Avoiding Apocalypse: How Science and Scientists Ended the Cold War

'A compulsive read...' Exclusive Magazine

Avoiding Apocalypse: How Science and Scientists Ended the Cold War tells the little-known story of the worldwide scientists’ boycott of the Soviet Union that set in motion an astonishing sequence of events. Starting simultaneously with the rise to power of an obscure Soviet bureaucrat named Mikhail Gorbachev, the scientists’ boycott led to the end not only of the Cold War but also of the Soviet Union itself.

The author has spent the past 45 years as a research physicist helping to develop the science that has made technically possible a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), one linchpin of the Cold War stand-down. He is the author or co-author of nearly 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has written (with Jon Larsen) what has now become the standard graduate-level text book in the new field of physics: Extreme Physics. He lives part-time in Livermore, California, and part-time in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.