by James L. Nolan Jr. ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 6, 2020
A unique perspective on the Atomic Age.
A disturbing account of the early years of the atomic bomb, when safety took second place to winning World War II.
After his father’s death, Nolan Jr., professor of sociology at Williams College, received a box of revealing material from his grandfather James F. Nolan, chief medical officer at Los Alamos. It intrigued him enough to produce this haunting book, which describes his grandfather’s job, which began with delivering medical care but finished by dealing with the bomb’s radiation dangers. As the July 1945 date of the first test approached, Nolan and medical colleagues warned Gen. Leslie Groves, the project’s commander, that fallout might require evacuation of nearby areas of New Mexico. Groves downplayed the possibility, but it turned out that civilians received levels of radiation higher than considered “safe,” levels that, “less than twenty years later, would be regarded as eight hundred times higher than the accepted standard.” The news was suppressed and victims kept unaware for fear of litigation. Throughout, the author makes it clear that the military approached radiation as a public relations problem, and the doctors who knew better treaded lightly for fear of upsetting their superiors. "When accidents did occur,” writes the author, “the doctors were used to procure scientific data and then became complicit in hiding evidence, motivated, once again, out of fear of litigation.” Nolan accompanied fact-finding commissions to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and though more than a month had passed since the explosions, they encountered horrendous suffering and radioactivity. Their reports did not conceal these facts, but Groves paid no attention, assuring Congress that residual radiation was absent and that the bombs themselves caused few radiation casualties. Nolan returned to medical practice but not before joining other medical experts in the first postwar tests, Operations Crossroads and Sandstone, held in the South Pacific, where, despite warnings, military leaders exposed themselves, their men, and local islanders to deadly levels of radiation. The author delivers a solid narrative of America’s painful introduction to atomic radiation.
A unique perspective on the Atomic Age.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-674-24863-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Belknap/Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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by Walter Isaacson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2023
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
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A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Betsy Maestro & illustrated by Giulio Maestro ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 30, 1992
A straightforward, carefully detailed presentation of how ``fruit comes from flowers,'' from winter's snow-covered buds through pollination and growth to ripening and harvest. Like the text, the illustrations are admirably clear and attractive, including the larger-than-life depiction of the parts of the flower at different stages. An excellent contribution to the solidly useful ``Let's-Read-and-Find-Out-Science'' series. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4-9)
Pub Date: Jan. 30, 1992
ISBN: 0-06-020055-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1991
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