Nuclear Science

Tens of millions died during World War II as the warring powers raced to create the best fighter planes, tanks, and guns, and eventually that race extended to bombs which carried enough power to destroy civilization itself. While the war raged in Europe and the Pacific, a dream team was working on the Manhattan Project in America, a program kept so secret that Vice President Harry Truman didn’t know about it until he took the presidency after FDR’s death in April 1945. During this time, J. Robert Oppenheimer emerged as an extraordinary scientific mind in the United States.

Did you know that tiny atoms that make up all matter hold huge amounts of energy? This energy, called nuclear energy, can power the television and refrigerator in your home. How is nuclear energy produced, though? And what are the drawbacks of this energy source? Listen to this audiobook to find out all about nuclear energy.

In this 1972 treatise, Isaac Asimov takes the listener on an historic journey through the development of man's understanding of electricity, chemistry, and - ultimately - nuclear energy. Asimov's incomparable ability to simplify the complex is apparent as he guides you through the milestones of scientific thought that connected ideas about electricity and magnetism to the nature of matter, and led to the advances in discovery through the first half of the 20th century that resulted in the harnessing of previously unknown energy directly from the heart of the atom.

Climate Gamble: Is Anti-Nuclear Activism Endangering Our Future? is a thought-provoking, short, and easy book on one of the biggest problems of our time, climate change, and one of its most misunderstood and misrepresented solutions, nuclear power. This audiobook is based on the updated and revised 2017 edition. It is a production of Generation Atomic.

Perhaps the first environmental engineer at Hanford, Melvin R. Adams spent 24 years on its 586 square miles of desert terrain. His thoughtful vignettes recall challenges and sites he worked on or found personally intriguing - like the 216-U-pond, contaminated with plutonium longer than any other place in the world.

In the summer of 2012, in the dead of night, three peace activists penetrated the exterior of Y-12 in Tennessee, supposedly one of the most secure nuclear-weapons facilities in the United States. A drifter, an 82-year-old nun, and a house painter. And if they had been terrorists armed with explosives, intent on mass destruction? That nightmare scenario underlies the government’s response to the intrusion.

A timely reflection in the midst of an increasingly nuclear age, this book offers a sobering look at the implications of scientific advancement and our shared future. It is an essential listen for anyone interested in the complexities of history, science, or the delicate dance between human achievement and moral introspection.

In 2014 it is possible that Israel, backed by the United States, will launch an attack on Iran. This would be a catastrophic event, risking war, bloodshed, and global economic collapse. In this passionate, but rationally argued essay, the author's attempt to avert a potential global catastrophe by showing that the grounds for war do not exist, that there are no Iranian nuclear weapons, and that Iran would happily come to a table and strike a deal.