Overview
In the fall of 1950, newspapers around the world reported that the Italian-born nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo and his family had mysteriously disappeared while returning to Britain from a holiday trip. Because Pontecorvo was known to be an expert working for the UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment, this raised immediate concern for the safety of atomic secrets, especially when it became known in the following months that he had defected to the Soviet Union. Was Pontecorvo a spy? Did he know and pass sensitive information about the bomb to Soviet experts? At the time, nuclear scientists, security personnel, Western government officials, and journalists assessed the case, but their efforts were inconclusive and speculations quickly turned to silence. In the years since, some have downplayed Pontecorvo’s knowledge of atomic weaponry, while others have claimed him as part of a spy ring that infiltrated the Manhattan Project. The Pontecorvo Affair draws from newly disclosed sources to challenge previous attempts to solve the case, offering a balanced and well-documented account of Pontecorvo, his activities, and his possible motivations for defecting. Along the way, Simone Turchetti reconsiders the place of nuclear physics and nuclear physicists in the twentieth century and reveals that as the discipline’s promise of military and industrial uses came to the fore, so did the enforcement of new secrecy provisions on the few experts in the world specializing in its application.
Full Product Details
Author: Simone Turchetti
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Edition: Revised ed.
Dimensions:
Width: 1.60cm
, Height: 0.20cm
, Length: 2.40cm
Weight: 0.539kg
ISBN: 9780226816647
ISBN 10: 0226816648
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 15 February 2012
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
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Reviews
This book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of Bruno Pontecorvo's work as a physicist, of his political activities, and of the circumstances surrounding his defection to the Soviet Union in 1950. (John Krige, Georgia Institute of Technology)
"""This book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of Bruno Pontecorvo's work as a physicist, of his political activities, and of the circumstances surrounding his defection to the Soviet Union in 1950."" (John Krige, Georgia Institute of Technology)"""
Author Information
Simone Turchetti is an independent research fellow at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the University of Manchester.
