Curve of Binding Energy
by John McPhee · first published 1974
76% recommend20% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Profile of nuclear weapons designer Theodore Taylor that makes the science approachable. Covers how bombs are built and how easily a determined person might improvise one; suits readers curious about nuclear weapons.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Theodore Taylor was one of the most brilliant engineers of the nuclear age, but in his later years he became concerned with the possibility of an individual being able to construct a weapon of mass destruction on their own. McPhee tours American nuclear institutions with Taylor and shows us how close we are to terrorist attacks employing homemade nuclear weaponry.
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…concorde suisse was not easily available on the usual ebook resources, but he's an author worth paying for. another excellent book of his that would likely line up well with hn-adjacent interests is the curve of binding energy, written in the early 90s about a physicist's concern with the risk of nuclear proliferation among nonstate actors: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54968.The_Curve_of_Bindi...
on “Self Sabotage: The Swiss History of Rigging Vital Infrastructure to Explode” ↗You might check out John McPhee’s The Curve of Binding Energy, a non-fiction book. There’s a lot of stuff in there about how his interview subject (a former nuclear weapons designer) would approach the problem of designing an improvised nuclear device (circa about…
on “Ask HN: Any tech help out there for a techno-thriller inspired by post on HN?” ↗…far more than enough to make tens of thousands of Nagasaki sized nukes. If you want to know more about the politics and chemistry of nuclear fuel reprocessing, I recommend you read McPhee's book The Curve of Binding Energy. http://www.amazon.com/Curve-Binding-Energy-Alarming-Theodore...
on “There Is No Such Thing as Nuclear Waste” ↗…purchasing plutonium in the early 1970s, it destroyed the economic model for building and operating nuclear power plants. Not the meltdown at three mile island, nor tree hugging lawyers. Please read The Curve of Binding Energy for more details. http://www.amazon.com/Curve-Binding-Energy-Alarming-Theodore...
on “Malcolm Gladwell: Is free the future?” ↗There's a book from the 70s, _The Curve of Binding Energy_, by John McPhee, which is about how easy it was at that time to acquire weapons-grade materials and design and build a device. I found it pretty interesting. Of course, I read it in the 1980s, and…
on “This experiment proved that anyone could design a nuclear weapon” ↗…project, and he did all kinds of things. See for instance Gleick's Feynman biography, "Genius". http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/98685.Genius Another good read about the project is this bio: "The Curve of Binding Energy: A Journey into the Awesome and Alarming World of Theodore B. Taylor" ...which is obviously mostly about Taylor (on the Manhattan Project), but has some Feynman anecdotes. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54968.The_Curve_of_Bindin...
on “Scientists Say Their Giant Laser Has Produced Nuclear Fusion” ↗"The Curve of Binding Energy: A Journey into the Awesome and Alarming World of Theodore B. Taylor" is excellent as well: http://www.amazon.com/The-Curve-Binding-Energy-Alarming/dp/0...
on “Using the wrong dictionary” ↗…explosives and lots of tricks to make it work. Plus techniques for making X-ray movies of an explosion as it happens to debug the process. Los Alamos went through tons of explosives getting that right. "The Curve of Binding Energy", by John McPhee, covers all this. Making a fusion bomb is quite hard, and there are still parts of that which are classified. US bombs use some material called "FOGBANK", which is not only classified…
on “The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the U.S.” ↗Also the excellent John McPhee book, "The Curve of Binding Energy," centered on Dr. Edward Teller, the "father of the hydrogen bomb."
on “New evidence shows this uranium cube is likely relic of Nazi A-bomb program” ↗The Curve of Binding Energy: A Journey into the Awesome and Alarming World of Theodore B. Taylor Read this book and you will be amazed at the things you learn about nuclear weapons, and at the same time wonder if you're now on…
on “Ask HN: What is the randomest book you've ever read? (that you'd recommend)” ↗…leaked/released information out there that a sufficiently interested party would very easily be able to obtain most of the steps/schematics necessary. It's a little outdated at this point, but McPhee's 'The Curve of Binding Energy' is a fascinating read on this topic
on “The Odin – DIY genetic engineering” ↗McPhee was recommended as someone whose writing "makes boring things interesting". I did enjoy The Curve of Binding Energy (nuclear science) and to some extent Coming out of the Country (Alaska). Both of those featured interesting vignettes and colorful characters which propelled along the narrative. However, I then turned…
on “The McPhee method for writing deeply reported nonfiction” ↗John McPhee is a great underrated non-fiction author, up there with the late Tracy Kidder. I particularly like McPhee's "The Curve of Binding Energy" about the physicist Theodore B. Taylor.
on “Who Killed the Florida Orange?” ↗"The Curve of Binding Energy", John McPhee. Also some original research.
on “For 20 Years the Nuclear Launch Code at US Minuteman Silos Was 00000000” ↗John McPhee's "The Curve of Binding Energy".
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