Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age

About the Book

The thrilling and terrifying seventy-year story--"kinetic, dramatic, and compulsively readable" (Patchen Barss)--of the physicists that deciphered the atom and created the hydrogen bomb

A Guardian Best Book of the Year

Although Henri Becquerel didn't know it at the time, he changed history in 1896 when he left photographic plates and some uranium rocks in a drawer. The rocks emitted something that exposed the plates: it was the first documented evidence of spontaneous radioactivity. So began one of the most exciting and consequential efforts humans have ever undertaken.

As Frank Close recounts in Destroyer of Worlds, scientists confronting Becquerel's discovery had three questions: What was this phenomenon? Could it be a source of unlimited power? And (alas), could it be a weapon? Answering them was an epic journey of discovery, with Ernest Rutherford, Enrico Fermi, Irene Joliot-Curie, and many others jockeying to decipher the dance of particles in a decaying atom. And it was a terrifying journey as well, as Edward Teller and others pressed on from creating atom bombs to hydrogen bombs so powerful that they could destroy all life on earth.

The deep history of the nuclear age has never before been recounted so vividly. Centered on an extraordinary cast of characters, Destroyer of Worlds charts the course of nuclear physics from simple curiosity to potential Armageddon.

About the Author :
Frank Close, OBE, FRS, is a particle physicist and an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Oxford. He is the author of over two dozen books, including Elusive, Half-Life, and The Infinity Puzzle. He lives near Oxford, UK.

Review :
"Physicist Frank Close ventures beyond the Manhattan project to tell the gripping story of the nuclear age."--Guardian "A deeply researched and finely told history of the revolution with which we have yet to make peace." --Kirkus "Destroyer of Worlds is a cogent, detailed account of one of history's brightest and darkest chapters, in which amazing scientific insights into atoms and their nuclei coincided with fascism and world-wide conflict. Frank Close shows us how the initial dreams of beneficial atomic energy were transmuted, with frightening speed, into nightmares. Amidst our current enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and other game-changing technologies, this book offers us all a stern warning."
--Matt Strassler, author of Waves in an Impossible Sea "If you enjoyed the movie Oppenheimer, you will be thrilled by Destroyer of Worlds. With a knack for explaining the history of nuclear energy in simple terms, Close takes us to the 'rooms where it happened, ' revealing the struggles, mistakes, and triumphs that led from the discovery of radioactivity to up to the nuclear age."--Robert Cahn, co-author of Grace in All Simplicity "Once again, Close explains sophisticated science in a way that anyone can understand and tells a gripping story in the process: how a smudge in a photographic plate in March 1896 led, almost inexorably, to the development of the most terrifying weapons of war ever created. Along the way, we are introduced to the fascinating characters who propelled this drama, people like Roentgen and Becquerel, Rutherford and the Curies, Bohr and Einstein, Fermi and Szilard, Teller and Oppenheimer, and a host of other geniuses whose scientific curiosity led mankind down a dark path indeed. For those interested in how the quest to understand radioactivity and the atomic nucleus led to the development of the hydrogen bomb, this book is a great place to start."
--David Schwartz, author of The Last Man Who Knew Everything "With his signature scholarship and élan, Close recreates how radioactivity evolved from laboratory curio that inspired whispers of transmutation through an age of innocence about an inexhaustible energy source to the specter of limitless destruction. He deftly portrays how gifted but fallible physicists and chemists worked to complete a dossier of the phenomenon and its implications for our understanding of nature and for the course of human affairs."--Chris Quigg, co-author of Grace in All Simplicity "Kinetic, dramatic, and compulsively readable, Destroyer of Worlds follows dozens of astounding scientific discoveries that led to the development of nuclear weapons. In powerful, plain language, Close connects humanity's unstoppable scientific curiosity to our species' strange willingness to visit existential threats upon ourselves."--Patchen Barss, author of The Impossible Man "In Destroyer of Worlds, accomplished author Frank Close has written a genuine page-turner. Whisking readers from the fledgling days of radiation physics, in which X-rays and other phenomena defied scientific expectation, to the frightening era of the nuclear arms race, Close offers an epic work of true drama. Delightful anecdotes about the brilliant scientists involved in solving the atomic puzzle make this book a must. In Close's adept hands, the history of the atomic bomb comes alive."--Paul Halpern, author of The Allure of the Multiverse