Marlborough, John Churchill, 1st Duke of, 40, 87
Marshall, General George Catlett, 264, 343
Marshall, Colonel James, 217
Marshall Plan (US economic aid to Europe), 327
Martin, John, 153, 206
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 342
MAUD committee: G.P. Thomson chairs, 157–60; and sharing of information with USA, 160; origin of name, 161; ‘enemy aliens’ excluded, 161–2; reports, 167, 177, 179–80, 183–4, 186–8; Roosevelt proposes cooperation on proposals, 194; report read in USA, 198–9; evolves into ‘Tube Alloys’ led by ICI executive, 200–1, 212; WSC gives account of, 344; in Gowing’s book, 440
May, Alan Nunn see Nunn May, Alan
Mayo (Harrow schoolteacher), 33
Mayer, Douglas: ‘Energy from Matter’, 109
MD1 (British government department; ‘Churchill’s Toyshop’), 151, 163, 181
Meitner, Lise, 97, 99, 137, 161
Melchett, Henry Ludwig Mond, 2nd Baron, 62, 181, 183, 186, 199
Menzies, Stewart, 262
Metropolitan-Vickers (electrical engineering company), 181, 184–5
Midway, Battle of (1942), 208
Military Policy Committee (USA), 227
mobile phones, appear in article by WSC (1931), 42
Molotov, Vyacheslav, 425
Monte Bello Islands, 372, 374, 381–2, 392, 451
Moran, Charles Wilson, Baron, 292, 300–1, 332, 338, 386, 400, 402–3, 450
Mosley, Sir Oswald, 58–9
Mountbatten, Admiral Louis, 1st Earl, 337
Munich agreement (1938), 92, 102
Murrow, Edward, 362
Mussolini, Benito, 238
My Early Life (WSC), 40, 404
Nagasaki, 311–12, 366–7
Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine, 32
Nation (US newspaper), 336
National Academy of Sciences (USA), 134
National Bureau of Standards (USA)), 129
National Defense Research Committee (USA): formed, 134, 224; Conant serves on, 174; London office, 183
Nature (journal), 55–6, 92, 97, 99, 121, 164, 193
Naturwissenschaften, Die (journal), 103
Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939), 105
Nazism: rise of, 67; anti-Semitism, 96; and development of nuclear weapon, 101, 104, 112, 123, 143, 150, 157, 161, 193, 214, 235, 240, 249–50, 282, 341, 414; see also Germany; Hitler, Adolf
Neumann, John von, 73
Neutrality Act, 1937 (USA), 127
neutron: Rutherford predicts existence of (1920), 53; Chadwick discovers, 53–4; Szilárd imagines how it might trigger nuclear chain reaction, 75; role in nuclear fission of uranium, 97–8, 102
New York Herald Tribune, 372
New York Times: reviews Wells’s The World Set Free, 24; on Rutherford, 49; on Einstein’s prophecy on haressing nuclear power, 71; reports Rutherford’s dismissing likelihood of harnessing nuclear energy, 75; on Priestley’s The Doomsday Men, 94; on discovery of nuclear fission, 99–100; reports German development of atomic research, 151; reports Bohr’s arrival in London, 249; on WSC’s 1949 visit to USA, 342; leaks Truman’s views on summit (1951), 384
News of the World (newspaper), 87–9, 92
Nichols, Robert and Maurice Browne: Wings Over Europe (melodrama), 57–8, 100
Nicolson, (Sir) Harold: Public Faces, 58, 59, 281, 311, 424
Nixon, Richard M., 440
Nobel Prize: Rutherford, 60; Hill, 84, 159; Chamberlain proposed by Nature, 92; N. Bohr, 95; Fermi, 100; Chadwick, 118, 120; Thomson, 124; Lawrence, 198; A. Bohr, 247; Blackett, 327–9; Eliot, 327; WSC, 404; Cockcroft and Walton, 410; Rotblat and Pugwash, 444
Normandy see France: Allied invasion
North Africa: Allied victory in, 219, 238
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): created, 327; Dulles attends, 419
Norway: WSC’s plans to mine waters, 117; British 1940 campaign in, 143; Germany occupies, 143
