Purchase
Viking
November 2008
On Sale: November 4, 2008
304 pages
ISBN: 0670020338
EAN: 9780670020331
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
The author of Zero looks at the messy history of
the struggle to harness fusion energy .
When
weapons builders detonated the first hydrogen bomb in 1952,
they tapped into the vastest source of energy in our solar
system--the very same phenomenon that makes the sun shine.
Nuclear fusion was a virtually unlimited source of power
that became the center of a tragic and comic quest that has
left scores of scientists battered and disgraced. For the
past half-century, governments and research teams have tried
to bottle the sun with lasers, magnets, sound waves,
particle beams, and chunks of meta. (The latest venture, a
giant, multi-billion-dollar, international fusion project
called ITER, is just now getting underway.) Again and again,
they have failed, disgracing generations of scientists.
Throughout this fascinating journey Charles Seife introduces
us to the daring geniuses, villains, and victims of fusion
science: the brilliant and tortured Andrei Sakharov; the
monomaniacal and Strangelovean Edward Teller; Ronald
Richter, the secretive physicist whose lies embarrassed an
entire country; and Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, the
two chemists behind the greatest scientific fiasco of the
past hundred years. Sun in a Bottle is the first
major book to trace the story of fusion from its beginnings
into the 21st century, of how scientists have gotten burned
by trying to harness the power of the sun.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy