The invention of the atomic bomb was an historical inevitability. The scientific discovery necessary for construction of such a bomb occurred just as World War II was about to begin. It seems impossible that an enormous new source of energy (nuclear fission) would not eventually be applied in the construction of a bomb.

The scientific discovery that made the bomb possible occurred in 1934. Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), an Italian physicist, was trying to produce element number 93 by bombarding uranium with neutrons. Fermi thought he had been successful, but his results were not clear-cut. Other scientists attempted to repeat his work to clarify Fermi's findings. In 1938, Otto Hahn (1879-1968) and Fritz Strassman showed that the products of Fermi's reaction were nuclei from the middle of the periodic table.

The significance of these findings was made clear by Lise Meitner (1878-1968) and Otto Frisch (1904-1979), who demonstrated that the...