nuclear energy: WSC foresees harnessing of, 4, 5, 10, 31, 42, 43–4, 88–9, 156, 178, 244, 300, 305, 429, 456
nuclear fission: discovery, 95, 97–9, 102–3, 111
nuclear fusion, 89
nuclear weapons: underlying mechanisms
– nuclear fission: 101–4, 109, 111–12, 121–2, 136, 140–2
– nuclear fusion (thermonuclear): 89, 257–8
Nuffield, William Morris, Viscount, 137
Nunn May, Alan, 412
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 255–6, 278
Obninsk, USSR: nuclear reactor, 394
O’Brien, Christopher, 432
Occhialini, Giuseppe (‘Beppo’), 63
Oliphant, Mark: works on chain reactions, 124; at Birmingham with Frisch and Peierls, 137–8; encourages Frisch and Peierls to write up memorandum, 141; on Thomson’s U-bomb subcommittee, 143–4; criticises Britain’s industrialists, 181; presses for collaboration with USA, 182, 198; outspokenness, 196–7; campaigning in USA, 197–9; character and qualities, 197; returns to Britain, 199; resigns from MAUD committee, 200–1; returns to Australia, 202; Akers gains confidence of, 211; returns to USA in August 1943, 241; at Manhattan Project laboratories, 257; discusses British post-war initiatives, 284; criticises Chadwick’s handling of British interests on Manhattan Project, 285; Blackett confides in, 315; gives information to Blackburn, 316; and Blackett’s cold-shouldering by Attlee government, 318; returns permanently to Australia, 352; on Cockcroft, 410; career in Australia and pacifism, 436; discusses future with Cockcroft, 436; attends Pugwash meetings, 443
Onassis, Aristotle, 453
Oppenheimer, Robert: early sketch of nuclear bomb, 99; as theoretician, 132; Oliphant first mentions Bomb project to, 198; appointed director of science for Manhattan Project, 217; greets Bohr at Site Y, 254–7; influenced by Bohr, 258–9, 281; overcomes serious problems with design of plutonium bomb, 278–9; letter from Chadwick, 275; as Chadwick’s neighbour in Los Alamos, 276; management skills, 279–80; criticises Lindemann, 286; and opposition to use of Bomb, 287–8; witnesses first testing of Bomb, 289; supports international control of nuclear weapons, 322–3; opposes unlimited nuclear weapons development, 398; campaign to purge, 399; stripped of security clearance, 416; WSC informed on security hearing, 423; wonders how Rutherford would have influenced Bomb development, 436; on Bohr’s meetings with WSC and Roosevelt, 439; Anderson confides in, 450
Orwell, George, 311, 318, 328; Nineteen Eighty-Four, 321, 389
Osborne, John, 422
Other Club, The, 42, 117, 383
Oxford University: Lindemann at, 51, 52, 65–9, 78–9, 80, 114, 116, 181, 192, 329, 404, 448, 452; German Jewish refugee scientists at, 68–9; Peierls at 439–40; see also Clarendon Laboratory
Paris: Germans occupy (1940), 153
Pearl Harbor, 204
Peierls, Genia, 139–1, 280, 346–9, 439
Peierls, Rudolf (‘Rudi’): memorandum on building Bomb, 126, 140–2, 144, 160, 183, 185, 278, 344; works at Birmingham, 137–4; character, 138–9, 352; hears WSC broadcast in May 1940, 145; G. P. Thomson shares secret material with, 159; enrolled on Thomson’s Technical subcommittee, 162; Tizard aware of findings, 165; serves on MAUD project, 180; in USA, 212, 241, 257; urges greater British openness with Americans, 219; and threat of German nuclear weapon, 221; works in implosion project, 279; life at Site Y, 280; discusses British post-war nuclear initiatives, 284; celebrates VE Day, 286; and Oppenheimer’s dismissive view of Lindemann, 286; witnesses first testing of Bomb, 289; heads Atomic Scientists’ Association, 319, 364; supports Blackett, 328; and arrest of Klaus Fuchs, 346–9, 351–3; opposes continuation of nuclear warfare, 346; political neutrality, 351; on US employment of foreign-born scientists, 351; rift with Lindemann, 364; supports establishment of CERN, 416; Gowing interviews, 439; later views on wartime development of Bomb, 439; offers help to Fuchs on release from prison, 439; post-war Oxford career, 439–40; accused of spying, 440; membership of Pugwash, 443
