'World War II changed many things and not the least among them was the relationship of science to the military. Readers interested in this important historic transformation will find Jim Baggott's engaging history replete with drama and insight.' Martin J. Sherwin, co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. 'This is a very good book. I particularly like the way Baggott has been able to weave the science, 'grand-scale' politics and espionage together into one compelling narrative.' Mark Walker, author of German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power.

Jim Baggott was born in Southampton, England, in 1957. He graduated in chemistry in 1978 and completed his doctorate at Oxford three years later. He has been studying and writing about the history of physics for nearly 20 years and has won awards for his scientific research and his science writing. His previous books have been widely acclaimed and include A Beginner's Guide to Reality (Penguin, 2005): ' - like having an informal, intimate conversation with an informed-and informative-thinker' and Beyond Measure: Modern Physics, Philosophy and the Meaning of Quantum Theory (OUP, 2004): ' - does for quantum theory what Hawking's A Brief History of Time did for astronomy and cosmology'.