Conversations about nuclear weapons generally happen in past or future tense, skipping straight from Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project to an as-yet-unrealized apocalypse. In Countdown, science journalist Sarah Scoles uncovers a different atomic reality: the nuclear age’s present.
Drawing from years of on-the-ground reporting at the nation's nuclear weapons labs, Scoles sheds light on the scientists who work on these bombs and those who work to limit their potential destruction. Investigating the science, technology, philosophy, politics, culture, and motivation of the modern atomic era, Scoles interrogates the idea that having nuclear weapons keeps us safe, deterring attacks and preventing radioactive warfare. She deftly lays out the existing nuclear apparatus in the United States, taking readers beyond the news headlines and policy-speak to reveal the state of nuclear-weapons technology, as well as how the current generation of U.S. nuclear weapons scientists have come to think about these bombs and the idea that someone, someday, might use them.
Through a sharp, surprising, and undoubtedly urgent narrative, Scoles brings us out of the Cold War and into the twenty-first century, opening readers' eyes to the true nature of nuclear weapons and their caretakers while also giving us the context necessary to understand the consequences of their existence, for worse and for better, for now and for the future.
You can pre-order here.
Read some of my previous work about nuclear weapons:
"Nuclear War Could End the World, but What if It’s All in Our Heads?" The New York Times
"Trust but Verify," Science
"What New Insights about Our First Nuclear Test Reveal about the Future of War," Popular Science
"Alarm Will Sound," Popular Science
"An American Tail," Popular Science
"A Model to Detect Explosions Big and Small," Physics Today
"US Continues Push to Restart Pit Production," Physics Today
"Navigating a Career in Secret Physics," Physics Today
"Radioactive Material is Basically Everywhere, and that's a Problem," Scientific American
"Nuclear Testing Downwinders Speak about History and Fear," Scientific American
"How a Video Game Could Help Us Understand Nuclear War," Popular Science
Drawing from years of on-the-ground reporting at the nation's nuclear weapons labs, Scoles sheds light on the scientists who work on these bombs and those who work to limit their potential destruction. Investigating the science, technology, philosophy, politics, culture, and motivation of the modern atomic era, Scoles interrogates the idea that having nuclear weapons keeps us safe, deterring attacks and preventing radioactive warfare. She deftly lays out the existing nuclear apparatus in the United States, taking readers beyond the news headlines and policy-speak to reveal the state of nuclear-weapons technology, as well as how the current generation of U.S. nuclear weapons scientists have come to think about these bombs and the idea that someone, someday, might use them.
Through a sharp, surprising, and undoubtedly urgent narrative, Scoles brings us out of the Cold War and into the twenty-first century, opening readers' eyes to the true nature of nuclear weapons and their caretakers while also giving us the context necessary to understand the consequences of their existence, for worse and for better, for now and for the future.
You can pre-order here.
Read some of my previous work about nuclear weapons:
"Nuclear War Could End the World, but What if It’s All in Our Heads?" The New York Times
"Trust but Verify," Science
"What New Insights about Our First Nuclear Test Reveal about the Future of War," Popular Science
"Alarm Will Sound," Popular Science
"An American Tail," Popular Science
"A Model to Detect Explosions Big and Small," Physics Today
"US Continues Push to Restart Pit Production," Physics Today
"Navigating a Career in Secret Physics," Physics Today
"Radioactive Material is Basically Everywhere, and that's a Problem," Scientific American
"Nuclear Testing Downwinders Speak about History and Fear," Scientific American
"How a Video Game Could Help Us Understand Nuclear War," Popular Science