- Mass Market Paperback: 1 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Paperbacks; Reissue edition (Aug 1 1985)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140077766
- ISBN-13: 978-0140077766
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.7 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,766,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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3.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Except for occasional rambling, not a bad read, April 13 2008
By Marky "marky" - Published on Amazon.com
This story closely parallels the real 1946 accident caused by Los Alamos physicist Louis Slotin. In fact, the character in the book is Louis Saxl. Louis (pick one) was lowering a hemisphere of beryllium onto a small sphere of plutonium one day in May 1946, trying to create the beginnings of a criticality for some other scientists standing at various distances from the apparatus, when his sloppy jerry-rigging slipped and started a very brief burst of radiation (brief chain reaction), with blue glow, the whole bit.Louis himself suffered a fatal dose, with the other men in the room receiving various doses, none fatal (some died in later years due to the after-effects--cancers, etc. which probably were the result of this accident). Louis himself dies some 7 days later in the local place they have for a hospital. The author is more frank about this incident than the official story usually told about the real Louis (his having died a hero by "saving" his fellow scientists, etc.). Louis' carelessness was the cause of the accident and his yanking the beryllium hemisphere away to stop the reaction was a natural one, not necessarily an act of courage. The story covers Louis' days in the hospital, his thoughts, memories, and the various associations between fellow scientists and the doctors who tried to do what they could to save him, albeit as futile as it was. Except for the fairly often forays into what I'll call "symbolic meanderings" by Mr. Masters, the book is worth a read, especially for anyone at all interested in the early days at Los Alamos.
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