We possess - for the first time in human history - the ability to completely annihilate all life on earth. Although this book was published at the height of a war now passed, it's key question is remains relevant: what responsibility do scientists bear for the weapons they create? This book covers how the previously separate concerns of theory and application, once the field of scientists and government respectively, merged with the Manhattan Project of WWII. The post WWII section of this book, while interesting, could have been better served to focus on the scientific response and ethical discussion of the cold war, rather than it's focus on how the USSR developed their own nuclear capability.