Quote:
Originally Posted by red-beard
If you really want to understand how the Atomic Bomb was created, I suggest reading:
... In my opinion, without Leo Szilard, there would not have been an atomic bomb.
... We know that Germany was working on the bomb. Few know that England was quite aways along with nuclear research and turned everything they knew over to the USA to assist in the Manhattan Project.
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I don't know if Rhodes has completely moved on from such things - I think he was more recently into bio/virus stuff. The Szilard/Einstein business to which he refers needs updating. Though, boy, did he focus on it quite extensively in "The Making..." It was probably the more weapon-applicable focus of the Frisch/Pierls leter to UK's MAUD (kind of their DARPA at that time) that emphasized that this could be a useful weapon.
More information on the German project comes out now and then but some believe Heisenburg, having not left Germany, possibly "monkey wrenched" their project so as to deny/delay a German bomb.
The Brits kind of invented everything cool (the neutron, the "absolute" temperature scale, heavy metal music and magnetrons/radar). There's a book about Harold Loomis that describes his support and donated lab space for later CONUS development of radar.