The last voice : Roy J. Glauber and the dawn of the atomic age / / José Ignacio Latorre and María Teresa Soto-Sanfiel

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910746960503321
• Autore: Latorre José Ignacio
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cham, Switzerland : , : Springer Nature Switzerland AG, , [2023]; ©2023
• ISBN: 3-031-29984-1
• Edizione: [First edition.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xviii, 179 pages) : illustrations (some color)
• Disciplina: 623.45119
• Soggetti: Physicists - United States
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- About the Authors -- Introductions -- I: Him -- II: Us -- It and Them. At First -- Front to Front -- To Dark and Mysterious Places -- Fission Discovered -- And Einstein Signed a Letter -- From Harvard to Los Alamos -- Los Alamos -- Everyday Life in Los Alamos -- The Essentials -- Living to Work -- In Free Time -- Etiquette -- Friendships -- Candid Camera -- News from Outside -- Prayer in the Mountains -- Political Affairs -- Redefining the Site -- A Scientist at Los Alamos -- The First day -- Early Calculations -- The Theoretical Division: Bethe Versus Teller -- Computers at Los Alamos -- Progressively Harder Calculations -- Orchestrating Calculations -- Shared Concerns -- Oppenheimer -- The Strange Couple -- A Literary Figure -- The Arbiter of Good Taste -- Family Life -- The Bomb -- The Gadget -- Windshield Wipers for Submarines -- Little Boy and Fat Man -- Neutrons at Different Time Scales -- The Hardest Part -- The Jumbo -- Pre-detonation -- The Simplest Solution, the Biggest Problem -- Fruitless Efforts -- Lens Solution -- Uranium Versus Plutonium -- Spies -- Security -- Espionage -- Klaus Fuchs -- Theodore Hall -- One Who Got Away: Joseph Rotblat -- Atomic Explosions -- Trinity -- Flash -- The Betting Pool -- The Fermi Estimate -- Radioactivity -- Japan -- What the Scientists Knew -- The Decision -- Hiroshima -- Nagasaki -- A Telegram -- Ethics -- The Secret is Out -- The Aftermath of the War -- Towards the H-Bomb -- A Strange Period -- Silence from Los ; Alamos -- Trouble with the Law -- Relations with the USSR -- The H-bomb -- Ironies -- Losing Contact with Los Alamos -- Farewell to Arms -- Back to School -- Different Paths -- We'll Meet Again -- Bizarre Happenings -- The Transformation of Los Alamos -- Oppenheimer Reviled -- The Hearings -- American Hero -- American Primitives -- Envy of Oppenheimer.; Security on Trial -- Private Loves -- The Witch Hunter -- The Right Word -- Roy J. Glauber -- Sketches of a Bio -- Traveling Youth -- Going to College -- The Nobel Prize -- The Road to the Nobel -- The Sudarshan Controversy -- A Sad Sequel -- A Nobel Prize -- Meanings -- One of Them -- Big Science -- Worth the Effort -- Appendix A: Nobel Laureates -- Appendix B: Extraordinary Minds -- Appendix C: Los Alamos Organization Chart -- Epilogue -- Notes -- References -- Index.
• Sommario/riassunto: Most human beings dont manage to achieve fame. Roy J. Glauber did so for two different reasons. Glauber was not only a Nobel-Prize winning physicist, but also one of the last surviving scientists who worked in Los Alamos in the Theoretical Division of the Manhattan Project. He was a witness to all the events and knew all the scientists associated with the creation and launch of the first atomic bombs. This book is the product of a series of long interviews held with Roy over three years: in Benasque (Spain) in 2011, and later in Singapore and Cambridge (USA). Its pages give a first-hand account of a true protagonist, one who is independent, lucid, sagacious and committed to the truth. The authors have respectfully preserved his spirit: his voice is the one that matters. The authors asked the questions and they relay his answers. Their comments are confined to the footnotes and to brief explanatory paragraphs, added simply to provide certain relevant details. The importance of the events that Glauber describes here is indisputable, as therefore is the book itself. The events narrated in its pages will remain part of world history, perhaps for centuries or even millennia. We live today in the shadow of the decisions made at that time.