{"id":51427,"date":"2026-02-11T22:25:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=51427"},"modified":"2026-02-11T22:25:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:25:04","slug":"frank-close-destroyer-of-worlds-the-deep-history-of-the-nuclear-age-1895-1965","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=51427","title":{"rendered":"Frank Close, \u201eDestroyer of Worlds. The Deep History of the Nuclear Age: 1895-1965\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Henry Becquerel\u2019s accidental discovery, in Paris in 1896, of a faint smudge on a photographic plate sparked a chain of discoveries which would unleash the atomic age.<br><br><em>Destroyer of Worlds<\/em>&nbsp;is the story of how pursuit of this hidden source of nuclear power, which began innocently and collaboratively, was overwhelmed by the politics of the 1930s, and following devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki opened the way to a still more terrible possibility: a thermonuclear bomb, the so-called \u201cbackyard weapon\u201d, that could destroy all life on earth \u2013 from anywhere.<br><br>The story spans decades and continents, moving from Becquerel to Ernest Rutherford, the Cambridge-based, New Zealand scientist who first split the atom, expands to include Enrico Fermi in Rome, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner in Berlin and the Joliot-Curies in Paris, leading to the appearance of Robert Oppenheimer before climaxing with increasingly horrifying developments in the USA and USSR. The roles of three remarkable women \u2013 Lise Meitner, Ida Noddack and Irene Curie \u2013 are re-evaluated, and there are new insights into the work of Ettore Majorana, Fermi\u2019s mercurial but brilliant assistant, who mysteriously disappeared in 1938, possibly after foreseeing the explosive power of nuclear energy. Above all, this is a story of how knowledge is often advanced by personal convictions and relationships, an indeed by chance, in a remarkable way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About the author<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frank Close&nbsp;is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at Oxford University and Fellow Emeritus in Physics at Exeter College, Oxford. He is the author of&nbsp;<em>The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe<\/em>&nbsp;and most recently&nbsp;<em>Trinity: The Treachery and Pursuit of the Most Dangerous Spy in History<\/em>. He was formerly Head of the Theoretical Physics Division at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell and Head of Communications and Public Education at CERN. He was awarded the Kelvin Medal of the Institute of Physics for his &#8216;outstanding contributions to the public understanding of physics&#8217; in 1996, and the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for communicating science in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Publisher<\/strong>: Basic Books<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 10\/06\/2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Length<\/strong>: 336 pages<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/461868\/destroyer-of-worlds-by-close-frank\/9780241700860\">https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/461868\/destroyer-of-worlds-by-close-frank\/9780241700860<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knjige","category-novosti"],"acf":{"facebook_opis":""},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/FRANKC1.jpg?fit=360%2C558&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52834,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52834","url_meta":{"origin":51427,"position":0},"title":"&#8220;Spatial Worlds of Medieval Central Europe: Real, Imagined, and Conceptual&#8221;, Budapest, 19\u201321 May 2027","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"6. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Following successful conferences in Budapest (2014), Olomouc (2016), Zagreb (2018), Gda\u0144sk (2021), Bratislava (2023), and Munich (2025), the Seventh Biennial Conference of MECERN (http:\/\/mecern.eu\/) will focus on spatial worlds in medieval history, especially in Central Europe. The concepts of space, place, and the environment are central to our understanding of\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mecern-Logo.jpg?fit=450%2C270&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":52531,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52531","url_meta":{"origin":51427,"position":1},"title":"Jonathan G. Leslie, \u201eFear and Insecurity: Israel and the Iran Threat Narrative\u201c","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"17. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Why is Israel\u2019s former ally Iran now perceived as the country\u2019s greatest threat? Description To observers of the Iran-Israel conflict, its vitriolic rhetoric might suggest an ancient hatred between Jews and Muslims\u2013a biblical feud dating back hundreds, or thousands, of years. But this rivalry is a far more modern development.\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Knjige&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Knjige","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Leslie.jpg?fit=391%2C612&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":52742,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52742","url_meta":{"origin":51427,"position":2},"title":"The Violent 1950s: Towards a New History of the Global \u201cPostwar\u201d Decade, Washington, DC, 25th\u201326th February 2027 (Deadline: 12th June 2026)","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"4. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"This international conference aims to reassess the so-called postwar years. Reconceptualizing the 1950s as a deeply violent decade, marked not by the absence of conflict, but rather by its reconfiguration on all levels, the conference explores the manifold societal, political, and everyday manifestations of violence in the twilight phase of\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53473,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=53473","url_meta":{"origin":51427,"position":3},"title":"CfP: Those Who Serve: Service, Labor, and Social Hierarchies in Historical Perspective","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"19. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Doctoral and Postdoctoral Workshop: Ljubljana, 12\u201313 November 2026 Keynote: prof. dr. Jane Whittle (University of Exeter) From domestic servants and agricultural laborers to apprentices, soldiers, and clerks \u2013 countless people across history lived and worked in the service of others. This workshop explores service not merely as a job category,\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52692,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52692","url_meta":{"origin":51427,"position":4},"title":"Florian Bieber \u201eHvar in the Modern Age: Identity and Change in Southeast Europe\u201c","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"28. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Description\u00a0 In this open-access book, Florian Bieber traces the history of the Adriatic island of Hvar over half a millennium, from the advent of Venetian rule in the 15th century to the end of Yugoslavia in the late 20th century. 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