Heller Als Tausend Sonnen

by Robert Jungk

An account of the remarkable scientists who discovered that nuclear fission was possible and then became concerned about its implications. Index. Translated by James Cleugh.

Genres: Science, History, Nonfiction, Physics, Biography, War, History Of Science

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

née Robert Baum
aka Robert Baum-Jungk

Reviews

[Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thing I remember most about this book was the sense of Greek tragedy unfolding, as the Americans raced to finish the bomb, fearful that the Nazis would get there first. Meanwhile the scientists who were working for the Nazis dragged their feet as much as they could. As a reader you can see both sides but they could not see each other, and there is no hope that the ending will be different than what you know; you continue reading but with a strong sense of fatalism, more than any book I read I think.

[Mook Woramon · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘สุกสว่างพ่างเพี้ยงสุริยันกว่าพันดวง’
แค่เห็นชื่อหนังสือก็ต้องซื้อแล้วมั้ย อ่านแล้วเห็นภาพระเบิดปรมาณูระเบิดตู้มต้ามตรงหน้าเลย ☀️☀️

หนังสือเล่าประวัติศาสตร์การพัฒนาระเบิดปรมาณูผ่านชีวิตบรรดานักวิทยาศาสตร์ที่เกี่ยวข้อง
ผู้เขียนได้สัมภาษณ์บุคคลในประวัติศาสตร์ตัวเป็น ๆ
หนังสือตีพิมพ์มาตั้งแต่ ค.ศ. 1956 เลยอ่านสนุก สมจริง เสมือนเราอยู่ในยุคนั้นด้วย

เรื่องนี้ไม่ได้เล่าประวัติศาสตร์อย่างน่าเบื่อ แต่เป็นการเล่าชีวิตคนจริง ๆ อ่านแล้วหลากหลายอารมณ์มาก

- ช่วงหลังสงครามโลกครั้งที่หนึ่ง เป็นบรรยากาศความตื่นเต้นกับการค้นพบใหม่ ๆ เกี่ยวกับอะตอม ยูเรเนียม ปฏิกิริยาฟิชชั่น บทสนทนาเกี่ยวกับสมการต่าง ๆ การฟาดฟันกันด้วยข้อมูลไม่ยั้ง สังคมอุดมปัญญา ยุคทองวิทยาศาสตร์สุด ๆ ➕✖️🟰

- พอเริ่มเข้าสู่สงครามโลกครั้งที่สอง เครียดละ อึมครึม กดดัน คุกคาม ต้องลี้ภัยการเมือง

นักวิทยาศาสตร์กังวลว่าใครจะพัฒนาระเบิดปรมาณูได้ก่อน เยอรมนีหรืออเมริกา ต่างคนต่างรีบให้อเมริกาพัฒนาระเบิด
จนกระทั่งอเมริกาพัฒนาระเบิดใกล้สำเร็จ ก็เพิ่งรู้ว่าเยอรมนีไม่มีทางสร้างระเบิดได้ อ้าว ชิบหายละ กลับมากังวลกับอเมริกาต่อ

‘เราหยุดวิตกกังวลว่าเยอรมนีจะทำอะไรกับเราแต่กลับต้องเริ่มกังวลใหม่ว่ารัฐบาลของประเทศอเมริกาจะทำอะไรกับประเทศอื่น ๆ’…หน้า 167

นักวิทยาศาสตร์เริ่มเรียกร้องให้ทบทวนการสร้างระเบิด แต่นั่นแหละใครจะต้านทานการเมืองและเหล่าทหารได้
ระเบิดปรมาณูถูกใช้งานโดยปราศจากคำเตือนถึงความร้ายแรงให้ประเทศญี่ปุ่นที่กำลังจะแพ้สงครามอยู่รอมร่อ

เหล่านักวิทยาศาสตร์ผู้มีส่วนร่วมต่างเกิดความขัดแย้งในใจ แม้จะดีใจที่สามารถสร้างสรรค์พลังงานที่ทรงแสนยานุภาพได้ แต่สิ่งนั้นกลับถูกใช้คร่าชีวิตมนุษย์ไปมากมาย

นักวิทยาศาสตร์บางคนถูกเกมการเมืองเล่นงาน บางคนซึมเศร้า บางคนจมอยู่กับความรู้สึกผิดตลอดชีวิต นี่อาจเป็นบทลงโทษในการไปเปิดกล่องแพนโดร่านั้นขึ้นมา

อ่านเล่มนี้จบได้แต่คาดหวังว่าประวัติศาสตร์จะไม่ซ้ำรอย เราเจ็บปวดมามากพอแล้ว

ป.ล. อ่านแล้วนึกถึงตอนไป atomic bomb museum nagasaki หดหู่มาก นาฬิกาหยุดเดินเมื่อ 9/8/1945, 11.02 A.M.

[Aurelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

This book was written back in the 1950s and should still be a warning to all of us today. We are literally sitting on weapons that could easily extinguish the entire human race within a couple weeks.
Robert Jungk created an outstanding documentation about the global race to the nuclear bomb which basically started with the discovery of the neutron and its possible applications by James Chadwick back in 1932.

The university of Göttingen was a hotspot for nuclear physicists in the 1920s and early 1930s. J. Robert Oppenheimer and Werner Heisenberg for example studied and worked there. With the rise of Nazi Germany most of them were forced to leave the country to be able to continue their work in the academic world. Two of them were Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer which both should play a major role later. Oppenheimer was appointed as director of the Manhattan-Project in 1943 while Einstein was able to connected the physicists with the politics due to his kind of stardom.

It took a couple of years before the US government was willing to really put effort into the development of a nuclear bomb. With the great fear that Hitler could be able to use nuclear bombs way earlier than the US they worked really hard to win this race without thinking about the great danger of their new discovery.

It was fascinating to see how the minds of the physicists changed from being enthusiastic to being very concerned about the danger of such a deadly weapon as soon as the US physicists realized that Nazi Germany wasn't even working on it. Due to Hitlers instruction, all new weapons had to be ready for action within six weeks after the construction started and it was just not possible to develop a nuclear bomb within this short period of time. Some physicist like Werner Heisenberg who stayed in Nazi Germany started to influence the German regime so that they would not start the development of the bomb.

In 1945 the US regime and the US nuclear physicists had huge discussions about how they should present the new weapon to the world. Many of them voted for a presentation in a desert where nobody can be killed. Some of them voted for Hiroshima or even for the historically significant Kyoto. Most physicists just wanted to show that this type of weapon should not be used in the future and they suggested that there should be some kind of a global monitoring of all that's going on in the nuclear science.

After Germany already surrendered and Japan already was open for surrender negotiations the US under president Harry S. Truman decided to shock the world with their basically last minute attack against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
These two bombs alone killed over 200.000 people and even more suffered of some kind of cancer later.

[Chris S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly terrifying.

'If the radiance of a thousand suns
were to burst into the sky,
that would be like
the splendour of the Mighty One -'

...

'I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds'
- Bhagavad Gita

(uttered by Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atomic bomb, upon seeing the first ever nuclear mushroom cloud)

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. The moral implications of the construction of the atomic bomb from the mid 1950s. (Heisenberg is a little too whitewashed for my liking, btw.)

[Kuba Jeziorski · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Arun Chaganty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book presents vivid descriptions of what happened behind the scenes during the development of the atomic bomb and presents an amazing story of how the scientific community first lobbied the U.S. government to build the bomb and then struggled to prevent them from using it. I haven't read a better account of the moral quandaries that scientists at that time faced. As with all good historical accounts, it remains incredibly relevant today.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The rating for this is really 3.5 stars but let me explain…

Brighter Than 1000 Suns is the story of the development of Atomic and Hydrogen bombs. It is a summary of atomic research from the earliest steps in the early 20th Century to the problems Robert Oppenheimer faced, so well documented in Christopher Nolan’s film. The book provides good insights into the various personalities of the individuals and range of research undertaken and explores the cooperation prior to WW2 and the competition to develop the bomb to hasten the end of the war.

So overall a great story well told. However, my beef with the book is based on the poor quality of the presentation. I read this in the Kindle eBook edition and the conversion of the material to an electronic book is appalling. I’m not sure how these conversions work but usually there may be one or two errors- this eBook is literally riddled with them to the point that in places it is incomprehensible. It is apparent that no one took the time to proofread the content. It probably took 5% to 10% longer to read than it should have as I attempted to interpret the meaning.

By all means read ‘Brighter Than 1000 Suns’ but don’t waste your time with the eBook version.

[Tatiana Malyutina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title quote suggests that this book is more exciting than any novel and it is so very true. As exciting as it is scary. Detailed depiction of choices, circumstances and small incidents, all of which led to complete destroying of two cities, extinction of almost 300000 people and contamination by both atomic and thermonuclear weapon.

