{"product_id":"destroyer-of-worlds-9781541605893","title":"Destroyer of Worlds","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe thrilling and terrifying seventy-year story—\"kinetic, dramatic, and compulsively readable\" (Patchen Barss)—of the physicists that deciphered the atom and created the hydrogen bomb \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A \u003ci\u003eGuardian \u003c\/i\u003eBest Book of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Although Henri Becquerel didn’t know it at the time, he changed history in 1896 when he left photographic plates and some uranium rocks in a drawer. The rocks emitted something that exposed the plates: it was the first documented evidence of spontaneous radioactivity. So began one of the most exciting and consequential efforts humans have ever undertaken. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e As Frank Close recounts in \u003ci\u003eDestroyer of Worlds\u003c\/i\u003e, scientists confronting Becquerel’s discovery had three questions: What was this phenomenon? Could it be a source of unlimited power? And (alas), could it be a weapon? Answering them was an epic journey of discovery, with Ernest Rutherford, Enrico Fermi, Irene Joliot-Curie, and many others jockeying to decipher the dance of particles in a decaying atom. And it was a terrifying journey as well, as Edward Teller and others pressed on from creating atom bombs to hydrogen bombs so powerful that they could destroy all life on earth.  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The deep history of the nuclear age has never before been recounted so vividly. Centered on an extraordinary cast of characters, \u003ci\u003eDestroyer of Worlds\u003c\/i\u003e charts the course of nuclear physics from simple curiosity to potential Armageddon.    \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Basic Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51391466733873,"sku":"9781541605893","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0787\/2420\/2801\/files\/O_46b2b7b5-a0a6-4abe-8510-cf46498d8ab8.jpg?v=1771780124","url":"https:\/\/pageaday.com\/products\/destroyer-of-worlds-9781541605893","provider":"Page-A-Day","version":"1.0","type":"link"}