{"product_id":"collisions-a-physicists-journey-from-hiroshima-to-the-death-of-the-dinosaurs-9781324075103","title":"Collisions: A Physicist's Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs","description":"\u003cp\u003eTo his admirers, Luis W. Alvarez was the most accomplished, inventive, and versatile experimental physicist of his generation. During World War II, he achieved major breakthroughs in radar, played a key role in the Manhattan Project, and served as the lead scientific observer at the bombing of Hiroshima. In the decades that followed, he revolutionized particle physics with the hydrogen bubble chamber, developed an innovative X-ray method to search for hidden chambers in the Pyramid of Chephren, and shot melons at a rifle range to test his controversial theory about the Kennedy assassination. At the very end of his life, he collaborated with his son to demonstrate that an asteroid impact was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, igniting a furious debate that raged for years after his death.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlvarez was also a combative and relentlessly ambitious figure--widely feared by his students and associates--who testified as a government witness at the security hearing that destroyed the public career of his friend and colleague J. Robert Oppenheimer. In the first comprehensive biography of Alvarez, Alec Nevala-Lee vividly recounts one of the most compelling untold stories in modern science, a narrative overflowing with ideas, lessons, and anecdotes that will fascinate anyone with an interest in how genius and creativity collide with the problems of an increasingly challenging world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNevala-Lee, Alec:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eAlec Nevala-Lee\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of \u003cem\u003eInventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller\u003c\/em\u003e and the Hugo Award finalist \u003cem\u003eAstounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e. His nonfiction has appeared in print and online in such publications as the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e, the \u003cem\u003eAtlantic\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSlate\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSalon\u003c\/em\u003e, and the \u003cem\u003eDaily Beast\u003c\/em\u003e. He lives with his wife, the NPR host Wailin Wong, and their daughter in Oak Park, Illinois.","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51321599426834,"sku":"9781324075103","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_b6cde952-e28d-4a0b-8521-3891adc57394.jpg?v=1748591291","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/collisions-a-physicists-journey-from-hiroshima-to-the-death-of-the-dinosaurs-9781324075103","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}