| ISBN |
9781460755235 (hardback) |
| Shelf Location |
530.092 RAMS |
| Author |
Ramsey, Andrew, author |
| Title |
The Basis of everything : Rutherford, Oliphant and the coming of the atomic bomb / Andrew Ramsey. |
| Production/Publication data |
Sydney, NSW : HarperCollins Australia, |
| ©2019. |
| Physical Description |
374 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Carrier Type |
volume |
| General Notes |
"The unlikely story of an Antipodean friendship that changed the world forever" -- Cover. |
| Notes |
Includes bibliographical references. |
| Contents Notes |
Prologue -- 1. Colonial boys -- 2. The world awaits -- 3. 'Rabbit from the Antipodes' -- 4. 'They'll have our heads off' -- 5. The atom smasher -- 6. A benevolent lord -- 7. 'A rare quality of mind' -- 8. String and ceiling wax -- 9. A meeting of minds -- 10. The golden year -- 11. Fusion -- 12. Tyranny's dark clouds -- 13. The crown begins to slip -- 14. 'Requiem Aeternam' -- 15. 'A show of my own' -- 16. The decisive difference -- 17. 'Shouldn't someone know about this?' -- 18. MAUD -- 19 'Meddling foreigner' -- 20. A misguided mission -- 21. Manhattan -- 22. 'Death, the shatterer of worlds' -- 23. 'We have killed a beautiful subject' -- Epilogue. |
| Summary Note |
The story that bonds Ernest Rutherford and Marcus Oliphant is as extraordinary as it is unlikely. They were kindred souls, schooled and steeped in the furthest frontiers of Britain's empire, whose restless intellect and tireless conviction fused in the crucible of discovery at Cambridge University's celebrated Cavendish Laboratory, at a time when nature's deepest secrets were being revealed. Their brilliance illuminated the sub-atomic recesses of the natural world and, as a direct result, set loose the power of nuclear fusion. It was a heartfelt, enduring partnership, born at the University of Adelaide's modest physics department and flourishing further in the confines of the Cavendish before ultimately driving the famed Manhattan Project, which produced the world's first nuclear weapons, unleashed to such devastating effect on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rutherford and Oliphant were men with a shared devotion to pure science, who, through circumstance and necessity, found themselves betrayed as instruments of the war they detested but were duty-bound to prosecute. Consequently, their influence was pivotal in the last great global conflict the world witnessed and in engendering the thermonuclear threat that has held the planet hostage ever since. Yet their pioneering work lives on too in a vast array of innovations seeded by nuclear physics, from radiocarbon dating and TV screens to life-saving diagnostic-imaging devices. |
| Target audience |
Tertiary/Undergraduate. |
| General. |
| Subject added entry -- Personal Name |
Oliphant, Mark, 1901-2000 Biography |
| Rutherford, Ernest, 1871-1937 Biography |
| Subject |
Physicists -- New Zealand -- Biography |
| Physicists -- Australia -- Biography |
| Nuclear weapons -- History -- |
| Nuclear physicists -- Biography |
| Atomic bomb -- History -- |
| Genre |
Biographies |
| Links to Related Works |
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