Worlds Within Worlds: The Story of Nuclear Energy Volume 3 Nuclear Fission · Nuclear Fusion · Beyond Fusion
Reading edition
by Isaac Asimov
United States Atomic Energy Commission Office of Information Services
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
Nuclear energy is playing a vital role in the life of every man, woman, and child in the United States today. In the years ahead it will affect increasingly all the peoples of the earth. It is essential that all Americans gain an understanding of this vital force if they are to discharge thoughtfully their responsibilities as citizens and if they are to realize fully the myriad benefits that nuclear energy offers them.
The United States Atomic Energy Commission provides this booklet to help you achieve such understanding.
UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION Dr. James R. Schlesinger, Chairman James T. Ramey Dr. Clarence E. Larson William O. Doub Dr. Dixy Lee Ray
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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 100 books in the past 18 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 146
The Energy of the Sun 146
Thermonuclear Bombs 148
Controlled Fusion 150
Beyond Fusion 158
Antimatter 158
The Unknown 163
Reading List 165
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Enrico Fermi (left) and Niels Bohr discuss physics as they stroll along the Appian Way outside Rome in 1931.
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