The Powerhouse Of The Atom | K. Gladkov

About the Book

The Powerhouse of the Atom is a compact encyclopaedic book for young readers on the structure of matter and atomic ener­gy, treating these themes historically and from the standpoint both of the pre­sent-day level of knowledge and the futu­re prospects of atomic and thermonuclear engineering. The original Russian edi­tion of the book was awarded the Rouge et Vert prize, the highest, award of the Brussels international exhibition of po­pular science books, in 1965. The present English translation is made from the se­cond, revised Russian edition. Although it is designed for extracurricu­lar reading by pupils of the senior forms of secondary schools, The Powerhouse of the Atom can be expected, because of the wide popular interest in power sour­ ces of the future and nuclear physics, to appeal to a broad readership of all ages. Like the author’s earlier book The Atom from A to Z (Mir Publishers, 1971), The Powerhouse of the A tom has been transla­ ted into French, Spanish, and Arabic,

as well as English.

About the Author

The late Kirill Gladkov was a radi­ophysicist by training. He worked for many years in both industrial enterprizes and research institutions. For his scientific accomplishments, he recei­ved an USSR State prize. For a number of years, he wrote popular science ar­ticles and books on atomic energy, electronics, television, and high tempe­ rature physics. Among his published works is The Atom from A to Z (Mir Publishers, 1971). At the time of his death, Kirill Gladkov was science edi­tor of Tekhnika Molodezhi (Engineering for the Young), one of the Soviet Union’s popular science journals.

Translated from the Russian by s. M. Semenov and H. C. Creighton

Chapter I ON THE EVE OF A GREAT DISCOVERY 

A Dream of the Impossible 9

‘Plum Pudding’ 11 

Becquerel’s Mistake 14

Chapter II RADIOACTIVITY

A Polish Girl’s Discovery 17 

The Radioactive Families 21 

Almost ‘Perpetual Motion’ 25

Chapter III ANOTHER RIDDLE OF NATURE

The Great Emptiness 27

How is the Atom Constructed? 29

What is Meant by ‘Energy Level’ and ‘Elec­tron-Volt’? 31

An Inquisitive Doctor 34

What is an Isotope? 35

An Atom-Sorting Machine 36

The World of Minute Particles and Enormous Energies 38

‘Atomic Artillery’ 36

Chapter IV THE SCIENTISTS’ TOOLS

How They Managed to Count Atoms 43 

Fog That Makes the Invisible Visible 45 

A Simpler Than Simple Instrument 47

‘Cold Boiling’ 48

A ‘Lilliputian Thunderstorm’ 50 

Again That Photographic Plate 52 

Larger Calibres 52

At New Cross Roads 57

Chapter V THE KEY TO THE ATOMIC NUCLEUS 

New Radiation 61

Enter the Neutron 63

The Clue to Nuclear Structure 65

The Cap of Fortunatus 67

Artificial Radioactivity 69

Another Mistake! 71

The Family of Uranium Isotopes 75 

The Cherished Goal Reached 75

Chapter VI ABOUT ‘HORRIBLE THEORY’ 

