Nuclear Science

Whether you are a scientist or a poet, pro-nuclear energy or staunch opponent, conspiracy theorist or pragmatist, James Mahaffey's books have served to open up the world of nuclear science like never before. With clear explanations of some of the most complex scientific endeavors in history, Mahaffey's new book looks back at the atom's wild, secretive past and then toward its potentially bright future.

And so it begins.... In the United States, the Department of Defense and the NSA computer networks have been hacked. A nuclear-armed CIA drone has lost all flight control. North Korea...Iran...Russia...and soon the gates of Hell will open. Humanity's most terrifying nightmare has become reality. Bombs are detonated, missiles are launched, counterstrikes are ordered, and within minutes, untold thousands of megatons have left countless millions dead or dying. Devastation of biblical proportions has fallen over the land...and the USA has been hit the hardest.

Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have. Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario.

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.

Since the 1950s, scientists have attempted to harness nuclear fusion—the process that creates the Sun's energy—to generate near-limitless amounts of electricity. But the fact that we still have no fusion power plants is testament to the complexities of the challenge. Now, the deepening climate crisis means that researchers around the world are in a race to create a mini-Sun here on Earth. The glittering prize is an energy source that emits no greenhouse gases and could solve energy equity and supply issues at a stroke.

Tough-as-nails Dakota Sloane has spent her life running from the past. A man haunted by secrets, Logan Garcia has only one goal: to drink himself into oblivion. When a bomb detonates over Miami, utter anarchy erupts. Dakota knows of a safe house deep in the Everglades, but she needs Logan's help to survive the chaos. But the radiation isn't the only threat. At every turn, deadly foes are determined to stop them. As a diabolical conspiracy emerges, Logan and Dakota must prepare for the fight of their lives against an enemy more powerful than they could ever imagine.

Nearly 30 years after the end of the Cold War, today's world leaders are abandoning disarmament treaties, building up their nuclear arsenals, and exchanging threats of nuclear strikes. To survive this new atomic age, we must relearn the lessons of the most dangerous moment of the Cold War: the Cuban missile crisis. Serhii Plokhy offers an international perspective on the crisis, tracing the tortuous decision-making that produced and then resolved it, which involved John Kennedy and his advisers, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, and their commanders on the ground.

A nuclear priesthood has arisen in Russia. From portable churches to the consecration of weapons systems, the Russian Orthodox Church has been integrated into every facet of the armed forces to become a vital part of Russian national security, politics, and identity. This extraordinary intertwining of church and military is nowhere more visible than in the nuclear weapons community, where the priesthood has penetrated all levels of command and the Church has positioned itself as a guardian of the state's nuclear potential.

All life depends on the sun’s rays. The sunlight promotes life. Plants need light to grow. Animals need plants to survive. The power of the sun was the key to the delicate balance of Earth’s ecosystem. However, as the Earth’s atmosphere was changed by the aftermath of nuclear war, everything its human inhabitants thought they understood about survival was obsolete. They had to evolve with the catastrophic effects of nuclear winter.

With a credible threat to the US and a plane stuck on the tarmac, Grant Walton is 30 seconds from full-blown panic mode. He's the only one in the airport who knows the truth. When the power goes out, he can't waste another second. It's the beginning of the end and every man for himself. Leah Walton is wrapping up a 12-hour shift as a nurse in the heart of the city. When the power goes out, the hospital operates on crisis mode. She can't stop to breathe, let alone check her messages. When she finally listens to her husband's frantic calls, she's faced with an impossible choice: leave or die trying.

The skies darkened and the temperatures dropped. Intense firestorms spread across the Earth at each point where the bombs detonated. Fallen trees and homes had become the perfect kindling. Oil and natural gas reserves together with coal seams and peat bogs smoldered for many months. From the initial firestorm and the spread of smoke to the destruction of the Earth's ecosystem, all living things were beginning to perish.

Humanity thought they were the only intelligent life in the universe. They were wrong. An alien spacecraft has crashed on Earth. A group of scientists want to establish contact with the aliens. A hostile government wants to nuke the crash site. Special Forces Major Joe Hunt is caught in the middle. With time running out to establish a peaceful relationship with the aliens, Joe must battle his instincts and unexpected forces that threaten the very future of humanity. Regardless of what happens, Earth risks being dragged into a galactic civil war it's not ready for. Minus Epsilon is classic ...

The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States is an exciting piece of "speculative fiction." The novel posits that there was a nuclear attack against the US on March 21, 2020 by North Korea, and that a national bipartisan commission was created to investigate what and how it happened. It's pretty scary stuff.

From the acclaimed author of The Nobel Prize comes this fascinating portrait of four of the greatest minds in the history of science and the impossible turning point they faced. As World War II wound down, and it became increasingly clear that the Allies would emerge victorious, Albert Einstein invited three close friends - all titans of contemporary science and philosophy - to his home at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton, New Jersey, to discuss what they loved best: science and philosophy.

Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.

The first shots of war have been fired, now it's a race against time to stop a headlong rush before someone fires the last shots. The alien probe that created dozens of superhuman weapons and unleashed them on Houston has a new testing site, the city of Hong Kong, and Alexander Hale has been asked to intervene. With no idea who, or how, the experiments on people are being done he slips into the city to try and find out what ever he can, but beyond the skyline of Hong Kong trouble is brewing.

In the first book of this survival thriller series, the pinnacle of human innovation turns into mankind’s greatest nightmare as Nuclear Armageddon was triggered.

★★★★★ "The most engaging post apocalyptic/dystopian thriller I've ever read!" ★★★★★ "Holy Cow!" No Power. No Telephone. No internet. No T.V. No Transport. Nothing. What will you do when the world as we know it stops? For Kate Wolfe, the answer is simple - whatever it takes to protect her family. For Bob Jackson and his militia, it's the day they've been planning for. The day they take control. When the two collide, as the city of Boise falls to ruin, nobody can predict how things will end. ★★★★★ "I put Murray in the same class as Brad Thor, James Rollins, David...

Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind.

After fleeing the radioactive ruins of Miami, Dakota and Logan finally reach their destination: a cabin deep in the Everglades, surrounded by a million acres of saw grass rivers, cypress forests, and gator-infested swampland. It was supposed to be safe. It's not. Now, Dakota and Logan must fight to save the place that was supposed to save them. It's not only their home, it's their future.