Lynn R. Sykes (Author)
Columbia University Press
Physical Details: 304 pages
Language: English
In December 2016, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved their iconic “Doomsday Clock” thirty seconds forward to two and a half minutes to midnight, the latest it has been set since 1952, the year of the first United States hydrogen bomb test. But a group of scientists―geologists, engineers, and physicists―has been fighting to turn back the clock. Since the dawn of the Cold War, they have advocated a halt to nuclear testing, their work culminating in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which still awaits ratification from China, Iran, North Korea―and the United States. The backbone of the treaty is every nation’s ability to independently monitor the nuclear activity of the others. The noted seismologist Lynn R. Sykes, one of the central figures in the development of the science and technology used in monitoring, has dedicated his career to halting nuclear testing. In Silencing the Bomb, he tells the inside story behind scientists’ quest for disarmament.Called upon time and again to testify before Congress and to inform the public, Sykes and his colleagues were, for much of the Cold War, among the only people on earth able to say with certainty when and where a bomb was tested and how large it was. Methods of measuring earthquakes, researchers realized, could also detect underground nuclear explosions. When politicians on both sides of the Iron Curtain attempted to sidestep disarmament or test ban treaties, Sykes was able to deploy the nascent science of plate tectonics to reveal the truth. Seismologists’ discoveries helped bring about treaties limiting nuclear testing, but it was their activism that played a key role in the effort for peace. Full of intrigue, international politics, and hard science used for the global good, Silencing the Bomb is a timely and necessary chronicle of one scientist’s efforts to keep the clock from striking midnight.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Hecht, David K.;
(2010)
A Nuclear Narrative: Robert Oppenheimer, Autobiography, and Public Authority
Book
Teller, Edward;
Shoolery, Judith;
(2001)
Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics
Book
Panofsky, Wolfgang K. H.;
Deken, Jean Marie;
(2007)
Panofsky on Physics, Politics, and Peace: Pief Remembers
Book
McMillan, Priscilla J.;
(2005)
The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Arms Race
Book
Kohlhoff, Dean W.;
(2002)
Amchitka and the Bomb: Nuclear Testing in Alaska
Book
Elisabetta Bini;
Elisabetta Vezzosi;
(2020)
Scienziati e guerra fredda: Tra collaborazione e diritti umani
Book
Laura Ciglioni;
(2020)
Culture atomiche. Gli Stati Uniti, la Francia e l'Italia di fronte alla questione nucleare (1962-68)
Article
Malloy, Sean L.;
(2012)
“A Very Pleasant Way to Die”: Radiation Effects and the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb against Japan
Book
Herken, Gregg;
(2000)
Cardinal Choices: Presidential Science Advising from the Atomic Bomb to SDI
Book
Baggott, Jim;
(2010)
The First War of Physics: The Secret History of the Atom Bomb, 1939--1949
Book
Goodman, Michael S.;
(2007)
Spying on the Nuclear Bear: Anglo-American Intelligence and the Soviet Bomb
Article
Joye-Cagnard, Frédéric;
Strasser, Bruno J.;
(2009)
Energie atomique, guerre froide et neutralité: La Suisse et le plan “Atomes pour la Paix”, 1945--1957
Book
Hargittai, Istvan;
(2010)
Judging Edward Teller
Thesis
Wellerstein, Alex;
(2010)
Knowledge and the Bomb: Nuclear Secrecy in the United States, 1939--2008
Thesis
Higuchi, Toshihiro;
(2011)
Radioactive Fallout, the Politics of Risk, and the Making of a Global Environmental Crisis, 1954--1963
Book
Balazs Hargittai;
István Hargittai;
(2015)
Wisdom of the Martians of Science: In Their Own Words with Commentaries
Book
Toshihiro Higuchi;
(2020)
Political Fallout: Nuclear Weapons Testing and the Making of a Global Environmental Crisis
Book
Rodney P. Carlisle;
Joan M. Zenzen;
(1996)
Supplying the Nuclear Arsenal: American Production-reactors, 1942-1992
Article
Shun'ya, Yoshimi;
(2012)
Radioactive Rain and the American Umbrella
Essay Review
Olwell, Russell;
(2010)
Two Views of Cassandra: Lawrence Badash, A Nuclear Winter's Tale; John Mueller, Atomic Obsession
Be the first to comment!