Penney, William: character and quali
ties, 283, 366–8; nicknamed by Weisskopf as the ‘smiling killer’, 283; joins Oppenheimer’s Site Y team, 283; heads British nuclear bomb project, 318, 368–71, 414; on need to build Bomb, 366; witnesses Nagasaki bombing and effects, 366–7; and US help in testing British Bomb, 374; and successful test of British Bomb, 388; WSC congratulates, 392; relations with Hinton, 395; WSC seeks advice from on H-bomb, 409, 415, 425; lunches with WSC, 417–18; detonates first British H-bomb, 441, 449; in Gowing-Arnold account of nuclear projects, 441; negotiates to ban nuclear tests, 442; believes stockpiling of nuclear weapons ‘mad’, 442; retires from nuclear industry, 442
Perrin, Michael, 199, 214–15, 218, 250, 312
Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, 177, 194
Plowden, Sir Edwin, 414, 417–18, 451
plutonium: as bomb-making element, 213, 278
Plym, HMS, 388
poison gas, 30, 269
Poland, 105, 110, 123, 264, 270, 294, 320
Politiken (Danish newspaper), 105
Portal of Hungerford, Charles Frederick Algernon Portal, 1st Viscount, 318, 368–9, 371–2
Portal, Jane see Williams, Jane, Lady
Porton Down, Wiltshire, 30, 269
Potsdam conference (1945), 291–2, 294, 297, 302–3
Pownall, General Sir Henry, 340
Presley, Elvis, 422
Priestley, J. B., 328, 441–2; The Doomsday Men, 94, 100, 442
Prior, Matthew, 444
Production, Ministry of: scientific advisers, 221
Pugwash (organisation of scientists), 443–4
quantum theory of matter, 5; WSC summarises (1926), 37–8; Lindemann on, 46–8
Quebec: conference (1943), 8, 233, 236–7; conference (1944), 270–1
Quebec Agreement: drawn up and signed, 239–44, 249; Lindemann critical of, 265–6, 361; WSC defends, 267; WSC unfamiliar with contents, 270; Blackett criticises, 315; long kept secret after war, 316, 363; Truman and, 316, 321; British veto revoked and terms modified, 326; Attlee claims was unsustainable, 360; and British nuclear tests, 381; abandonment probed by WSC, 386; publication conditionally agreed by Eisenhower, 406
Rabi, Isidor, 328–9
radar: developed, 85; unreadiness, 92; Britain shares with USA, 165; in Battle of Britain, 169
radioactivity: early suggestion that this energy might be harnessed, 21
Randall, John, 140
Ray, Maud, 161
Reagan, Ronald: achieves détente with USSR, 9
Reves, Emery, 87, 340, 447
Reynaud, Paul, 148
Reynolds’s Illustrated News, 57
Risley, Lancashire, 393–4, 396
robot, popularisation of word, 43
Rockefeller Foundation, 132, 252
Roosevelt, Franklin D.: WSC collaborates with on nuclear weapons development, 7–8; WSC writes on, 40, 147; inaugurates New Deal, 61, 131; re-elected (1936), 100; awareness of early work on nuclear weapons, 109, 128; supposed lack of direction, 127; and US neutrality, 127, 152, 166; wartime relations with WSC begin, 128; qualities compared with WSC’s, 130–1, 206; suffers from polio, 130; attitude to science, 131–2; sanctions National Defense Research Committee, 134; on WSC’s succession to premiership, 147; re-election campaign (1940), 166; and Britain’s withholding information from USA, 172; declares support for