I bought this thinking that I would be reading a history of atomic weaponry. I suppose that is what I got but this book has given me so much more. You see PD Smith has written a history of all things radioactive. From the discovery of radiation, to the location of the first atomic reactor (a squash court at the University of Chicago) right through to... well I don't know yet. I've been reading this book for months now and I'm only two hundred pages in. I read many books at once and this one is a slow-burner. It is so laden with new information that I can only do a maximum of ten pages at once. That's why, 200 pages in and I'm reading about Einstein in Berlin in the 1920s, a time when the city was the cultural capital of Europe and also chock full with physicists theorising about splitting the atom.
In many ways this book is a magical mystery tour. It is completely different to what I was expecting but nonetheless is extremely readable, amusing, accessible, and contains a veritable font of knowledge and research.
As to what a doomsday weapon is. Nevil Shute wrote about the world after the detonation of a doomsday bomb in his seminal misery book, "On the Beach" which tells the tale of survivors of a nuclear war in Australia awaiting the inevitable, as a cloud of deadly radiation spreads across the world following the detonation of a cobalt bomb. Cobalt is highly radioactive and kills everything it touches and has a half-life of forever or something equally doom like. A doomsday bomb is a hydrogen bomb wrapped in cobalt. When the bomb detonates, the cobalt is thrown into the atmosphere and then carried around the world until everything dies. This can take a bit of time hence "On the Beach" which I can assure you is short on laughs. Nothing like a book where everyone dies.
Why would I want to read about this? Maybe to get an answer as to what is it that drives people to create weapons like these.
I had a dream last night where I was shot by an Italian policeman in a sort of execution stylee. I was first shot in my fingers and then my toes and then right in the centre of my forehead. I didn't feel any pain but what was quite extraordinary was that as the the bullet travelled through my brain I could feel numbness following in its wake, exactly like the creeping cold you get from a general anesthetic injection. The policeman had been surrounded by black, as if suspended in a void, and as the bullet went through me things did lighten up. At which point I woke up, and thought, no more cheese before bed!
There's been far too much death on the news lately. That and a cheesy pizza with extra cheese on top inevitably led to a slew of cheese dreams. I had another mental one and then woke up at 5.30 am. And got up.
I'm listening to Aphex Twin on my shiny new ipod. I've never listened to him before simply because his videos were scary. And he looks very strange in a bikini.
I've been missing out.
