In this attractive medical memoir, Kenneth Ford recounts the time whilst, in his mid-twenties, he used to be a member of the group that designed and equipped the 1st hydrogen bomb. He labored with - and cozy with - medical giants of that point resembling Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Stan Ulam, John von Neumann, and John Wheeler, and the following bargains illuminating insights into the personalities, the strengths, and the quirks of those males. popular for his skill to give an explanation for physics to nonspecialists, Ford additionally brings to existence the physics of fission and fusion and gives a quick background of nuclear technological know-how from the invention of radioactivity in 1896 to the ten-megaton explosion of “Mike” that obliterated a Pacific Island in 1952.

Ford labored at either Los Alamos and Princeton's venture Matterhorn, and brings out Matterhorn's significant, yet formerly unheralded contribution to the improvement of the H bomb. outdoor the lab, he drove a battered Chevrolet round New Mexico, a bantam bike around the nation, and a British roadster round New Jersey. a part of the allure of Ford's booklet is the best way he leavens his well-researched descriptions of the medical paintings with short stories of his lifestyles clear of weapons.

Contents:

• The monstrous Idea
• The Protagonists
• The Choice
• The Scientists, the officers, and the President
• Nuclear Energy
• Some Physics
• Going West
• A New World
• The Classical Super
• Calculating and Testing
• Constructing Matterhorn
• Academia Cowers
• New Mexico, big apple, and New Jersey
• The Garwin Design
• Climbing Matterhorn
• It's greater than a Boy

Readership: A memoir for normal readership within the heritage of science.Key Features:

• It comprises genuine physics, essentially provided for non-specialists
• Combining ancient scholarship and his personal reminiscences, the writer deals very important insights into the folk and the paintings that ended in the 1st H bomb
• Personal anecdotes brighten up the book