J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. In this biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer's life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. --From publisher's description....

"In December 1942, a team at the University of Chicago achieved a milestone in human history: a nuclear chain reaction. At the forefront of this breakthrough stood Enrico Fermi, the father of the nuclear age. But as David N. Schwartz shows in this groundbreaking biography, Fermi's impact goes well beyond this epochal event. With his theory of beta decay and his development of quantum statistics, Fermi revolutionized modern physics. Straddling the...

Describes how Leslie Richard Groves of the Army Corps of Engineers enlisted the help of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer on a three-year collaboration that resulted in the U.S. beating the Nazis to the invention of the atomic bomb.

"Both recalling his life story and recounting many of the major advances in twentieth-century science, a renowned physicist shares his autobiography through letters. While recognizing that quantum mechanics "demands serious attention," Albert Einstein in 1926 admonished fellow physicist Max Born that the theory "does not bring us closer to the secrets of the Old One." Aware that "there are deep mysteries that Nature intends to keep for herself," Freeman...

An exploration of the enigma of Robert Oppenheimer's life and personality and his contributions to the revolution in twentieth-century physics. "Revered biographer Ray Monk solves the enigma of Robert Oppenheimer's life and personality and brilliantly illuminates his contribution to the revolution in twentieth-century physics. In Robert Oppenheimer, Ray Monk delves into the rich and complex intellectual life of America's most fascinating and...

"The first full-scale biography of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and one of the fathers of the atomic age, Enrico Fermi. Enrico Fermi is unquestionably the most famous scientist to come from Italy since Galileo, so revered that he's known as The Pope of Physics. A modest, unassuming man, Fermi was nevertheless one of the most productive and creative scientists of the twentieth century, one of the fathers of the Atomic Bomb and a Nobel Prize winner...