Monday, November 1, 2010

The Story of Science (Fission Vision) by Joy Hakim

The scientist who led the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico during the 1940’s, was Robert Oppenheimer who worked with the many Nobel Prize winning scientists, many of whom came from Great Britain, Hungary, and Germany. Ironically, Oppenheimer never won a Nobel even though he was the director over many who had. The list of scientists who worked in Los Alamos is a ‘whose who’ in science at the time. In spite of the world-wide notoriety of all of the scientists involved, the U. S. government had total control of the scientists and the project. This government control of science was probably the beginning of what is now called the military-industrial complex. Perhaps a better name is the military-science complex. The scientists who moved to Los Alamos were totally isolated, could only get mail at Post Office Box 1663, and could only leave the project location with a written pass via a guard station. The extreme control by the military, many people believed was justified because of the dangers of espionage (which ultimately occurred).

As the scientific events unfolded that led to the explosion of the first test atomic bomb in New Mexico, World War II was raging in Europe and the Pacific. There was also the illusion of a race for nuclear power between the U. S. allies and Germany. It was an illusion because German scientists gave up the attempt to build an atomic bomb, but the scientists at Los Alamos had no idea of this. In fact, there was a race to build a bomb with only one side participating, the United States and allied scientists. During this project the purpose of the science was clear – to make a bomb. There was no other reason for the massive undertaking other than a military weapon. Governments and scientists were caught up in a struggle involving political ideology, and using scientific discovery to produce a weapon. These events occurred during World War II. The ethics of building a bomb versus a patriotic/national struggle was occurring within the scientific community itself. Einstein originally influenced President Roosevelt to start the Manhattan Project, and a later he attempted to stop it. Einstein obviously failed. Many other scientists were in a similar position. The ethics of building a weapon of mass destruction hung like a modern sword of Damocles over most of the scientific community involved in this project. That sword fell on the morning of August 6, 1945 when the Enola Gay dropped a uranium bomb over Hiroshima.

Joy Hakim presents a comprehensive overview of the development of nuclear energy in her book, The Story of Science, Einstein Adds A New Dimension. Hakim details scientific discoveries based on the work of Albert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Marie Curie, Frederic Joliot-Curie, Leo Szilard, and many other scientists; continuing with the discovery of fission in 1938 by Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann, and Otto Frisch and leading to more discoveries by Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, and numerous other scientists. Discussion of the political situation during World War II as related to these scientific events is also included. Coverage of the basic science of fission of uranium using heavy water leading up to the Manhattan Project and development of the atomic bomb is included in Hakim’s book.

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