The Making of the Atomic Bomb

by Richard Rhodes

relentless goal of science is “the gradual removal of prejudices.”

discovery of microbes is gradually removing the prejudice that disease is a punishment from God.

“The principle I would derive from this,” Butler concluded, “is that manifest unfairness, double standards, no matter what power would appear at

1922 the rate of exchange in Germany sank to 400 marks to the dollar.

4.2 trillion marks to the dollar on November 23, 1923, when adjustment finally began. Banks

They constituted a republic of educated believers taught through a chain of masters and apprentices to judge carefully the slippery edges of their work.

element thorium was slowly and spontaneously transmuting itself into [chemically inert] argon gas!”