Atomic weaponry is widely understood as a story of American scientific achievements but scientists working in Britain played a vital role in its development. Including Nobel Prize winners and Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, these scientists have long since been forgotten, but without their expertise, Oppenheimer's research at Los Alamos would never have succeeded.
Gareth Williams unearths the true story of the top-secret British atomic programme, codenamed "Tube Alloys", established in 1940. These pioneering scientists struggled to convince sceptics in Britain and the USA that an atomic 'super-bomb' capable of destroying entire cities was feasible, and could be built in time to influence the outcome of the Second World War.
The Impossible Bomb sheds new light on how humanity's deadliest weapons came to exist, and the massive destruction they wrought.
Gareth Williams is emeritus professor and former dean of medicine at the University of Bristol. He is the author of over 200 medical papers and 20 books.
He will be in conversation with former BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell.
Further details: 01179252274
