…actually, busy couple of months. I just finished reading “The Making of the Atomic Bomb,” by Richard Rhodes, and I can’t recommend it highly enough; it’s an amazingly engaging bit of history, well-researched and exceptionally written. And, of course, rather creepy to read.
It’s also got me thinking about an idea for a sophomore or junior-level physics course in nuclear physics, that would try to combine serious theory, engineering, experiment, and history; essentially following the early development of the subject, actually doing all of the major experiments (it’s one of the few fields of physics where that’s possible in a classroom setting), and getting the students up to the point where they understand both the technical and ethical issues associated with their field. I suspect it could be a great way to both really draw in the very serious students and to give them a much-needed parallelism of experiment and theory in a class.
(I remember that I didn’t get my first really interesting experimental physics class until my senior year. That was the year I got thrown in a lab with a bunch of spare parts and told to measure things. I remember building a gamma spectrometer and spending hour after hour looking for interesting things I could examine with it… and had I had a class like that a few years earlier, my life might have turned out very differently. Oh well… thus the urge to teach it to others.)
Also: It looks confirmed, my cousin Sharon is getting married in early June, so I’m going back to Israel for a few weeks. (Finally!) And my grandmother promised to teach me the basics of wood sculpture while I’m there. (And if it weren’t for the wedding being in June, I would probably go much sooner… dammit, I need a trip. Right now a few weeks in Israel and a few days on the side in Paris sounds really, really appealing)
Yonatan Zunger’s Blog 
It sounds like an excellently planned vacation. Maybe you should meet up with Hans in Paris for those few days. I know he’s been hankering to go.
It sounds like an excellently planned vacation. Maybe you should meet up with Hans in Paris for those few days. I know he’s been hankering to go.
Dark Sun, also by Richard Rhodes, is also pretty good (albeit not as good as TMotAB.) It’s the story of the Russian and H-bomb programs, IIRC.
Dark Sun, also by Richard Rhodes, is also pretty good (albeit not as good as TMotAB.) It’s the story of the Russian and H-bomb programs, IIRC.