Podcasts about big science ernest lawrence

Michael Hiltzik is a Pulitzer-Prize winning author and journalist who writes for the Los Angeles Times. We spoke with him about his books Dealers of Lightning: Xerox Parc and the Dawn of the Computer Age; Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century; Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex; and Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America.   "The whole idea of “Big Science” which required so much funding really started with [Ernest] Lawrence and his work at the Manhattan Project and it survived and then continues really to this day through the big labs and these big projects." M. Kiltzik

Oxide and Friends Twitter Space: September 27th, 2021The Books in the BoxWe've been holding a Twitter Space weekly on Mondays at 5p for about an hour. Even though it's not (yet?) a feature of Twitter Spaces, we have been recording them all; here is the recording for our Twitter Space for September 27th, 2021.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers on September 27th included Tom Lyon, Dan Cross, Antranig Vartanian Simeon Miteff Matt Campbell, Jeremy Tanner, Joshua Clulow, Ian, Tim Burnham, and Nathaniel Reindl. (Did we miss your name and/or get it wrong? Drop a PR!)Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: Not recommended :-(  Dave Hitz and Pat Walsh (2008) How to Castrate a Bull book Peter Thiel (2014) Zero to One book [@2:45](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=165) David Jacques Gerber (2015) The Inventor's Dilemma: The Remarkable Life of H. Joseph Gerber book [@7:21](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=441) Sidney Dekker (2011) Drift into Failure: From Hunting Broken Components to Understanding Complex Systems book [@13:08](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=788) Robert Buderi (1996) The Invention that Changed the World: The Story of Radar from War to Peace book MIT Rad Lab Series info Nuclear Magnetic Resonance wiki Richard Rhodes (1995) Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb book Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson (1997) Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age book Craig Canine (1995) Dream Reaper: The Story of an Old-Fashioned Inventor in the High-Tech, High-Stakes World of Modern Agriculture book David Fisher and Marshall Fisher (1996) Tube: The Invention of Television book Michael Hiltzik (2015) Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex book [@18:05](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=1085) Ben Rich and Leo Janos (1994) Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed book Network Software Environment Lockheed SR-71 on display at the Sea, Air and Space Museum in NYC. [@26:52](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=1612) Brian Dear (2017) The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the Rise of Cyberculture book [@30:15](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=1815) Randall Stross (1993) Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing book [@32:21](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=1941) Christophe Lécuyer and David C. Brock (2010) Makers of the Microchip: A Documentary History of Fairchild Semiconductor book [@33:06](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=1986) Lamont Wood (2012) Datapoint: The Lost Story of the Texans Who Invented the Personal Computer Revolution book Charles Kenney (1992) Riding the Runaway Horse: The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories bookTom's tweet [@34:06](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=2046) Bryan's Lost Box of Books! Edgar H. Schein et al (2003) DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation book [@36:56](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=2216) Alan Payne (2021) Built to Fail: The Inside Story of Blockbuster's Inevitable Bust bookVideotape format war wiki Hackers (1995) movie. Watch the trailer ~2mins Steven Levy (1984) Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution book [@42:32](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=2552) Paul Halmos (1985) I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography book Paul Hoffman (1998) The Man Who Loved Only Numbers about Paul Erdős book 1981 text adventure game for the Apple II by Sierra On-Line, “Softporn Adventure” (wiki) [@49:16](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=2956) Douglas Engelbart The Mother of All Demos wikiJohn Markoff (2005) What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry book Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon (1998) Where Wizards Stay Up Late book 1972 Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing documentary ~26mins (wiki) included big names like Corbató, Licklider and Bob Kahn. Gordon Moore (1965) Cramming more components onto integrated circuits paper and Moore's Law wiki [@52:37](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=3157) Physicists, mathematicians, number theory, proofs  Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem 1993 wiki Simon Singh (1997) Fermat's Last Theorem book Ronald Calinger (2015) Leonhard Euler: Mathematical Genius in the Enlightenment purports to be the first full-scale “comprehensive and authoritative” biography [@1:00:12](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=3612) Robert X. Cringely (1992) Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date book Jerry Kaplan (1996) Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure book Brian Kernighan (2019) UNIX: A History and a Memoir book [@1:03:03](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=3783) Douglas Coupland (1995) Microserfs book Douglas Coupland (1991) Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture book Fry's Electronics wiki [@1:06:49](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=4009) Michael A. Hiltzik (1999) Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age book Albert Cory (pen name for Bob Purvy) (2021) Inventing the Future bookXerox Star wiki [@1:11:20](https://youtu.be/zrZAHO89XGk?t=4280) Corporate espionage, VMWare and Parallels, Cadence v. Avanti wiki, Cisco and Huawei (article) If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next Twitter space will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time; stay tuned to our Twitter feeds for details. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

