Worlds Within Worlds:
The Story of Nuclear Energy
Volume 1
Atomic Weights · Energy · Electricity
by Isaac Asimov
U. S. Energy Research and Development Administration
Office of Public Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20545
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-189477
1972
_Nothing in the history of mankind has opened our eyes to the
possibilities of science as has the development of atomic power. In the
last 200 years, people have seen the coming of the steam engine, the
steamboat, the railroad locomotive, the automobile, the airplane, radio,
motion pictures, television, the machine age in general. Yet none of it
seemed quite so fantastic, quite so unbelievable, as what man has done
since 1939 with the atom ... there seem to be almost no limits to what
may lie ahead: inexhaustible energy, new worlds, ever-widening knowledge
of the physical universe._
Isaac Asimov
[Illustration: Photograph of night sky]
The U. S. Energy Research and Development Administration publishes a
series of booklets for the general public.
Please write to the following address for a title list or for
information on a specific subject:
USERDA—Technical Information Center
P. O. Box 62
Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830
[Illustration: Isaac Asimov]
ISAAC ASIMOV received his academic degrees from Columbia University and
is Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the Boston University School
of Medicine. He is a prolific author who has written over 150 books in
the past 20 years, including about 20 science fiction works, and books
for children. His many excellent science books for the public cover
subjects in mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, and biology,
such as _The Genetic Code_, _Inside the Atom_, _Building Blocks of the
Universe_, _Understanding Physics_, _The New Intelligent Man’s Guide to
Science_, and _Asimov’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and
Technology_.
In 1965 Dr. Asimov received the James T. Grady Award of the American
Chemical Society for his major contribution in reporting science
progress to the public.
[Illustration: Photograph of night sky]
VOLUME 1
Introduction 5
Atomic Weights 6
Electricity 11
Units of Electricity 11
Cathode Rays 13
Radioactivity 17
The Structure of the Atom 25
Atomic Numbers 30
Isotopes 35
Energy 47
The Law of Conservation of Energy 47
Chemical Energy 50
Electrons and Energy 54
The Energy of the Sun 55
The Energy of Radioactivity 57
VOLUME 2
Mass and Energy 69
The Structure of the Nucleus 75
The Proton 75
The Proton-Electron Theory 76
Protons in Nuclei 80
Nuclear Bombardment 82
Particle Accelerators 86
The Neutron 92
Nuclear Spin 92
Discovery of the Neutron 95
The Proton-Neutron Theory 98
The Nuclear Interaction 101
Neutron Bombardment 107
VOLUME 3
Nuclear Fission 117
New Elements 117
The Discovery of Fission 122
The Nuclear Chain Reaction 127
The Nuclear Bomb 131
Nuclear Reactors 141
Nuclear Fusion 147
The Energy of the Sun 147
Thermonuclear Bombs 149
Controlled Fusion 151
Beyond Fusion 159
Antimatter 159
The Unknown 164
Reading List 166
[Illustration: _A total eclipse of the sun._]
INTRODUCTION
In a way, nuclear energy has been serving man as long as he has existed.
It has served all of life; it has flooded the earth for billions of
years. The sun, you see, is a vast nuclear engine, and the warmth and
light that the sun radiates is the product of nuclear energy.
In order for man to learn to produce and control nuclear energy himself,
however (something that did not take place until this century), three
lines of investigation—atoms, electricity, and energy—had to develop and
meet.
We will begin with atoms.