The Basis of Everything, Andrew Ramsey
The Basis of Everything, Andrew Ramsey
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The Basis of Everything

Author: Andrew Ramsey

Narrator: John Voce

Unabridged: 13 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 07/22/2019


Synopsis

Before the Manhattan Project, before nuclear warfare and the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was the twentieth century's great scientific quest to fathom the secrets of the atom.The unlikely story of an Antipodean friendship that changed the world forever.
Centered on the inter-war years - within the ivy clad walls of Cambridge University's famed Cavendish Laboratory, amid the windswept valleys of north Wales, and in the industrial heartland of Birmingham - The Basis of Everything is the story of the coming of the atomic bomb, and how the unlikely union of two scientists - Ernest Rutherford, the son of a New Zealand farmer, and Mark Oliphant, a peace-loving vegetarian from a tiny Australian hills village - would change the world.The story that bonds Ernest Rutherford and Mark Oliphant is as extraordinary as it is unlikely. They were kindred souls, schooled and steeped in the furthest frontiers of Britain's empire, whose restless intellect and tireless conviction fused in the crucible of discovery at Cambridge University's celebrated Cavendish Laboratory, at a time when nature's deepest secrets were being revealed. Their brilliance illuminated the sub-atomic recesses of the natural world and, as a direct result, set loose the power of nuclear fusion.It was a heartfelt, enduring partnership, born at the University of Adelaide's modest physics department and then flourishing further in the confines of the Cavendish before ultimately driving the famed Manhattan Project, which produced the world's first nuclear weapons, unleashed to such devastating effect on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Rutherford and Oliphant were men with a shared devotion to pure science, who, through circumstance and necessity, found themselves betrayed as instruments of wars they detested but were duty-bound to prosecute. Consequently, their influence was pivotal in the last great global conflict the world witnessed and in engendering the thermonuclear threat that has held the planet hostage ever since. Yet their pioneering work also lives on in a vast array of innovations seeded by nuclear physics, from radiocarbon dating and TV screens to life-saving diagnostic-imaging devices.PRAISE FOR THE BASIS OF EVERYTHING""In The Basis of Everything, journalist Andrew Ramsey has succeeded in telling a story so detailed and compelling that even knowing where it leads does not distract from the journey."" The Sydney Morning Herald

About Andrew Ramsey

Andrew Ramsey is a journalist and author who has written about cricket for more than 20 years.In addition to having his work published in numerous newspapers around the world including The Australian, The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Hindustan Times and The Hindu, he has been a contributor to Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.He has covered around 100 Test matches including a number of Ashes series in Australia and England, among them the 2005 campaign in the United Kingdom regarded as the 'greatest Ashes battle of the modern era' and Australia's dual 5-0 whitewash summers on home soil in 2006-07 and 2013-14. His book The Wrong Line, which chronicles the travails of the travelling cricket writer, was published in 2012.He is currently Senior Writer with cricket.com.au and, when not ensconced in a press box or an airport, lives in Adelaide, South Australia.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Claire on December 29, 2023

My dad lent me this book a couple of years ago and I thought it sounded vaguely interesting so held onto it but was never interested enough to actually get around to reading it. But thanks to COVID this week I ran out of books and couldn't get to the library so finally picked this one up. It was muc......more

Goodreads review by Dennis on September 08, 2019

This has made it to be included in the list of the top most interesting books I have read. It tells the story of two giants of physics - Ernest Rutherfiord and Mark Oliphant, a Kiwi and an Aussie who made their names in the hallowed laboratories of Cambridge. Their discoveries in physics pioneered t......more

Goodreads review by Joe on August 27, 2024

Starts slowly but turns into really riveting narrative scientific history, especially in its treatment of radar and the Manhattan Project.......more

Goodreads review by Charles on August 14, 2019

Having no knowledge of physics beyond rudimentary basics I was interested to read The Basis of Everything, and find that I could vaguely follow the explanations for how Rutherford split the atom. I had this mental vision of him cutting it under a microscope, with a scalpel. Spoiler alert! One needs......more

Goodreads review by Rob on September 07, 2019

The Geological Society (UK) chose 2019 as their Year of Carbon. Why not celebrate it by reading this splendid collection of carbon (the main constituent of a paperback)? Esteemed scientist, author, and classical musician Robert M. Hazen sees carbon as the symphony that weaves together the themes of t......more