Britain, 172–4; on whether US should enter war, 177; WSC meets at Placentia Bay, 177, 189; opposes WSC’s wish to preserve Empire, 189; proposes joint nuclear project to WSC, 194–5, 198–9, 202–3, 204, 362; WSC visits (December 1941), 205, 208–9; political skills, 205; approves proposal to build nuclear bomb, 207; offers help after British surrender of Tobruk, 210; agrees to funding of Manhattan Project, 217, 227; inclined to abandon policy of nuclear collaboration with Britain, 224; vacillates, 226; agrees to curtail close nuclear collaboration with Britain, 227; accedes to WSC’s pleas for full exchange of nuclear information, 229; garbled message to Bush in London, 232; meets WSC at Quebec (1943), 233, 237, 239; Mary Churchill (Soames) on, 234; proposes meeting Stalin, 238; assures WSC US collaboration on Bomb will resume, 240–4; signs Quebec Agreement, 240–1, 243–4, 249; on use of nuclear weapon, 259; at Teheran conference, 264; indifference to Soviet domination of Europe, 264; optimism over D-Day landings, 267; re-elected (1944), 269; signs ‘Declaration of Trust’ on nuclear weapons, 269; ageing rapidly, 270; WSC visits (1944), 270–1; meets Bohr, 271, 281; opposes giving nuclear secrets to Soviet Russia, 271–2; death, 286, 294; at Yalta conference, 294
Rosenfeld, Léon, 99, 282–3
Rotblat, Joseph, 123, 184, 282–3, 346, 351, 443; shares Nobel Prize with Pugwash, 444
Rowe, Albert, 85
Royal Academy of Arts: 1932 annual banquet, 56
Royal Air Force: use of radar, 169; bombing policy, 220; see also Battle of Britain
Royal Society: admits WSC as Fellow, 175
RUR, play, 42–3
Russell, Bertrand, 435, 442–3
Russell, Wendy, 447
Rutherford, Ernest, Baron: advances in nuclear physics, 5, 37, 47–50, 52–5, 59, 60; character, 49, 56; celebrity and honours, 49, 54, 60; on Wells’s nuclear predictions, 47, 52; meets WSC, 56; at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, 50–2, 59; government advisory work, 50; political leanings, 52; on splitting atom, 53–4, 57; loathes Lindemann, 60; as president of Academic Assistance Council, 68; welcomes Einstein in London, 70; regards predictions of imminent harnessing of nuclear energy as ‘moonshine’, 74–5, 98, 100; meets Szilárd, 76–7; death amd funeral, 88; as Bohr’s mentor, 95; and Chadwick, 119–20; influence on Oliphant, 196; influence on Cockcroft, 411–2; Bohr invokes, 435; ‘boys’ reminisce about, 436; early research, 456
Sachs, Alexander, 128
Salisbury, Robert Cecil, 5th Marquess of, 418
Sandhurst, 24, 33
Sandys, Duncan, 381, 392–3
Savrola (WSC), 16
Science News Letter (US publication), 100
Science in War (Penguin Special), 164
Scientific Advisory Committee (British), 171, 185, 193
Scientific American (journal), 104
Seaborg, Glenn, 213
Sellafield, Cumbria (earlier Windscale), 393; nuclear accident (1957), 441
‘Shall We All Commit Suicide?’ (WSC), 30–2, 44, 177, 455
Shaw, George Bernard: admires Soviet Russia, 38; WSC praises in article, 38, 40; voted Britain’s best brain, 54; advocates surrendering to aerial attack, 81; on dropping of Bomb, 311; on WSC’s anti-Soviet views, 331; correspondence with WSC, 337, 430
Shaw, Reeves, 42
Shinwell, Emanuel, 431
Shute, Nevil: On the Beach, 450
Sicily: WSC in, 446
Simon, Francis (formerly Franz), 78, 181, 192, 212, 214, 241, 448
Sinatra, Frank, 448
‘Sinews of Peace, The’ (WSC; speech), 335
Singapore: Japanese advance on, 206; surrenders, 208
Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship (1950), 350
Site Y see Los Alamos
Smith, Merriman, 293
Smuts, Jan Christiaan, 261
