Syllabus and the Atom Bomb

i should have had a blog a long time ago. truth be told, i really know nothing about blogging so i'll just be flying blind here. since this is my first post, i thought it would be good to specify a few topics on which i'll mainly focus. in no particular order, they are: my general life and everyday experiences; news and current events (regional, national and international); government, politics, and policymaking; my car, my love/hate relationship with car ownership, and mechanics; books (mostly nonfiction because it's my first love) and music; hanging, working, and touring with my band; climate change and environmentalism; vegetarian life; crazy christians and other religious beefs; and the american problem.

i'll start on a light note writing about a heavy book i'm currently reading called 'the making of the atomic bomb' by richard rhodes. mr rhodes has really done his research here, covering in minute detail every aspect of the culmination of events that took place leading up to the invention and use of the atomic bomb. i just finished part one, which was a history of the scientific acheivements of the beginning of the twentieth century, starting with j.j. thompson, lord rutherford, albert einstein, james chadwick, niels bohr, and others, all of whom were the great forefathers of modern chemistry and physics. these guys gave us the atom. remember this from chem and phys 101? well, rhodes tells the story in eloquent prose. it reads like a novel. but i'll give you this: part one was tough to get through. i read it twice. theoretical and nuclear physics is tough to grasp, as i'm sure you could imagine. but now as i enter part two, what amazon.com calls "a sweeping epic, filled with terror and pity," i feel as if i have just spent the last month climbing the first giant hill on a rollercoaster, and now whoosh! this book is intense. i'll keep you updated. but since you're here and i think this story is rad, here's how badass these guys are: two nobel laureate friends of neils bohr, who left europe at the outset of hitler's war, left their gold nobel prize medals in his possession for safe keeping. in copenhagen, upon word that germany had invaded denmark, bohr thought of these medals and what to do to keep them out of hitler's hands. knowing that exporting gold illegally under german rule was a severely punishable criminal offense, he used his genius in a way that astonishes me. he literally dissolved the gold medals in acid, and just left them on his office shelf, like innocent bell jars filled with black liquid, until the end of the war. then he separated the gold back out and had them recast when the nazis were defeated. unreal!