Atomic Awakening
A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power
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Narrated by:
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John McLain
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By:
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James Mahaffey
About this listen
"Persuasive and based on deep research. Atomic Awakening taught me a great deal." (Nature)
The American public's introduction to nuclear technology was manifested in destruction and death. With Hiroshima and the Cold War still ringing in our ears, our perception of all things nuclear is seen through the lens of weapons development. Nuclear power is full of mind-bending theories, deep secrets, and the misdirection of public consciousness - some deliberate, some accidental. The result of this fixation on bombs and fallout is that the development of a non-polluting, renewable energy source stands frozen in time.
Outlining nuclear energy's discovery and applications throughout history, Mahaffey's brilliant and accessible book is essential to understanding the astounding phenomenon of nuclear power in an age where renewable energy and climate change have become the defining concerns of the twenty-first century.
©2009 James Mahaffey (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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A person does not have to delve deeply into his or her memory to determine why nuclear power has a bad rap. The disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima, not to mention the terrifying specters of Hiroshima and the Cold War, inform many personal judgments about nuclear safety. But in his first book, research physicist James Mahaffey aims to get the facts straight and establish the viability of nuclear power beyond both the hype and the scare tactics.
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Beyond dares to imagine a fantastic future for humans in space - and then reminds us that we're already there. Human exploration has been an unceasing engine of technological progress, from the first homo sapiens to leave our African cradle to a future in which mankind promises to settle another world. Beyond tells the epic story of humanity leaving home - and how humans will soon thrive in the vast universe beyond the Earth.
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OTHER WORLDS
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 01-10-16
By: Chris Impey
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The Case for Mars
- The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
- By: Robert Zubrin, Richard Wagner, Arthur C. Clarke - Foreword
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the beginning of human history Mars has been an alluring dream - the stuff of legends, gods, and mystery. The planet most like ours, it has still been thought impossible to reach, let alone explore and inhabit. Now with the advent of a revolutionary new plan, all this has changed. Leading space exploration authority Robert Zubrin has crafted a daring new blueprint, Mars Direct, presented here with engaging anecdotes. The Case for Mars is not a vision for the far future or one that will cost us impossible billions.
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Compelling
- By Michael D. Busch on 04-16-18
By: Robert Zubrin, and others
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Meltdown
- Nuclear Disaster and the Human Cost of Going Critical
- By: Joel Levy
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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From the pioneers of Los Alamos who got up close and personal with the cores of atomic bombs, to the hapless engineers in Soviet fuel-processing plants who unwittingly mixed up a disaster in a bucket, and from the terrifying impact of a tsunami at Fukushima to the mystery of the recent Russian incident, Meltdown explores the past and future of this extraordinary and potentially lethal source of infinite power
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A less well written version of another book
- By Amazon Customer on 01-10-22
By: Joel Levy
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Chernobyl 01:23:40
- The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster
- By: Andrew Leatherbarrow
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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At 01:23:40 on April 26th 1986, Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button at Chernobyl's fourth nuclear reactor. It was an act that forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands, and crippled the Soviet Union. The event spawned decades of conflicting, exaggerated, and inaccurate stories.
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Lost in his own navel
- By Christopher on 10-17-16
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Five Billion Years of Solitude
- The Search for Life Among the Stars
- By: Lee Billings
- Narrated by: Lee Billings
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its formation nearly five billion years ago, our planet has been the sole living world in a vast and silent universe. Now, Earth's isolation is coming to an end. Over the past two decades, astronomers have discovered thousands of "exoplanets" orbiting other stars, including some that could be similar to our own world. Studying those distant planets for signs of life will be crucial to understanding life's intricate mysteries right here on Earth. In a firsthand account of this unfolding revolution, Lee Billings draws on interviews with top researchers.
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Bloated
- By Dr A on 01-09-14
By: Lee Billings
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How the Laser Happened
- Adventures of a Scientist
- By: Charles H. Townes
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In How the Laser Happened, Nobel laureate Charles Townes provides a highly personal look at some of the leading events in 20th-century physics. This lively memoir, packed with firsthand accounts and historical anecdotes, is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history of science and an inspiring example for students considering scientific careers.
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Great for aspiring physicists
- By James S. on 10-06-18
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Confessions of an Alien Hunter
- A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
- By: Seth Shostak
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
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This engaging memoir reveals the true story of the Search for ExtraterrestrialIntelligence (SETI), and discloses what we may very soon discover. Chronicling the program’s history with insight and humor, SETI senior astronomer Seth Shostak assures us that if there is sentient life in the universe, we are within decades of picking up its signal.
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Somewhat Disappointed...
- By Tim on 11-12-10
By: Seth Shostak
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The Apocalypse Factory
- Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
- By: Steve Olson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
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It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs.
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Lacking in many aspects
- By ATM on 08-27-20
By: Steve Olson
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The Unknown Universe
- A New Exploration of Time, Space and Cosmology
- By: Stuart Clark
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
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On March 21, 2013, the European Space Agency released a map of the afterglow of the big bang. Taking in 440 sextillion kilometers of space and 13.8 billion years of time, it is physically impossible to make a better map: We will never see the early universe in more detail. On the one hand, such a view is the apotheosis of modern cosmology; on the other, it threatens to undermine almost everything we hold cosmologically sacrosanct.
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Everything, Absolutely Everything!
- By Gillian on 03-09-17
By: Stuart Clark
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The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics
- A Math-Free Exploration of the Science That Made Our World
- By: James Kakalios
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
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In The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, James Kakalios uses examples from comics and magazines to explain how breakthroughs in quantum mechanics led to such technologies as the World Wide Web, pocket-sized computers, mobile phones, and MRI machines.....
