Atomic history

It is now understood that German scientists were nowhere near building an atomic bomb during World War II, but was this due to an anti-Nazi or a higher ethical purpose? Jeremy Bernstein attempts to unravel the controversies surrounding German wartime motives in Hitler’s Uranium Club (American Institute of Physics, £25/$34.95, ISBN 1 56396 258 6), the recently declassified secret recordings from Farm Hall, Cambridge, of 10 German scientists captured in 1945. Detailed annotations and insight address an ongoing, passionate debate of recent world history, but the selfexplanatory ideas and science are intended for the nonprofessional … if you feel strong enough.