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The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Rhodes is often mentioned as a great science book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16884.The_Making_of_the_Atomic_Bomb htt

• JKCalhoun 7y ago
  I remember the section describing the sudden realization Leo Szilard had that kicked off the idea of atomic fission. I had never heard that story. And was it Rhodes book where he described the physicists curiously disappearing from the universities in the early 40's? And when the offer finally came to another physicist to relocate, upon checking out books on New Mexico, would discover that all the scientists that had already disappeared had recently checked out the sam books as well. Edit: Wow, found the Wikipedia article on Szilard. Man that guy was amazing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard#Developing_the_idea_of_the_nuclear_chain_reaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard#Developing_the_ide...