Collisions

A Physicist's Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs

De: Alec Nevala-Lee

Narrado por: Christopher Grove

To his admirers, Luis W. Alvarez was the most accomplished, inventive, and versatile experimental physicist of his generation. During World War II, he achieved major breakthroughs in radar, played a key role in the Manhattan Project, and served as the lead scientific observer at the bombing of Hiroshima. In the decades that followed, he revolutionized particle physics with the hydrogen bubble chamber, developed an innovative X-ray method to search for hidden chambers in the Pyramid of Chephren, and shot melons at a rifle range to test his controversial theory about the Kennedy assassination. At the very end of his life, he collaborated with his son to demonstrate that an asteroid impact was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, igniting a furious debate that raged for years after his death.

Alvarez was also a combative and relentlessly ambitious figure who testified as a government witness at the security hearing that destroyed the public career of his friend and colleague J. Robert Oppenheimer. In the first comprehensive biography of Alvarez, Alec Nevala-Lee vividly recounts one of the most compelling untold stories in modern science, a narrative overflowing with ideas, lessons, and anecdotes that will fascinate anyone with an interest in how genius and creativity collide with the problems of an increasingly challenging world.

©2025 Alec Nevala-Lee (P)2025 Tantor Media

Superb Biography of a Scientific Giant

This was a fascinating and detailed biography of one of the most creative and productive experimental physicists of the 20th Century. By his own admission, Luis Alvarez could not have been as successful in today’s social and scientific environment because of his arrogant and verbally/intellectually aggressive personality. However, because of his brilliance, total commitment, and take-no-prisoners scientific work/thought ethic, he was able to flourish in the 1930’s and 1940’s under early mentorship by other physicists including Arthur Compton and Ernest Lawrence during one of the most exciting periods in physics. The biography details his involvement and key contributions to scientific and technical areas including nuclear physics, microwave radar, ground-controlled approach systems for aircraft, implosion-type nuclear weapons and discovery of subatomic particle. This last area of discovery in subatomic particles occurred in his 40’s and 50’s during a second-burst of career creativity that comes to few scientists and resulted in his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968. His creative mind and unyielding scientific analysis led him to address many scientific questions outside his immediate area of physics and came to a stunning crescendo with the development of the asteroid impact theory along with his geologist son, Walter Alvarez, to explain the K-T events that were associated with dinosaur extinction (Alvarez Hypothesis.)
The biography is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the scientific method and the creative thought processes of a productive scientist. It also deals with the ugly interaction of science, politics and the search for and maintenance of scientific funding by describing the times, politics and personalities that resulted in Luis Alvarez’s testimony at the security clearance hearing orchestrated against J. Robert Oppenheimer in the early 1950’s that marked his tragic downfall.

Outstanding science bio

This is how science bios should be written - include the science! I loved this book, very interesting, well written, lots of surprises. This book blew the Oppenheimer bio out of the water (for me anyway) I did not like the bio of oppie because it did not include any of the science - this book puts you right in the lab coat - loved it!!!!