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The exhibits are missing from Audible
- By David on 12-13-10
By: James Kakalios
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Accessory to War
- The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military
- By: Avis Lang, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Courtney B. Vance, Neil deGrasse Tyson - introduction
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
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In this fascinating foray into the centuries-old relationship between science and military power, acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and writer-researcher Avis Lang examine how the methods and tools of astrophysics have been enlisted in the service of war. "The overlap is strong, and the knowledge flows in both directions," say the authors, because astrophysicists and military planners care about many of the same things: multi-spectral detection, ranging, tracking, imaging, high ground, nuclear fusion, and access to space. Tyson and Lang call it a "curiously complicit" alliance.
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Inspiring, educational, patriotic.
- By Kevin on 09-17-18
By: Avis Lang, and others
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No more accents, please!
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This was a pretty sensational and biased book.
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Uranium is a common element in the earth's crust and the only naturally occurring mineral with the power to end all life on the planet. After World War II, it reshaped the global order---whoever could master uranium could master the world. Marie Curie gave us hope that uranium would be a miracle panacea, but the Manhattan Project gave us reason to believe that civilization would end with apocalypse.
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GREAT book, awful narration
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From the New York Times best-selling author of Rocket Men and the award-winning biographer of Thomas Paine comes the first complete history of the Atomic Age, a brilliant, magisterial account of the men and women who uncovered the secrets of the nucleus, brought its power to America, and ignited the 20th century.
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Strong finish
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When asked to name the world’s first major nuclear accident, most people cite the Three Mile Island incident or the Chernobyl disaster. Revealed in this book is one of American history’s best-kept secrets: the world’s first nuclear reactor accident to claim fatalities happened on United States soil. Chronicled here for the first time is the strange tale of SL-1, a military test reactor located in Idaho’s Lost River Desert that exploded on the night of January 3, 1961, killing the three-man maintenance crew on duty.
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A Really Good, but Dreadfully Written Book
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What listeners say about Atomic Awakening
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- James S.
- 09-11-17
Narrator not as bad as in the intro snippet.
Detailed, informative, and entertaining. Not at all technical, but enough meat to keep technically-minded listeners happy. Complements his newest book, Atomic Adventures, which is also great.
Narrator was dry and took away significantly from the author's personality. Otherwise the narration was fine. Audible needs to choose better audio snippets; for the longest time I avoided buying this book for fear of having to listen to that obnoxious, overly-inflected narration for 12 hours.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Scott
- 02-03-17
Perfect for any science nerd
Any additional comments?
Loved it. Five stars, all that. Thorough history of nuclear radiation and nukes. Can be a bit "text-booky" at times, but overall it's a great read on the subject. My biggest gripe is that the narrator sounds like he is reading a movie-trailer, but this is a minor annoyance. I highly recommend it anyone who wants to learn more about the subject. I would also recommend Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, by Eric Schlosser. It read more like a novel and is also full of great info.
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- Geir Konrad
- 02-22-17
The blessings and bombs of nuclear technology
Atomic awakening by James Mahaffey is one of the better books I've ever gone through! From blessed Marie Curie to the genius buffoon Richard Feynman and many more amazing people the thrilling and fascinating story is told of the discovery and development of nuclear technology. Alas the story also tells of how regretful it is that destruction and death was our first real public introduction to this potential second coming of Promethean fire to mankind. Good heavens, this book was interesting and John McLain does a great job narrating it.
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- Quality?
- 11-01-20
little more please
This was a surprise to get thru, was way better than I thought. The details were not too dry and would have liked just a bit more recent info included at the end.
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- KPeters13
- 08-24-16
Audio error?
Voice on X1 is painstakingly slow. Voice on X1.25 speed is ridiculously fast. Voice tone of speaker was not meant for this book/material. I would not purchase the audiobook if I had listened to the sample of the audio first.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-30-17
wonderful book!
great narrator, gifted writer. very highly recommended. I laughed my butt off over the helmet story in chapter 15. I learned a lot, laughed a little and cringed 100 times over some of these stories. amazing book..
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1 person found this helpful
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- Uri
- 06-30-21
the history is a bit too much
the story was good overall but I would have liked to hear more about contemporary reactor designs and public opinion rather than a closer look at the theory leading up to the discovery of the nuclear reactor.
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- Ray McBeam
- 11-05-21
Great Read
This was a good listen for anyone interested in the topic. Optimistic, yet doesn't shy away from problems with Nuclear power. A must for anyone interested in combating climate change.
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- Shawn
- 02-24-20
great over all view of all things nuclear
great book packed with information of ionizing radiation from the lab, to the field. the author puts everything into context that someone in the industry can understand and relate to even down to the instruments
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- David Slayback
- 09-27-21
An enthusiast's history of nuclear science
Up front, I'm generally a fan of nuclear energy, and it's evident that the author (a former nuclear scientist himself) is too. That said, I think the book does a decent job of telling an unbiased factual history of the atomic age. Mahaffey does a great job breaking down the important advances along the way so that a layman can understand, weaving in humor and interesting life tidbits into a compelling narrative that kept me interested throughout. I particularly enjoyed the section on the immediate post-war era, which tells a string of crazy (brilliant and/or terrifying) experiments and ideas born out of a palpable excitement about the possibilities of this new invention! Despite being a bit out-of-date with current nuclear progress, the ending was also satisfyingly motivational.
Mahaffey doesn't necessarily have any grand predictions or particular prescriptions. He has a view, but it doesn't feel preachy. Mostly, it's a well-paced historical narrative tinged with the optimism and excitement he clearly has.
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