Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830
ISAAC ASIMOV received his academic degrees from Columbia University and is Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the Boston University School of Medicine. He is a prolific author who has written over 150 books in the past 20 years, including about 20 science fiction works, and books for children. His many excellent science books for the public cover subjects in mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, and biology, such as The Genetic Code, Inside the Atom, Building Blocks of the Universe, Understanding Physics, The New Intelligent Man’s Guide to Science, and Asimov’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.
In 1965 Dr. Asimov received the James T. Grady Award of the American Chemical Society for his major contribution in reporting science progress to the public.
VOLUME 1 [Introduction] 5 [Atomic Weights] 6 [Electricity] 11 [Units of Electricity] 11 [Cathode Rays] 13 [Radioactivity] 17 [The Structure of the Atom] 25 [Atomic Numbers] 30 [Isotopes] 35 [Energy] 47 [The Law of Conservation of Energy] 47 [Chemical Energy] 50 [Electrons and Energy] 54 [The Energy of the Sun] 55 [The Energy of Radioactivity] 57 VOLUME 2 [Mass and Energy] 69 [The Structure of the Nucleus] 75 [The Proton] 75 [The Proton-Electron Theory] 76 [Protons in Nuclei] 80 [Nuclear Bombardment] 82 [Particle Accelerators] 86 [The Neutron] 92 [Nuclear Spin] 92 [Discovery of the Neutron] 95 [The Proton-Neutron Theory] 98 [The Nuclear Interaction] 101 [Neutron Bombardment] 107 VOLUME 3 [Nuclear Fission] 117 [New Elements] 117 [The Discovery of Fission] 122 [The Nuclear Chain Reaction] 127 [The Nuclear Bomb] 131 [Nuclear Reactors] 141 [Nuclear Fusion] 147 [The Energy of the Sun] 147 [Thermonuclear Bombs] 149 [Controlled Fusion] 151 [Beyond Fusion] 159 [Antimatter] 159 [The Unknown] 164 [Reading List] 166
A total eclipse of the sun.
INTRODUCTION
In a way, nuclear energy has been serving man as long as he has existed. It has served all of life; it has flooded the earth for billions of years. The sun, you see, is a vast nuclear engine, and the warmth and light that the sun radiates is the product of nuclear energy.