This work is the memoir of one of the key scientists involved in the atomic bomb and the chief research assistant and intimate friend of J. Robert Oppenheimer. A prominent member of the Manhattan Project, Robert Serber was one of a team of scientists who assembled the bombs on Tinian Island for transport to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was also one of the first Americans to walk among the Japanese ruins after the catastrophe. Written with science historian Robert P. Crease, this self-portrait is the story of Serber's life ...
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This work is the memoir of one of the key scientists involved in the atomic bomb and the chief research assistant and intimate friend of J. Robert Oppenheimer. A prominent member of the Manhattan Project, Robert Serber was one of a team of scientists who assembled the bombs on Tinian Island for transport to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was also one of the first Americans to walk among the Japanese ruins after the catastrophe. Written with science historian Robert P. Crease, this self-portrait is the story of Serber's life before, during and after World War II. It brings into focus the leading figures and events during this period in American science. Serber tells of his wartime experiences at Tinian Island and in Japan, in letters to his wife Charlotte, herself a key player at Los Alamos and the only female group leader there. These letters depict what Serber saw, such as the rows of iron office safes protruding from the rubble of Hiroshima, and the grazing horse whose hair had been scorched on one side by the fireball but was untouched on the other. Serber is also eloquent about the troubles he faced as a result of his refusal to take part in public debate about the morality of his wartime work; how his opposition to rapidly developing the hydrogen bomb earned him the enmity of Edward Teller and others; and how he was investigated and his security clearance challenged, several years before Oppenheimer's. Serber also recounts stories involving Oppenheimer, Murray Gell-Mann, Ernest O. Lawrence and Edward Teller.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Ex-church library book. Sticker at base of spine and library card/envelope on rear endpaper. "From John Bower's Library" written on front endpaper. This book comes from a collection donated from a church library and many originally belonged to parishioners. Book is in Very Good+ condition, with no real faults beyond library remainders. Dust jacket is in Very Good condition, with light edgewear, pen check mark by bar code.
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Very good in Very good jacket. xxiii, [3], 241, [5] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography of Works by Robert Serber. This is one of The George B. Pegram Lecture Series. Robert P. Crease (born 22 October 1953 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a philosopher and historian of science best known for his work in performance theory and historical research on Brookhaven National Laboratory. He is currently the chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Stony Brook University. Crease is co-editor of the scholarly journal Physics in Perspective and writes a monthly column, "Critical Point", for the international physics magazine Physics World. In philosophy his interests lie in performance theory, expertise, and trust. In history of science his interest focuses on the history of Brookhaven National Laboratory, one of the first three U.S. national laboratories; he is co-founder of the Laboratory History conferences which have been held bi-annually since 1999. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in the United States, and of the Institute of Physics (IOP) in London. He has written, co-written, translated, or edited over a dozen books. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other periodicals. Robert Serber (March 14, 1909 – June 1, 1997) was an American physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project. Shortly before receiving his doctorate, Serber went to work with J. Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley. For the next four years, he shuttled with Oppenheimer between Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology, where Oppenheimer held a secondary faculty appointment. In 1938, he took one of the era's few tenure-track professorships in physics at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, where he stayed until he was recruited for the Manhattan Project in 1941. When the Los Alamos National Laboratory was first organized, Oppenheimer decided not to compartmentalize the technical information among different departments. This boosted the technical workers' effectiveness in problem-solving and underscored the project's urgency, as they now understood its significance. Consequently, Serber was tasked with delivering a series of lectures to explain the basic principles and objectives of the project. These lectures were printed and supplied to all incoming scientific staff, and became known as The Los Alamos Primer, LA-1. It was declassified in 1965. Serber developed the first good theory of bomb assembly hydrodynamics. Serber created the code-names for all three design projects, the "Little Boy" (uranium gun), "Thin Man" (plutonium gun), and "Fat Man" (plutonium implosion), according to his reminiscences (1998). The names were based on their design shapes; the "Thin Man" would be a very long device, and the name came from the Dashiell Hammett detective novel and series of movies of the same name; the "Fat Man" bomb would be round and fat and was named after Sydney Greenstreet's character in The Maltese Falcon (from Hammett's novel). "Little Boy" would come last and be named only to contrast to the "Thin Man" bomb. Serber was with the first American team to enter Hiroshima and Nagasaki to assess the results of the atomic bombing of the two cities. In 1951, he became a professor of physics at Columbia University at the behest of Manhattan Project colleague I. I. Rabi. He served as chair of the department from 1975 until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1978. He served as president of the American Physical Society in 1971. A year later, Serber was awarded the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Ex-library. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. George B. Pegram Lecture Series. Audience: General/trade. Ex-library s hard COVER BOOK (3515) FOLLOWING SPECIAL DESCRIPTION CAREFULLY: This sale is for a used Book: This book Contains Stains, Writing, Highlight, Answers for most Questions, Notes, Names, Marker s Marks, and/Under-lining. Back and front cover (Bent, wrinkled, damaged & creased), Marker s mark, tapes, library s logo, missing blank pages, back and front cover cuts. Stem s binding (Good), Water damaged (NONE), DJ COVER (MISSING) wrinkled pages (yes). You will be at most 65% satisfied with this item or your money back guarantee.
