One of the most frightening “what-ifs” of history is the Nazi effort to build a nuclear bomb. Here is a close-up look at that failed attempt. Rose (Modern European History/Penn State Univ.; Wagner: Race and Resolution, 1992, etc.) focuses his study on Werner Heisenberg, leader of the German A-bomb project. One of the giants of modern physics, Heisenberg remained in Germany despite his differences with Nazism (he never joined the party and defended “Jewish physics,”i.e., Einstein’s work, when the Nazis denounced it), heading a project that he must have known had the potential to insure German victory. Rose argues that Heisenberg’s actions, including his failure to make a fundamental determination of the mass of uranium required to build a bomb, can be understood only in the context of the moral, cultural, and scientific attitudes of the German scientific establishment. Among these attitudes was a persistent self-delusion, endemic in German culture from the mid-1800s through the end of the Nazi era. Rose begins with a detailed critical analysis of Heisenberg’s account of the bomb project, drawing on contemporary documents and subsequent revelations. The book’s second part examines Heisenberg’s fundamental inability to grasp the principle of an atomic explosive, a failure that ultimately allowed the US Manhattan Project to win the race for the bomb. This failure has been painted by Heisenberg’s apologists as a subterfuge to undercut the project; Rose finds little reason to grant his subject that escape hatch. Finally, Rose examines the moral issues of Heisenberg’s willingness to work with the Nazi regime, and his postwar accounts of that work, which the author terms “historically false and morally corrupt.” While heavily footnoted for the benefit of an academic readership, this meticulously detailed and definitive book should also appeal to any reader intrigued by the moral dimension of scientific work.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-520-21077-8
Page Count: 391
Publisher: Univ. of California
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.
Tyson (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, 2017, etc.) receives a great deal of mail, and this slim volume collects his responses and other scraps of writing.
The prolific science commentator and bestselling author, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, delivers few surprises and much admirable commentary. Readers may suspect that most of these letters date from the author’s earlier years when, a newly minted celebrity, he still thrilled that many of his audience were pouring out their hearts. Consequently, unlike more hardened colleagues, he sought to address their concerns. As years passed, suspecting that many had no interest in tapping his expertise or entering into an intelligent give and take, he undoubtedly made greater use of the waste basket. Tyson eschews pure fan letters, but many of these selections are full of compliments as a prelude to asking advice, pointing out mistakes, proclaiming opposing beliefs, or denouncing him. Readers will also encounter some earnest op-ed pieces and his eyewitness account of 9/11. “I consider myself emotionally strong,” he writes. “What I bore witness to, however, was especially upsetting, with indelible images of horror that will not soon leave my mind.” To crackpots, he gently repeats facts that almost everyone except crackpots accept. Those who have seen ghosts, dead relatives, and Bigfoot learn that eyewitness accounts are often unreliable. Tyson points out that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so confirmation that a light in the sky represents an alien spacecraft requires more than a photograph. Again and again he defends “science,” and his criteria—observation, repeatable experiments, honest discourse, peer review—are not controversial but will remain easy for zealots to dismiss. Among the instances of “hate mail” and “science deniers,” the author also discusses philosophy, parenting, and schooling.
A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-324-00331-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Jahren transcends both memoir and science writing in this literary fusion of both genres.
Award-winning scientist Jahren (Geology and Geophysics/Univ. of Hawaii) delivers a personal memoir and a paean to the natural world.
The author’s father was a physics and earth science teacher who encouraged her play in the laboratory, and her mother was a student of English literature who nurtured her love of reading. Both of these early influences engrossingly combine in this adroit story of a dedication to science. Jahren’s journey from struggling student to struggling scientist has the narrative tension of a novel and characters she imbues with real depth. The heroes in this tale are the plants that the author studies, and throughout, she employs her facility with words to engage her readers. We learn much along the way—e.g., how the willow tree clones itself, the courage of a seed’s first root, the symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi, and the airborne signals used by trees in their ongoing war against insects. Trees are of key interest to Jahren, and at times she waxes poetic: “Each beginning is the end of a waiting. We are each given exactly one chance to be. Each of us is both impossible and inevitable. Every replete tree was first a seed that waited.” The author draws many parallels between her subjects and herself. This is her story, after all, and we are engaged beyond expectation as she relates her struggle in building and running laboratory after laboratory at the universities that have employed her. Present throughout is her lab partner, a disaffected genius named Bill, whom she recruited when she was a graduate student at Berkeley and with whom she’s worked ever since. The author’s tenacity, hope, and gratitude are all evident as she and Bill chase the sweetness of discovery in the face of the harsh economic realities of the research scientist.
Jahren transcends both memoir and science writing in this literary fusion of both genres.Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-87493-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
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