Book ID: CBB001422212

Nuclear Dawn: F.E. Simon and the Race for Atomic Weapons in World War II (2014)

unapi

McRae, Kenneth D (Author)


Oxford University Press


Publication Date: 2014
Physical Details: xxviii + 284 pp.; ill.
Language: English

This book provides a rounded biography of Franz (later Sir Francis) Simon, his early life in Germany, his move to Oxford in 1933, and his experimental contributions to low temperature physics approximating absolute zero. After 1939 he switched his research to nuclear physics, and is credited with solving the problem of uranium isotope separation by gaseous diffusion for the British nuclear programme Tube Alloys. The volume is distinctive for its inclusion of source materials not available to previous researchers, such as Simon's diary and his correspondence with his wife, and for a fresh, well-informed insider voice on the five-power nuclear rivalry of the war years. The work also draws on a relatively mature nuclear literature to attempt a comparison and evaluation of the five nuclear rivals in wider political and military context, and to identify the factors, or groups of factors, that can explain the results.

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Reviewed By

Review Robert W. Seidel (2016) Review of "Nuclear Dawn: F.E. Simon and the Race for Atomic Weapons in World War II". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 195-196). unapi

Review Laucht, Christoph (2015) Review of "Nuclear Dawn: F.E. Simon and the Race for Atomic Weapons in World War II". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 532-533). unapi

Review Slaughter, Aimee (2014) Review of "Nuclear Dawn: F.E. Simon and the Race for Atomic Weapons in World War II". Physics in Perspective (pp. 411-413). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001422212/

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Authors & Contributors
Cioci, Vincenzo
Edward P.F. Rose
Bini, Elisabetta
Vezzosi, Elisabetta
Subramanian, Samanth
Yamazaki, Masakatsu
Concepts
Science and war; science and the military
World War II
Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons
Science and politics
Physics
Atomic, nuclear, and particle physics
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
21st century
19th century
Places
Germany
Great Britain
United States
Japan
Soviet Union
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)
Institutions
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Hanford Nuclear Site (Washington)
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik, Berlin
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie
Harvard University
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