Cover image for A brilliant darkness : the extraordinary life and disappearance of Ettore Majorana, the troubled genius of the nuclear age
Title:
A brilliant darkness : the extraordinary life and disappearance of Ettore Majorana, the troubled genius of the nuclear age
Author:
Magueijo, João.
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
New York : Basic Books, [2009]

©2009
Physical Description:
xxi, 280 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Summary:
A theoretical physicist reveals one of the greatest untold stories of 20th-century science: the tormented genius Ettore Majorana, who discovered a key element of atomic fission, then disappeared and was never seen again.
Language:
English
Contents:
Prologue : a moment of fatigue or moral discomfort -- Life : the grand inquisitor. The attic of 251 Via Etnea -- Nuclear crisis -- Frankenstein's youth -- Poltergeist exposed -- Bread and sperm -- Strong interactions -- Meet Ettore Majorana -- Boys will be boys -- Neutrinos from Transylvania -- Ode to the vanquished -- Creation and annihilation -- The serpent's egg -- His unfinished symphony -- The hand that rocks the cradle -- Stellar collapse -- Artichokes -- Meanwhile, at Via Panisperna -- The crepuscule of Via Panisperna -- Ettore's neutrino -- The quiet before the storm -- The search party -- Afterlife : the dark matter. Pagliacci -- A pirandellian intermezzo -- Don't cry for him, Argentina -- They thought the sun was sick -- The sign of the beast -- Ettore Majorana -- A vote of silence -- Epilogue : Mediterranean whales.
ISBN:
9780465009039
Format :
Book