And although author does not refrain himself from exploring personal stories of involved individuals it is more of “the bigger picture” book. Starting as a history of brilliant physicists at the dawn of the 20th century, this book slowly reveals historical, political and human aspects to the problems of nuclear weapon in the most unstable time.

The author did a great job placing pieces of the puzzle together in thorough yet elegant manner.

[Don Piccone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tragic story of excitement and enthusiasm of pursuit of knowledge and discovery of splitting the ⚛️ atom and remorse at success.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the second book I read for my Junior year philosophy class, "Modern Physics and Moral Responsibility." It is essentially a history of atomic science from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Cold War in the 1950's. A large component of this book deals with the Manhattan Project (especially the secrecies surrounding Oak Ridge/Los Alamos and compartmentalization), and the US government's decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I already wrote a lot about this book for my class, so I will keep this review brief.
The most interesting thing I learned from this book is that the Germans actually did not make much progress towards developing their own atomic bomb in World War II. The original purpose of the Manhattan Project was a defensive one: we needed to beat the Germans to an atomic bomb so Hitler couldn't destroy us. However, once we realized that the Germans didn't have an atomic bomb, there was very little change in the mentality of military leaders of the Manhattan Project like General Groves. We were going to use the atomic bomb for war purposes regardless of the atomic situation in Germany.
The most intriguing character in this book was definitely J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist who led scientific operations for the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer was a brilliant, yet controversial man. He earned his PhD at Gottingen in Germany in the 1920's (a flourishing academic institution at the time), and later became a professor at Berkely. The US government knew that Oppenheimer had communist connections, although they couldn't fire him because he was essential to the Manhattan Project. Perhaps one of the most troubling anecdotes was Oppenheimer's betrayal of a friend named Chevalier, who he accused as being an "unknown intermediary" in Soviet communication. Ultimately, Oppenheimer's security clearance was revoked by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1954, but this was eventually reinstated by the Biden Administration in 2022.

[Nathan Hillyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, I will say that this is both a good and bad review. Good for the book itself, terrible for the ebook version. I read large sections of this book back in 1995 for a term paper I was writing, so I remembered being intrigued and wanting to go back and read all of it. And for the content, I was not disappointed. I would give it 4 stars on a purely well written basis.

HOWEVER, I would love to know whoever transferred this to a digital format because the lazy jerk never proofread what got scanned. It’s awful. I felt like I had to decode words frequently. Colonel Pash was alternately referred to as Bash and Rash, for example, but that is one of the easier ones. Nonsense punctuation was occasionally substituted for letters, the placement of footnotes was unpredictable, and towards the end I found that entire paragraph sections were spliced into further paragraphs.

And, I am almost certain a section regarding the lifestyles of the atomic scientists at Los Alamos was missing. I remember reading about Kitty Oppenheimer’s alcoholism and somewhat abrasive manner during the research for my term paper. When I recently saw the movie Oppenheimer, I already knew what she was like, and yet on reading this ebook version, no mention of Kitty Oppenheimer is present. Could I possibly have forgotten another book I used in the research, or was a whole chapter missing? I guess I will have to hunt down a paperback copy to find out.

I will not say I didn’t enjoy finally reading the whole book, but it does seem like paying 10 bucks for a damaged blender that will mix but not purée and occasionally shorts out.

[Shweta Ramdas · Rating 4 out of 5]

How accountable are scientists to be for the future consequences of their inventions? Should they remain within their domains of technical expertise, or should they step out to participate in political decisions? This is the primary question that "Brighter than a Thousand Suns" deals with. It is more an account of the minds behind the invention of the atomic bomb and less about the actual science.

It is also about the many accidents of fate that brought about the development of the bomb. These certainly made me wonder if the bomb would have developed in an age of Wikileaks, when there is considerably less left to guesswork!

It's not like the issues in the book aren't relevant today. There still is a moratorium on genetic editing of human embryos; eugenics is the elephant in the golden shiny room that CRISPR has unlocked. This is an important book for scientists: our inventions/discoveries can take paths we could never guess. The sooner we start thinking about these questions, the better.

