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I would start with Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb (http://www.amazon.com/The-Making-Atomic-Bomb-Anniversary/dp/1451677618 http://www.amazon.com/The-Makin

by hga 11y ago

I would start with Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb (http://www.amazon.com/The-Making-Atomic-Bomb-Anniversary/dp/1451677618 http://www.amazon.com/The-Making-Atomic-Bomb-Anniversary/dp/...). It has something for everyone, although many want to e.g. skip the initial 300 or so pages on the relevant developments in nuclear physics. And the author will sometimes go on excessively long digressions, like all about Swedish village where Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Hahn did their Christmas vacation when she was the first to get the news from her colleague back in (Nazi) Germany that uranium fissioned. More later, or email me (check my HN profile).

noir_lord 11y ago
Thanks for the response, I'll check that out :).
- hga 11y ago
  You're very welcome. Next book for the management of the project, although there's a lot more, e.g. Groves was responsible for US intelligence actions WRT to Germany and Japan's nuclear projects, one of the last chapters it titled something like "Destruction of the Japanese Cyclotron", is his Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project (http://www.amazon.com/Now-It-Can-Told-Manhattan/dp/0306801892 http://www.amazon.com/Now-It-Can-Told-Manhattan/dp/030680189...). Earlier publication date, so less could "be told", but lots of good stuff. E.g. when he first got an estimate of something major from the Chicago "Metallurgical Lab", he asked for the uncertainty factor, expecting something like 25%, and got a factor of 10. After explaining that in a neat "to feed somewhere between 10 and 1,000 people" metaphor, he then relates how they discussed it for a while, he realized there would be no firmer figure for some time, and then they all forged ahead. A truly remarkable man. There's also a lot that's been published on Oppenheimer, but I'm not studying Los Alamos too much now, and e.g. the above book is very interesting for lots more details in how Groves picked him, and reexamined it in late 1944 or so because of Oppenheimer's relatively poor health and still couldn't find a replacement (as noted by Rhodes, if Oppenheimer had lived just a bit longer he ought to have gotten a Nobel for his earlier and way ahead of it's times late '30s theoretical astronomy on topics like neutron stars and black holes). I'm in the middle of the Manhattan Project section in this much more specialized book, which has a political science analysis focus that's not going to be of interest to most of us, but it's quite promising, the railway story is neat and feeds right into Germany's physics establishment story; check back with me in a few weeks to see if it's worth your while: Technology and International Transformation: The Railroad, the Atom Bomb, and the Politics of Technological Change (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0791468682 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0791468682) the cheapest copy is now $19 (plus shipping), vs. the $3 I got it for, so it's very possibly not worth it. I've also got these books on order: The General and the Bomb: A Biography of General Leslie R. Groves, Director of the Manhattan Project (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0396087612 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0396087612) and suggested from the previous book The Atomic Scientists: A Biographical History (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471504556 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471504556) which might be interesting if you really like the first 300 pages of Rhodes' book.

by hga 11y ago

noir_lord 11y ago

Thanks for the response, I'll check that out :).

hga 11y ago
You're very welcome. Next book for the management of the project, although there's a lot more, e.g. Groves was responsible for US intelligence actions WRT to Germany and Japan's nuclear projects, one of the last chapters it titled something like "Destruction of the Japanese Cyclotron", is his Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project (http://www.amazon.com/Now-It-Can-Told-Manhattan/dp/0306801892 http://www.amazon.com/Now-It-Can-Told-Manhattan/dp/030680189...). Earlier publication date, so less could "be told", but lots of good stuff. E.g. when he first got an estimate of something major from the Chicago "Metallurgical Lab", he asked for the uncertainty factor, expecting something like 25%, and got a factor of 10. After explaining that in a neat "to feed somewhere between 10 and 1,000 people" metaphor, he then relates how they discussed it for a while, he realized there would be no firmer figure for some time, and then they all forged ahead. A truly remarkable man. There's also a lot that's been published on Oppenheimer, but I'm not studying Los Alamos too much now, and e.g. the above book is very interesting for lots more details in how Groves picked him, and reexamined it in late 1944 or so because of Oppenheimer's relatively poor health and still couldn't find a replacement (as noted by Rhodes, if Oppenheimer had lived just a bit longer he ought to have gotten a Nobel for his earlier and way ahead of it's times late '30s theoretical astronomy on topics like neutron stars and black holes). I'm in the middle of the Manhattan Project section in this much more specialized book, which has a political science analysis focus that's not going to be of interest to most of us, but it's quite promising, the railway story is neat and feeds right into Germany's physics establishment story; check back with me in a few weeks to see if it's worth your while: Technology and International Transformation: The Railroad, the Atom Bomb, and the Politics of Technological Change (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0791468682 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0791468682) the cheapest copy is now $19 (plus shipping), vs. the $3 I got it for, so it's very possibly not worth it. I've also got these books on order: The General and the Bomb: A Biography of General Leslie R. Groves, Director of the Manhattan Project (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0396087612 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0396087612) and suggested from the previous book The Atomic Scientists: A Biographical History (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471504556 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471504556) which might be interesting if you really like the first 300 pages of Rhodes' book.