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Donovan webster aftermath book pfg10/20/2023 Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A superb accomplishment.Ī Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. (Author tour)Ī magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. A horrifying reminder that the full costs of this century's wars have yet to be calculated. In Vietnam, the spreading of defoliants and toxic agents continues to cause birth defects, while in many former war zones hundreds of thousands of land mines pose ongoing hazards to local populations. Webster relates how horrifically American high-tech war has transformed the landscapes of Vietnam and Kuwait. And the Cold War spawned horrors on US soil: Webster notes rising cancer rates and groundwater contamination in towns near atomic testing sites in Nevada and describes a chemical- weapons demolition site located dangerously near Salt Lake City, Utah, where a single accident could cause a disaster of biblical proportions. Webster then offers a grim tour of a field filled with the skeletons of thousands of Germans and Austrians who died in the WW II battle of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) and have yet to be buried the ongoing process of identifying and burying the dead may take generations. Although the shells are as much as 80 years old, many are unstable, still capable of exploding or leaking poisonous gases, and the work is hazardous: Several men are killed each year by exploding or toxic bombs. Webster follows members of the French government unit devoted to the clearing of WW I and WW II bombs as they find and destroy some of the millions of shells still embedded in the soil of northern France. Webster, a freelance journalist, begins by reflecting on the complex, contradictory figure of Alfred Nobel, the engineering genius who, along with his eponymous prizes, gave birth to dynamite, blasting caps, and smokeless powder. An eloquent and startling reminder of the long-term, even permanent, destruction wrought by this century's wars.
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