[Lennart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich wünschte jedes Geschichtsbuch wäre so geschrieben. Absolut perfekt!
Es ist leicht verständlich geschrieben, man muss nicht jeden Satz zehnmal lesen, bevor man ihn verstanden hat. Trotzdem ist es nicht stumpf geschrieben. Es ist hat einfach einen grandiosen Stil. Konnte kaum aufhören es zu lesen.
Dazu kommt die Recherche. Dass der Autor mit ganz viele Protagonisten selbst noch gesprochen hat und diese Zitate unterhaltsam in den Lesefluss einbindet, hilft auch ungemein, die Menschen hinter den Wissenschaftlern zu verstehen.
Denn hier wird nicht wie zB bei Lefebvre wahllos mit Namen um sich geworfen. Die Charaktere (und das sind nicht wenige!) werden mal kürzer, mal länger vorgestellt. Dadurch behält man ihre Namen, kann sie auch später noch zuordnen.
Auch so ordnet der Autor viele Geschehnisse historisch ein, ohne dabei zu bewerten.
Genauso muss es sein.
Ich hoffe ich finde weitere Bücher in diesem Stil.

[Alan]

I read the 1964 Pelican Books reprint which has been on my tsundoku shelf for some decades. I was stimulated to read it prior to release of the ‘’Oppenheimer’ film in July 2021. I found the author’s use of English rather laboured with many torturous sentences, meaning I had to keep re-reading passages in order to understand exactly what he meant. I also found the Index curiously deficient . For example, I’ve had to add in the following: Bhagavad Gita (the sacred Hindu text quoted by Oppenheimer after the first test explosion), Chain Reaction, Deuterium Oxide Factory, Fat man, Thin Man, Fission discovery, Heavy Water, Hydrogen Bomb, Product Z, Site Y, Super Bomb, Titterton E, Trinity.
In reading this book I was struck by parallels between the apocalyptic fears of the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider in 2008 and those of the atomic and thermonuclear bombs. In the case of the LHC there were ‘Doomsday fears of the unknown’. People worried that black holes might be created that could swallow the planet. In the case of the atomic bomb, Fermi was taking bets at the test site of whether the World would end or not.

Nevertheless, I am sure this will prove to have been a valuable preparation prior to watching the Oppenheimer film.

[Claudio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Affascinante, interessantissima storia dei lati umani della creazione della bomba atomica e di quella all'idrogeno, raccontati dal punto di vista "occidentale". Ho letto (sull'articolo di Wikipedia) che l'autore stesso, in seguito, non era più del tutto convinto delle affermazioni relative allo stato della ricerca in Germania durante la seconda guerra mondiale.
Si tratta comunque di una lettura indimenticabile per chi si interessa di questi argomenti, esattamente come The Making of the Atomic Bomb di Richard Rhodes
Letto come libro in tedesco.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, Robert Jungk wanted to make a novel out of it. However, while researching, he found that the reality was much more exciting than a novel could ever be, so he wrote the book as a non-fiction book. It takes a look at the years in Göttingen and, of course, also deals with the time in Los Alamos. What is interesting, however, is the constant comparison with the current state of affairs in Nazi Germany. Although the book dates back to the 1950s, it has lost none of its topicality, especially today.
Unfortunately, it was not used for Oppenheimer's film adaptation, because there would have been other interesting aspects that would have allowed a better classification in the film adaptation.

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr detaillierte, nuancierte und spannende Auseinandersetzung mit der Genesis der schlimmsten Erfindung, die wir Menschen bisher gemacht haben. Ich bin eigentlich kein Fan von Sachbüchern, doch die Art wie hier von den Ereignissen berichtet wird, die zu zwei der größten Verbrechen des 20. Jahrhunderts geführt haben, ist packend, hervorragend recherchiert und hat eine große philosophische Tiefe. Außerdem war es sehr schön zu sehen, wie Wissenschaft sich über nationale und ideologische Grenzen hinwegsetzt.

Mittlerweile war ich auch in Hiroshima am Ort des Verbrechens. Diese Erfahrung, gepaart mit Jungk’s Buch, haben für mich den Eindruck bestätigt, dass jeder der ernsthaft über den Einsatz von Atomwaffen nachdenkt ein Feind der Menschheit ist und keinen Platz unter ihr finden sollte.

[Luc · Rating 5 out of 5]

The chapter “Sources and Thanks” contains so many familiar names of scientists that I simply couldn’t resist forwarding the list to a friend. That kind of person I am. And honestly, this is one of the most exciting aspects of that era – all those great minds alive at the same time, working side by side, as colleagues, students, and teachers.

