Destroyer of Worlds

Stirring … Close’s ensemble drama is a powerful corrective to the myth of the solitary genius. An eminent theoretical physicist, he walks us step-by-step through what he calls the ‘Third Industrial Revolution’, [shining] a light on the bustling cast of scientists whose 50-year pursuit of knowledge led ineluctably to the atomic bomb. The depth of Close’s knowledge throws up surprises even if you know the territory … he convenes these fascinating personalities deftly and has an abundant supply of thrills, tragedies and gratifying trivia * Spectator *
Close writes with elegance and lucidity about the resulting experiments and investigations [and] the breakthroughs that led to the atom bomb [so that] the sense of wonderment and awe that drives the quest shines through. Close also turns the spotlight on figures often forgotten, such as Ettore Majorana, a young Sicilian physicist, whom Fermi rated as a genius to rank alongside Newton and who did much to unravel the mysteries of atomic structure * Financial Times *
Close tells the remarkable story of the science behind the nuclear age, ,beginning with Henri Becquerel’s serendipitous discovery in 1896 of smudges on a photographic plate that had been placed in a drawer with phosphorescent crystals of uranium … [he] brings the complex field of nuclear physics vividly alive, showing how the nuclear story is one of “incremental discoveries, like building a tower one layer at a time” – P. D. Smith * Times Literary Supplement *
A magisterial account of an exciting—and often courageous—area of scientific endeavour * Prospect *

Frank Close is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at Oxford University and Fellow Emeritus in Physics at Exeter College, Oxford.

He is the author of The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe and most recently Trinity: The Treachery and Pursuit of the Most Dangerous Spy in History.

He was formerly Head of the Theoretical Physics Division at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell and Head of Communications and Public Education at CERN.

He was awarded the Kelvin Medal of the Institute of Physics for his ‘outstanding contributions to the public understanding of physics’ in 1996, and the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for communicating science in 2013.

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