Worlds Within Worlds: The Story of Nuclear Energy Volume 1 Atomic Weights · Energy · Electricity
Reading edition
by Isaac Asimov
U. S. Energy Research and Development Administration Office of Public Affairs Washington, D.C. 20545
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-189477 1972
Nothing in the history of mankind has opened our eyes to the possibilities of science as has the development of atomic power. In the last 200 years, people have seen the coming of the steam engine, the steamboat, the railroad locomotive, the automobile, the airplane, radio, motion pictures, television, the machine age in general. Yet none of it seemed quite so fantastic, quite so unbelievable, as what man has done since 1939 with the atom ... there seem to be almost no limits to what may lie ahead: inexhaustible energy, new worlds, ever-widening knowledge of the physical universe. Isaac Asimov
The U. S. Energy Research and Development Administration publishes a series of booklets for the general public.
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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
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A total eclipse of the sun.
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