A good, in-depth read about the 45 years between Radioactivity's discovery, and its weaponization. Also as much of a history of the scientists themselves, similar to Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' [although not as humorous].
Very interesting to see how many of the scientists, slowly sensing that nuclear physics could lead to some sort of weapon, were talking about an eventual 'arms race' 20 years before the USA and USSR would both have the bomb, and do exactly that. A sense that this was a weapon to have, but not to use.
Can a line be drawn, if research is leading to a device that could change/destroy the world? The German scientists tried to claim that they slowed down their programs to prevent Hitler from getting a bomb; but this is moot since the Allies would have been able to seek and destroy any of the huge facilities required to enrich uranium or produce plutonium on the continent. The author mentions today's emerging science in genetics and nanotechnology, which may be our current ethical-line-drawing fields [although don't forget CERN and its black holes!].
I had known about Oak Ridge and the many facilities set up in the USA during the Manhattan Project, but this book helped clear up exactly what they were doing and why. Also, I now have a rudimentary picture of how/why Little Boy and Fat Man worked. Don't tell the Iranians.
Finally, the book also touches on the changing views during WWII of bombing civilian targets, leading up to Hiroshima. Numbers of casualties are knocked around, but it is clear that this isn't an easy question to answer; the what-if epilogue shows both sides of the argument well. What happened, happened. Let's hope humanity learned something from it.
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