The topic itself is just as captivating. I truly enjoyed reading the book and simply couldn’t put it down. I had been searching for the Czech translation for quite a long time, and I’m so glad it’s finally part of my collection.

Beyond its detailed account of the development of the first atomic bomb, the book raises timeless questions about technological progress that remain just as relevant today. Definitely worth reading.

[Shambhavi Chidambaram · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded to 4.

The book is fascinating for its original sources and the historical significance of being written when nearly all the scientists of the Manhattan Project were still alive. On the other hand, the language is oddly bloodless in many places and it often reads like a bare recitation of facts with insufficient insight or overview. I would have loved more lingering over the science itself, which was often minimized and referred to in vaguer terms than necessary. How much of this is due to the stylistic norms of the time and how much to the author himself I couldnt possibly say! I will however be returning to this book and reading it in pieces once its sort of settled in brain after this first read.

[Shiven Dash · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books which i read recently. This not only gives a vivid description of the events that actually changed the world scenario and got us into an arms race but also describes the science events in a story telling fashion which makes episodes like electron discovery as a heart warming event to even the layman. The story line is absolutely mind boggling and portrayal of the human side of some of the world famous scientists was a discovery in itself. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and so earnestly wish that there should have been a part II to this.

[Philipp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diejenigen, die sich mit ihrer Berufswahl vermeintlich am meisten von Politik und Krieg entfernten, wurden plötzlich die zentralen Figuren ihrer Zeit. Eigentlich mit dem Ziel, die Welt verstehen zu wollen, steht sie plötzlich wegen ihrer Erkenntnisse auf dem Spiel. Nicht nur ein Buch über das Schicksal der Physiker, sondern auch ein Spiegelbild des Menschen, der versucht jeden noch so kleinen Grund so auszulegen, um sein Ego zu erfüllen und eine Waffe unmenschlichen Ausmaßes einzusetzen. 1956 erschienen, dennoch aktueller denn je.

[Slow Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

His descriptions of German escapees fleeing death under Nazism, "the Institute's" paranoid functioning, Einstein's untoward letter, Oppenheimer's tragic affair with a communist past lover, the ridiculous ordeal of Bikini Island, and the softly obliterating inevitability for those not in Japan of what happened when the bomb dropped stay with this reader--horrifying doesn't come close. It's only been 75 years(ish) since this all happened. We have Wifi now and stuff

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable history first published a scant decade after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and full of first-hand interviews with scientists who had witnessed the birth of atomic power in the West, Germany, and the East. Oppenheimer is a prominent figure from the middle onwards of course, but the book finds the same moral struggles and difficult loyalties throughout the physicists who developed The Bomb. Essential reading ahead of Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

[Ariel Gil · Rating 5 out of 5]

It mostly delivers as expected - much more personal, but also much more far reaching - it follows the key heroes of physics and chemistry from the 20s all the way to the mid 50s - through the atom bomb, and the h-bomb.

As far as I can tell, it was subject to some controversy but documents declassified in the 90s (Farm hall documents) seem to have confirmed several of its accounts of history.

Very worth reading!

[Lennroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book aspires to be one of the most influential reads in my life so far. I lively picture of physics before, during and after WW2 shows beauty and controversy of scientific career and even though most of the scientists have passed since, the message of the book is still on point and actually since there are more and more knowledge workers, not necessarily only scientists, it's more relevant than ever.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative account of all the events leading up to the creation of the atomic bombs and the politics surrounding it. It reads like a novel, and you approach it as you would any other tragedy, the actors doomed by the narrative and unable to change the horror that is coming in spite of their best efforts. Would rate 4.5 stars if I could

[Ricardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Li este livro antes de ver o filme sobre Oppenheimer e foi o melhor que podia ter feito. Este livro descreve as descobertas dos grandes sábios fisicos que conduziram ao fabrico da bomba atómica em pleno período de guerra. Adorei a leitura, capitulos curtos e sem muita linguagem técnica, muito acessível e interessante. Recomendo!

[Dennis Cahillane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in 1956 while the central players were still alive but after the "Atoms for Peace" conference and associated thawing of secrecy, the best non-fiction account I've read of the people behind the atomic and hydrogen bombs.

[Matt Jarvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly researched and fascinating account of the scientists who worked on The Manhattan Project, with particular attention paid to their feelings after the fact, and towards the development of the even more monstrous thermonuclear weapons that followed.