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Rotblat's pursuit of nuclear peace

See more: An illustrated version of this article will be published within the next two weeks on our CultureLab books and arts blog

By Edwin Lyman

25 January 2012

NOBEL laureate and eminent scientist Joseph Rotblat was a man of inexhaustible energy, optimism and dedication. In this new biography, author and radiation oncologist Andrew Brown faithfully captures his character. Keeper of the Nuclear Conscience chronicles Rotblat’s journey from his beginnings in a prosperous Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland, before the first world war, to his rapid rise from electrician to internationally prominent nuclear physicist, and ultimately his committed opposition to nuclear weapons.

A protégé of neutron discoverer James Chadwick, Rotblat had been one of the scientists on the Manhattan Project. Yet he left in 1944, and after the atomic…

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