cover image Edward Teller: Giant of the Golden Age of Physics: A Biography

Edward Teller: Giant of the Golden Age of Physics: A Biography

Stanley A. Blumberg. Scribner Book Company, $24.95 (306pp) ISBN 978-0-684-19042-6

Known as father of the American H-Bomb, Teller continues to play a crucial role in U.S. nuclear weapons policy. Born a Hungarian Jew in 1908, the young physicist studied with such greats as Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr. Fleeing Nazism, he became a member of the Manhattan Project team which developed the world's first atomic bomb. Despite opposition from Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project's top scientist, Teller persuaded President Truman to develop the hydrogen bomb; history backs up his position on the H-bomb, note the authors, as we now know that the Soviets exploded a thermonuclear device before the U.S. did. Instrumental in founding California's Lawrence Livermore Research Lab, Teller is today the leading scientific proponent of building strategic defenses against Soviet nuclear attack. Blumberg, coauthor of Energy and Conflict , and Panos, a Baltimore Sun columnist, have done a thorough job of reconstructing the life of this complex man. (Feb.)