September 14, 2015 - From Thomas Edison to Dr. Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters, the idea of the quirky, driven scientist working in solitude is a popular one in the American imagination. But today, you need big machines like particle accelerators, electron microscopes, and super computers to advance human knowledge. So how did we get from Alexander Graham Bell in his lonely lab to Robert Oppenheimer assembling and leading a massive team to beat Hitler to the atom bomb, or the U.S. racing the Soviets to the moon? Today's book introduces us to the man behind this revolution, one that touches all aspects of our modern life. It's called, Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex. The author is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik. He's a graduate of Colgate and the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia, and has written previous books on the Hoover Dam and The New Deal. You can follow him on Twitter @HiltzikM and visit his website, MichaelHiltzik.com.   Additional books discussed in this episode:  

September 11, 2015 - End your week with a taste of the past.  It's History in Five Friday!  Here's Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik, author of Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex.  You can enjoy our full interview on or after Monday, September 14, 2015.   You can follow him on Twitter @HiltzikM or visit his website, MichaelHiltzik.com.  And enjoy more of Simon & Schuster's History in Five shorts at Facebook.com/HistoryInFive.

Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention That Launched the Military-Industrial Complex (Simon and Schuster) In Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention That Launched the Military-Industrial Complex, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik tells the fascinating story of how one man and one invention forever changed the course of scientific research.  Hiltzik explains how science went “big,” built the bombs that helped win World War II, and became dependent on government and industry. He also sheds new light on the forgotten genius who started it all, Ernest Lawrence. More than eighty years ago in Berkeley, California, a charming and resourceful young scientist with a talent for physics and perhaps an even greater talent for promotion pondered his new invention and declared: “I’m going to be famous!”  His name was Ernest O. Lawrence.  His invention, the cyclotron, would revolutionize nuclear physics, but that was only the beginning of its impact.  It would transform everything about how science was done, in ways that still matter today.  It would deepen our understanding of the basic building blocks of nature. It would help win World War II.   Its influence would be felt in academia, industry, and international affairs. Its progeny include the atomic bomb and the space program. It was the beginning of Big Science.Praise for Big Science“A fascinating biography of a physicist who transformed how science is done.”— Kirkus Reviews“Hiltzik here tells the fascinating story of how this exceptional scientist won support for his epoch-making research tool and then assembled and managed an unprecedented team of experts who used that tool to penetrate subatomic mysteries.  The continuing relevance of such issues will ensure a wide readership for this biographical inquiry into their origins.”— Booklist“In this dual history of Lawrence and the movement he single-handedly brought into being, Hiltzik… explains how Lawrence’s postwar research exceeded the budgets of universities and philanthropic foundations, necessitating government patronage… his portrait of Lawrence, who gave birth to the modern research lab through sheer force of will, is powerful.”— Publishers Weekly“Michael Hiltzik tells an epic story, one with arenas of tragedy as well as triumph, and he tells it well.”— Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian“Einstein famously formulated new theories of the universe while sitting alone in the patent office in Bern. Today, many endeavors in fundamental research require large budgets, elaborate facilities, and huge staffs. How did science become ‘Big Science’?  In this fascinating book, Michael Hiltzik gives us the inside story of this remarkable metamorphosis. This is a gripping biography of Big Science and of the people who originated it.”— Mario Livio, Astrophysicist, and author of Brilliant Blunders“20th-century science delivered a series of revolutions, none more instantaneous than the microseconds it took to explode the first atomic bomb. By framing this story—and the development of the cyclotron that made it possible—from the Lawrence/Livermore perspective rather than the Oppenheimer/Los Alamos perspective that has dominated most accounts, Michael Hiltzik sheds fresh light on the transition from small science to big science that we take for granted today. Especially timely is a fascinating account of Lawrence’s attempt to return to small science: how do you encourage a small group of scientists to produce big results, rather than the other way around?”— George Dyson, author of Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital UniverseMichael Hiltzik is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who has covered business, technology, and public policy for the Los Angeles Times for more than twenty years.  He currently serves as the Times’s business columnist.  His previous books include Colossus: The Turbulent, Thrilling Saga of the Building of Hoover Dam and The New Deal: A Modern History. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Mr. Hiltzik’s other awards include the 2004 Gerald Loeb Award for outstanding business commentary and the Silver Gavel from the American Bar Association for outstanding legal reporting.  He is a graduate of Colgate University and the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and lives with his family in Southern California.

On today’s Modern Notion Daily podcast, we’re talking with Michael Hiltzik, author of Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex (Simon & Schuster, July 2015). Hiltzik chronicles the life of Lawrence and his machine, the cyclotron (also known as the proton accelerator). This invention, Hiltzik argues, was the beginning of…

On the show this week we talk to Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Michael Hiltzik about his new book Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex.iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-mindsStitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-mindsTumblr: http://inquiringshow.tumblr.com