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Rudolf Peierls was distinguished among the group of scientists who took part
in the development of the atom bomb and nuclear energy. His inside knowledge is
lavishly deployed in Atomic Histories (American Institute of Physics,
£27.50, ISBN 1 56396 243 8) to describe the towering personalities of the
period, such as Robert Oppenheimer, Erwin Heisenberg and Otto Frisch, and the
problems and possibilities of the atomic age. One of the scientists who fled
Germany for Britain, Peierls writes limpid English. Altogether fascinating, not
least his note on first encountering English food.