PREFACE
history. In the 1930s it was widely believed, even by Einstein, that an
atomic bomb was "impossible." Physicists knew that there was a
tremendous amount of energy locked deep inside the atom's nucleus,
according to Einstein's equation E = mc
2 , but the energy released by a
single nucleus was too insignificant to consider. But atomic physicist
Leo Szilard remembered reading the 1914 H. G. Wells novel, The World
Set Free, m which Wells predicted the development of the atomic bomb.
In the book he stated that the secret of the atomic bomb would be solved
by a physicist in 1933. By chance Szilard stumbled upon this book in
1932. Spurred on by the novel, in 1933, precisely as predicted by Wells
some two decades earlier, he hit upon the idea of magnifying the power
of a single atom via a chain reaction, so that the energy of splitting a
single uranium nucleus could be magnified by many trillions. Szilard
then set into motion a series of key experiments and secret negotiations
between Einstein and President Franklin Roosevelt that would lead to
the Manhattan Project, which built the atomic bomb.
Time and again we see that the study of the impossible has opened
up entirely new vistas, pushing the boundaries of physics and chemistry and forcing scientists to redefine what they mean by "impossible."
As Sir William Osier once said, "The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has
become the wisdom of tomorrow."
Many physicists subscribe to the famous dictum of T. H. White,
who wrote in The Once and Future King, "Anything that is not forbidden, is mandatory!" In physics we find evidence of this all the time. Unless there is a law of physics explicitly preventing a new phenomenon,
we eventually find that it exists. (This has happened several times in
the search for new subatomic particles. By probing the limits of what
is forbidden, physicists have often unexpectedly discovered new laws
of physics.) A corollary to T. H. White's statement might well be, "Anything that is not impossible, is mandatory!"
For example, cosmologist Stephen Hawking tried to prove that
time travel was impossible by finding a new law of physics that would
forbid it, which he called the "chronology protection conjecture." Unfortunately, after many years of hard work he was unable to prove this
history. In the 1930s it was widely believed, even by Einstein, that an
atomic bomb was "impossible." Physicists knew that there was a
tremendous amount of energy locked deep inside the atom's nucleus,
according to Einstein's equation E = mc
2 , but the energy released by a
single nucleus was too insignificant to consider. But atomic physicist
Leo Szilard remembered reading the 1914 H. G. Wells novel, The World
Set Free, m which Wells predicted the development of the atomic bomb.
In the book he stated that the secret of the atomic bomb would be solved
by a physicist in 1933. By chance Szilard stumbled upon this book in
1932. Spurred on by the novel, in 1933, precisely as predicted by Wells
some two decades earlier, he hit upon the idea of magnifying the power
of a single atom via a chain reaction, so that the energy of splitting a
single uranium nucleus could be magnified by many trillions. Szilard
then set into motion a series of key experiments and secret negotiations
between Einstein and President Franklin Roosevelt that would lead to
the Manhattan Project, which built the atomic bomb.
Time and again we see that the study of the impossible has opened
up entirely new vistas, pushing the boundaries of physics and chemistry and forcing scientists to redefine what they mean by "impossible."
As Sir William Osier once said, "The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has
become the wisdom of tomorrow."
Many physicists subscribe to the famous dictum of T. H. White,
who wrote in The Once and Future King, "Anything that is not forbidden, is mandatory!" In physics we find evidence of this all the time. Unless there is a law of physics explicitly preventing a new phenomenon,
we eventually find that it exists. (This has happened several times in
the search for new subatomic particles. By probing the limits of what
is forbidden, physicists have often unexpectedly discovered new laws
of physics.) A corollary to T. H. White's statement might well be, "Anything that is not impossible, is mandatory!"
For example, cosmologist Stephen Hawking tried to prove that
time travel was impossible by finding a new law of physics that would
forbid it, which he called the "chronology protection conjecture." Unfortunately, after many years of hard work he was unable to prove this