Smyth, Henry DeWolf, 312
Snow, C.P. (later Baron), 109, 147, 368, 410; Science and Government, 453
Soames, Mary, Lady (née Churchill): and WSC’s view of Truman, 297; on Roosevelt, 234; travels to Quebec conference with WSC, 237, 239
Soddy, Frederick: Rutherford collaborates with, 49; The Interpretation of Radium, 21–2
Soviet Russia: arms race with West, 8–9; likely to develop nuclear weapons, 234–5, 261, 317, 320, 335; WSC and Wells quarrel over, 25–6; WSC disparages, 38; Hitler invades (1941), 176; WSC apprehension over possession of nuclear weapon, 234–5; casualties, 238; victories against Germany, 238; Anglo-US Bomb project kept secret from, 238, 242; WSC fears post-war influence, 263; emergence as superpower, 270; Bohr advocates telling Soviets about Bomb, 271; dominance in eastern Europe, 294, 320–1; WSC proposes attack on (Operation UNTHINKABLE), 295, 303; British scientists’ visit vetoed, 296; and war with Japan, 299; aware of Anglo-
US nuclear projects, 302; tensions with USA (early Cold War), 317, 320, 327; Blackett’s sympathy for, 318, 323; WSC warns against in ‘Iron Curtain’ speech, 335; WSC fears aggression by, 336–8; WSC advocates pre-emptive nuclear bombing, 338–9; tests nuclear weapon (1949), 345; Treaty of Friendship with China (1950), 350; WSC favours discussing nuclear policy with, 355; development of H-bomb, 388, 399, 415; establishes first nuclear reactor, 394; WSC proposes seeking détente with, 400–2, 424, 427; detonates H-bomb, 403; launches Sputnik satellite, 441, 450
Spectator, The (magazine), 54
Springfields, Lancashire, 393
Sputnik (Soviet satellite), 441, 450
Stalin, Josef V.: pact with Hitler (1939), 105; double-crossed by Hitler, 176; WSC first meets (1942), 238; causes difficulties for WSC, 242; excluded from Bomb project, 243; at Teheran conference, 264; at Potsdam conference, 291–2, 294, 299; appearance, 299; told of successful Bomb test, 301–2; already aware of US–British nuclear projects, 302; dominance in eastern Europe, 320; post-war stance, 320; WSC’s hostility to, 331–2, 337; answers WSC’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech, 336; confirms testing of Soviet nuclear weapon, 345; Truman invites to Washington, 386; death, 399–400
Stalingrad, Battle of (1942–3), 238
Stapledon, Olaf: Last and First Men, 43
Step by Step (WSC), 104
Stimson, Henry, 226–7, 231–2, 235, 271, 287, 298–300, 310, 322
Strabolgi, Joseph Montague Kenworthy, 10th Baron, 263
Strand Magazine, 42–3
Strassmann, Fritz, 97–8, 102
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties, 443
Strauss, Admiral Lewis, 398–9, 405–6
Suckley, Daisy, 239
Suez crisis (1956), 448–9
Sunday Express, 112
Supply, Ministry of: responsibility for nuclear project, 364, 369, 371–2, 374, 380–1, 387, 413
Sutherland, Graham, 418
Szilárd, Leó: first meets Einstein, 72; believes nuclear energy can be harnessed, 72, 75–8, 80, 102, 216; qualities, 72–4; as refugee from Nazis, 73–4; makes approach to Rutherford, 76–7; Lindemann secures Oxford post for, 79; works on chain reactions in USA, 79, 101; on alarm over possibility of nuclear weapons, 101, 104; influences Einstein, 128, 253; prepares approach to FDR to support development of nuclear weapon, 128–30, 132; on urgency of building Bomb, 135, 141, 198; Hill misses in USA, 160; on success of Oliphant’s campaign in USA, 199; on Fermi’s successful Chicago reactor, 216–17; condemns use of Bomb, 287; on danger of modified H-bomb, 424; attends Pugwash meetings, 443
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