Adventures in the Atomic Age: From Watts to Washington - Hardcover

Seaborg, Glenn T.; Seaborg, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374299919 ISBN 13: 9780374299910

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001

Synopsis

America's greatest twentieth-century scientist tells his own story.

Glenn T. Seaborg (1912-1999) won a Nobel Prize before he was forty. He discovered the element that makes atomic bombs explode and the isotopes used to treat millions of cancer patients. He ran the University of California at Berkeley and advised nine U.S. presidents. Here is his autobiography -- the extraordinary story of a modest Swedish American who never strayed from his strong basic commitments throughout a career that gave him national and international fame. Seaborg's story begins in Michigan with his Scandinavian parents, but shifts quickly to California, where he got himself an education he didn't think he could afford during the dark days of the Depression. During World War II, he led the Manhattan Project group that devised the chemical extraction processes producing plutonium 239. He also shares the drama of scientific discovery and the inner history of his pioneering work on the many transuranium elements he co-discovered at the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley -- work that earned him the Nobel Prize in 1951. As chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission under three presidents, Seaborg fought for the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and argued in favor of the peaceful uses and international controls of atomic energy. His is the riveting account of a life like no other -- a model of the best in our nation.

About this title

About the Author:

Eric Seaborg, a freelance writer, worked with his father on the preparation of this book and completed it after Professor Seaborg's death in June 1999.

From Publishers Weekly:

This unpretentious memoir, published after its author's death in 1999, opens windows into both the development of nuclear science in America and the mentality of the mainstream nuclear community. Seaborg began as a smalltown boy from the Midwest. He entered the "graduate school wonderland" of nuclear chemistry at the University of California in 1934 and was doing cutting-edge research in a new element when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The element was plutonium, and that brought Seaborg in on the ground floor of the Manhattan Project. His account of the atom bomb's development indicates that he must have been a formidable classroom teacher; even readers with minimal understanding of physics will be able to follow his descriptions of the science. That the bomb was eventually used on Japan generates no serious questions or regrets, then or in hindsight. The bomb ended the war, Seaborg argues, and it saved lives on both sides. After the war, Seaborg remained part of a developing nuclear-security community, won the Nobel Prize (in 1951), served for almost a decade as chair of the Atomic Energy Commission after being appointed by Kennedy in 1961 and never abandoned his belief that science is neutral, though he became a firm and effective advocate for peaceful applications of nuclear energy and of nuclear arms limitation. On balance, he declares himself satisfied with the uses made of his particular contributions. Cancers cured with isotopes he discovered, and electricity generated with nuclear power, outweigh the negatives. It is a simple ethic, but in no way simpleminded. Yet it would seem to merit systematic analysis at levels deeper than Seaborg chose to go. The book was completed by Seaborg fils, a freelance writer, after his father's death. 24 photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)Forecast: This book should captivate thinking people drawn to the Pearl Harbor movie and 50th anniversary remembrance. Browsers may be put off by the sight of multiple acronyms in the text, but they can be assured that the book is engaging and readable throughout.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0374299919
• ISBN 13: 9780374299910
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 356