Almost Back at the Beginning 79 

Particle-Waves and Wave-Particles 80 

Paradoxes of Wave Motion 81

How Electromagnetic Waves Are Formed 83 

What is Light? 83

Photons, the Particles of Light 83

The Great Law 89

‘What is Mass Defect’? 91 

Nuclear Binding Energy 94 

But What Is Radioactivity? 99 

Briefly About Heat 104

The Thermonuclear Reaction 106

Chapter VII CONTROLLED NUCLEAR FISSION 

Obtaining the First Artificial Elements 111

‘Atomic Matches’ 113

A Controlled Chain Reaction 114

Atoms and a Game of Billiards 115 

Water That Is Heavier Than Water 117

Critical Mass 118

When It’s Not a Vice To Be Lale 120 

A ‘Mirror’ for Neutrons 122

A ‘Bonfire’ in a Laboratory 123

The Atomic Bomb 124

Once More About Neutrons 125

The Road to ‘Transurania’ 128

Chapter VIII NUCLEAR REACTORS

What is a Reactor? 133

In Pencils and in Reactors 134

A Heavy-Water Reactor 136

A Homogeneous Reactor 138 

Atomic ‘Flames’ Under Water 139

Chapter IX A BRAND-NEW INDUSTRY

Fertile Materials 143

How Uranium and Thorium are Factories for Nuclear Fuel 147 

Nuclear Fuel from Man’s ‘Second Nature' 149

Thorium-232 151 

Stellar Fuel 152

Chapter X THE MARCH OF ATOMIC POWER

Refined 143 Nature’ 149

How Much Longer Will People Bum Money? 157 

Steam Boiler vs Nuclear Reactor 158

The First One in the World 160

New Ideas 164

When One Log Becomes Two 169

The Dream Begat a Plan, the Plan a Dream 172

‘S P ’ 174

‘Teaser’ 175

‘Arbus’ 177

Self-Propelled Atomic Generator 178 

‘Romashka’ 179

Atoms to Irrigate Deserts 181

Chapter XI THE ‘YOUNGER’ BROTHER OF ATOMIC ENERGY

What Does a Capful of Smoke Cost? 185 

Precious Waste 187

‘Labelled’ Atoms 192

Isotopes in Biology 195

Isotopes in Medicine 197

Radiation Hazards 200

A Clock That Measures Millenia 202 

'Hot Labs’ and ‘Iron Hands’ 204

Chapter XII THE FUTURE OF ATOMIC POWER Blazing a New Trail 209

On Engines in General 209

The First Atomic Ice-Breaker—The ‘Lenin’ 212 

Atomic Locomotives 215

Atomic Aircraft 216

Interplanetary Spaceships of the Future 219 Ion Engine 221

Photon Rockets 222

A Nuclear Battery 225

Chapter XIII WHAT ARE NUCLEAR FORCES?

A Strange Game 229

What Attracts Electrons to Protons 230

Enter a New Particle, the Meson 232

The Meson Family 233

Superheavy Particles or Hyperons 235

What Can There Be in Common Between a Drop of Water and an Atomic Nucleus? 236

The Puzzle of Particle Interaction 238 

The Elusive Neutrino 239

Chapter XIV THE LATEST ON NUCLEAR STRUCTURE 

What is a Nuclear ‘Model’? 243

When is a Light Projectile Better Than a Heavy One? 245

Regularities of Electron Showers 248

Small-Calibre Atomic ‘Artillery’ 249 

New Discoveries, New Models 250

Can We See Atoms? 251

How They Peeped Inside a Proton 254

Chapter XV COMPETITION WITH SPACE Cosmic Rays 257

Cosmic Rays 257

About ‘Electron-Asses’, ‘Dirac’s Sea’, Anti-Particles, and Other Obscure Things 261

The First Anti-Particle—The Positron 262

There Should Also Be an Anti-Proton 263

Can Anti-Matter Exist? 268

Are There More Symmetries in the World of Microparticles? 268

How ‘Elementary’ are Elementary Particles? 270 

Can a Part Be Larger Than the Whole? 271 

When Two Times Two Is Too Much 274

Chapter XVI ARTIFICIAL ATOMS

The Positronium, an Artificial Atom 282 

Two Photons or Three? 282

Two Photons or Three? 282

Why Spin Is Also Important 283

The Mesonic Atom 285

Chapter XVII CAN THE HYDROGEN BOMB BE TAMED? 

What About Making Small Change? 289 

The ‘Scream’ of Colliding Galaxies 290 

Plasma, the Fourth State of Matter 291 

The Miraculous Spark 295

The Energy of a Waterfall in a Glass Tube 297 

A ‘Personage’ with a Thousand Whims 299

A Magnetic ‘Cage’ for a ‘Firebird’ 300

If Only... 303