By Lillian Hoddeson, Paul W. Henriksen, Roger A. Meade, Catherine L. Westfall, Gordon Baym, Richard Hewlett, Alison Kerr, Robert Penneman, Leslie Redman, Robert Seidel

This quantity treats the technical examine that ended in the 1st atomic bombs. The authors discover how the «critical meeting» of scientists, engineers, and armed forces team of workers at Los Alamos collaborated in the course of international warfare II, mixing their traditions to create a brand new method of large-scale study. The learn was once characterised via powerful project orientation, multidisciplinary teamwork, enlargement of the scientists conventional technique with engineering strategies, and a trial-and-error technique responding to wartime deadlines.
The publication opens with an creation laying out significant issues After a synopsis of the prehistory of the bomb undertaking, from the invention of nuclear fission to the beginning of the long island Engineer District, and an outline of the early fabrics application, the booklet examines the institution of the Los Alamos Laboratory, the implosion and gun meeting courses, nuclear physics examine, chemistry and metallurgy, explosives, uranium and plutonium improvement, affirmation of spontaneous fission in pile-produced plutonium, the thermonuclear bomb, serious assemblies, the Trinity try out, and supply of the strive against guns. Readers attracted to the advance of the atomic bomb will locate many formerly unrevealed info during this quantity whereas these attracted to the extra basic background of technology will locate this quantity a very important source for knowing the underpinnings of latest technological know-how and know-how.