Before the Fallout by Diana Preston

--- This is not a book review! ---

"Before the Fallout" is one of the most impressive non-fiction books I've ever read and I revere Diana Preston's extensive research for creating this masterpiece.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was such a defining moment in history and this book somehow goes "behind-the-scenes" of it all. Before reading this book, I must admit that I was naive and have often wondered how mankind can be so evil to have created such a destructive weapon. People back then didn't simply decide, "let's drop a bomb to end the war". Such a bomb did not exist back then.

To quote from the author, "The destructive flash that seared Hiroshima into history was the culmination of fifty years of scientific creativity and more than fifty years of political and military turmoil. Generations of scientists contributed to that moment in physics." Before the Fallout, containing 340 pages, tells the story behind those two sentences.

Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Robert Oppenheimer were among the brilliant scientists featured in the book.

I'd like to share some of the interesting stories and anecdotes:

1. During World War II, Niels Bohr and his son Aage Bohr were invited to become part of the top-secret Manhattan Project (the organization tasked to create the atomic bomb). They sailed to the United States from London under their assumed names of Nicholas and James Baker. As they disembarked, the FBI agents who met them were horrified to see "NIELS BOHR" written in large black letters on the suitcase of "Nicholas Baker".

2. In 1910, there were rumors that Marie Curie (widowed at that time) and Paul Langevin (a married man) were engaged in an affair. The letters they wrote to each other were most likely stolen by Langevin's brother-in-law, Henry Bourgeouis. There was even evidence that Henry was paid blackmail money by Marie to prevent the letters' disclosure. In 1911 when Marie Curie had been awarded a second Nobel Prize for Chemistry, these issues surfaced again when Gustave Tery, an editor of the weekly L'Oeuvre, published extracts from the Curie-Langevin letters. This prompted Langevin to challege the editor to a duel. Nothing happened to the duel since both men did not raise their weapons.

3. Los Alamos was the location for the Manhattan Project. Houses were setup for the scientists and their families to live. Many babies were born in Los Alamos during this time as many couples decided to start families there. However, there was one problem: there was the perennial shortage of diapers. Some of the scientists blamed Leslie Groves (military leader of the Manhattan Project), believing he had arranged for this on purpose.

4. Niels Bohr and Ernest Rutherford have something in common. They both liked to disassemble clocks as a child.