This e-book tells fascinating tales of misadventures of 2 popular theoretical physicists within the Soviet Union. the 1st half is dedicated to Friedrich (Fritz) Houtermans, a very good Dutch–Austrian–German physicist who was once the 1st to signify that the resource of stars' power is thermonuclear fusion, and likewise made a few different very important contributions to cosmochemistry and geochemistry. In 1935, Houtermans, a German communist, in an try to retailer his lifestyles from Hilter's Gestapo, fled to the Soviet Union. He took up an appointment on the Kharkov Physico-Technical Institute, operating there for 2 years with the Russian physicist Valentin P Fomin. within the nice Purge of 1937, Houtermans was once arrested in December through the NKVD (Soviet mystery Police, KGB's predecessor). He was once tortured, and confessed to being a Trotskyist plotter and German secret agent, out of worry of threats opposed to his spouse Charlotte. even though, Charlotte had already escaped from the Soviet Union to Denmark, and then she went to England and eventually america. because of the Hilter–Stalin Pact of 1939, Houtermans was once grew to become over to the Gestapo in may possibly 1940 and imprisoned in Berlin.

The moment half contains essays that narrate the lifestyles tale of Yuri Golfand, one of many codiscoverers of supersymmetry, an important discovery in theoretical physics within the twentieth century. In 1973, simply years after the booklet of his seminal paper, he was once fired from the Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow. as a result of his Jewish starting place he may perhaps locate no activity. lower than such conditions, he utilized for an go out visa to Israel, yet his software was once denied. Yuri Golfand turned a refusnik and joined the Human rights move, besides different trendy physicists, Andrei Sakharov and Yuri Orlov. To earn his dwelling, he needed to do handbook paintings, many times being intimidated through KGB. purely 18 years later, almost immediately sooner than the death of the Soviet Union, did he receive permission to go away the rustic, emigrating to Israel in 1990.

These own existence tales of 2 amazing theorists are interwined with the tragedies of the 20 th century and make for compelling reading.