Joseph L. Dean

Interesting overview. It covers how radiation and quantum mechanics work on a level that's covered in the average high school chemistry or physics textbook, the history of discoveries leading to measuring atoms and subatomic particles, how the research switched from abstract and industrial to military, the return to using atomic power for industry and energy, and ideas that the author thought would happen in 30 years...mostly nopes because we're still preferring fossil fuels, but this was written in 1974 so maybe scientists thought their era of the ending of cheap fossil fuels was a turning point for power.

My chemistry and physics background rarely touched on the last few chapters of a given textbook, which usually included how chemistry and physics can be applied, so I knew little of this side of atom theory before reading this book. It's surprising how much atomic power has seeped into the modern world, particularly how we avoid direct chemical treatments of material goods or medicine by using the energy from radiation.

On a humorous note, this book--again, published in 1974--mentioned orbital shells: "It was later visualized that, unlike the solar system, more than one electron could occupy the same orbit, later called a shell and now, more properly, a cloud." Why is this funny? Well, sample some "current" physics and chemistry textbooks and see how many mention orbital clouds. Mine didn't. I learned from graduate students and serious physics nerds. Why is something standard in the 70s and standard now, but the textbooks use pre-1970s standards? School, in instances like this, is hilarious.… (altro)