Worlds Within Worlds: Restored Classics to Go Edition

· Otbebookpublishing
Ebook
46
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Isaac Asimov turns the atom into a doorway to one of science's greatest revolutions, showing how nuclear energy grew from a mysterious possibility into a central question of modern physics. He begins with the shock of Einstein's special relativity, tracing the path from Michelson and Morley's failed light-speed experiment to the insight that mass is concentrated energy, expressed in E = mc2. From there, Asimov explains why tiny mass losses in chemical and radioactive processes imply vast stores of energy inside matter, especially in the atomic nucleus. The book follows the rise and fall of early nuclear models, including the elegant but mistaken proton-electron theory, and shows how nuclear spin measurements, especially in nitrogen-14, exposed its flaws. The discovery of the neutron by Chadwick, building on work by Bothe, Becker, and the Joliot-Curies, replaced that model with Heisenberg's proton-neutron theory, which better explained isotopes, mass number, and radioactive decay. Asimov then explores particle bombardment, the first artificial nuclei, and the development of accelerators by Cockcroft, Walton, and Lawrence, while also introducing the deep problem of the force that binds protons together and the theories of Heisenberg and Yukawa that opened the search for nuclear interactions. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
Isaac Asimov turns the atom into a doorway to one of science's greatest revolutions, showing how nuclear energy grew from a mysterious possibility into a central question of modern physics. He begins with the shock of Einstein's special relativity, tracing the path from Michelson and Morley's fai...

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About the author

Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific and imaginative writers of the twentieth century, a Russian-born American author whose family emigrated to the United States when he was still a child and whose early fascination with science grew into a lifelong vocation as both storyteller and explainer. Trained as a biochemist, he moved with remarkable ease between laboratory thinking and literary invention, producing an astonishing body of work that helped define modern science fiction while also making science intelligible and exciting for general readers. His best-known achievements range from visionary fiction about robots, galactic empires, and the future of humanity to clear, energetic nonfiction that brought complex subjects such as astronomy, chemistry, biology, and nuclear science within reach of ordinary readers. Across both his fiction and his essays, he returned again and again to themes of reason, curiosity, ethical responsibility, and the power of human knowledge to shape society for better or worse. Those concerns feel especially relevant today, in an age still wrestling with technological change, scientific literacy, and the moral consequences of discovery. Asimov's legacy endures because he did more than predict futures; he taught readers how to think about them, with wit, clarity, and confidence in the human mind. Readers who enjoy intelligent science fiction, accessible scientific writing, and big ideas grounded in common sense will find him especially rewarding.

Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific and imaginative writers of the twentieth century, a Russian-born American author whose family emigrated to the United States when he was still a child and whose early fascination with science grew into a lifelong vocation as both storyteller and explainer...

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