Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

by Michio Kaku

I once asked him why he got disillusioned with designing nuclear bombs and switched to working on solar energy. He confided to me that he had a recurring nightmare. His work on nuclear weapons, he felt, was leading to one thing: producing third-generation atomic warheads. (First-generation warheads of the 1950s were huge and difficult to carry to their targets. Second-generation warheads of the 1970s were small, compact, and ten of them could fit into the nose cone of a missile. But third-generation bombs are “designer bombs,” specifically tailored to work in various environments, such as the forest, the desert, even outer space.) One of these third-generation bombs is a miniature atomic bomb, so small that a terrorist could carry it in a suitcase and use it to destroy an entire city. The idea that his life’s work could one day be used by a terrorist haunted him for the rest of his life.