Tucker has spent the last thirty years keeping reactors safe. Join him on a tour that is the next best thing to driving a nuclear reactor yourself! Read more

Here at last is a coherent, unintimidating introduction to the challenging and fascinating landscape of Western philosophy. Written expressly for "anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how toapproach them," Think provides a sound framework for exploring the most basic themes of philosophy, and for understanding how major philosophers have tackled the questions that have pressed themselves most forcefully on human consciousness.Simon Blackburn, author of the best selling Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, begins by making a convincing case for the relevance of philosophy and goes on to give the reader a sense of how the great historical figures such as Plato, Hume, Kant, Descartes, and others have approached its central themes. In a lively and accessible style, Blackburnapproaches the nature of human reflection and how we think, or can think, about knowledge, fate, ethics, identity, God, reason, and truth. Each chapter explains a major issue, and gives the reader a self contained guide through the problems that the philosophers have studied. Because the text approaches these issues from the gound up, the untrained reader will emerge from its pages able to explore other philosophies with greater pleasure and understanding and be able to think philosophically for him or herself.Philosophy is often dismissed as a purely academic discipline with no relation to the "real" world non philosophers are compelled to inhabit. Think dispels this myth and offers a springboard for all those who want to learn how the basic techniques of thinking shape our virtually every aspect of our existence. Read more

Quantum Theory is the most revolutionary discovery in physics since Newton. This book gives a lucid, exciting, and accessible account of the surprising and counterintuitive ideas that shape our understanding of the sub-atomic world. It does not disguise the problems of interpretation that still remain unsettled 75 years after the initial discoveries. The main text makes no use of equations, but there is a Mathematical Appendix for those desiring stronger fare. Uncertainty, probabilistic physics, complementarity, the problematic character of measurement, and decoherence are among the many topics discussed. This volume offers the reader access to one of the greatest discoveries in the history of physics and one of the outstanding intellectual achievements of the twentieth century.About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam. Read more

“An intimate and deeply human memoir that shows why we should all be concerned about nuclear safety, and the dangers of ignoring science in the name of national security.”—Rebecca Skloot, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks A shocking account of the government’s attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic waste released by a secret nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and a community’s vain search for justice—soon to be a feature documentaryKristen 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. It's also a book about the destructive power of secrets--both family and government. Her father's hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what was made at Rocky Flats--best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions and discovered some disturbing realities.Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class-action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book is both captivating and unnerving. Read more

Feynman’s bestselling introduction to the mind-blowing physics of QED—presented with humor, not mathematicsCelebrated for his brilliantly quirky insights into the physical world, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman also possessed an extraordinary talent for explaining difficult concepts to the public. In this extraordinary book, Feynman provides a lively and accessible introduction to QED, or quantum electrodynamics, an area of quantum field theory that describes the interactions of light with charged particles. Using everyday language, spatial concepts, visualizations, and his renowned Feynman diagrams instead of advanced mathematics, Feynman clearly and humorously communicates the substance and spirit of QED to the nonscientist.With an incisive introduction by A. Zee that places Feynman’s contribution to QED in historical context and highlights Feynman’s uniquely appealing and illuminating style, this Princeton Science Library edition of QED makes Feynman’s legendary talks on quantum electrodynamics available to a new generation of readers. Read more

Now in paperback: The epic story of how, amid two World Wars, history’s greatest physicists redefined reality—and ignited the atomic age“A new, exciting approach to the literature about this momentous era.”—The Wall Street JournalThere may never be another era of science like the first half of the twentieth century, when a peerless cast of physicists—Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Max Planck, Wolfgang Pauli, and others—came together to uncover the quantum world, a concept so outrageous and contrary to traditional physics that its own founders rebelled against it until the equations held up and fundamentally changed our understanding of reality.In page-turning chapters, Tobias Hürter takes us back to this momentous time in science history, when the creation of quantum theory demanded the combined efforts of friends and rivals, lovers and loners, straight-edged intellectuals and freethinking dreamers—and when, with the Nazis in pursuit of an atomic bomb, the stakes couldn’t be higher. In this stirring, grand narrative, brought to life by letters, notes, research papers, diaries, and memoirs, we witness the birth of an idea that revolutionized both physics and our world at large and unleashed the profound and terrifying power of the atom—and that ultimately stands as a testament to the boundless potential of genius in collaboration. Read more