Jerrold R. Zacharias

REVIEWS ])reliminary meetings with Iraqi mili- of the strengths and weaknesses of a Rabi's atomic beam laboratory at tary officials (arranged by Lebanese half dozen theories about who was be- Columbia. It was an exciting time; arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian). But hind Bull's assassination. He ends up among other things, the gi'oup man- it wasn't until 1987 that Bull struck a leaning toward the now popular view aged to measure the magnetic mo- ileal with the Iraqis to modify some of that he was hit by Israeli intelligence, ments of the proton and of the deu- their howitzers, to help them develop in part to stop the Iraqi supergun tron (nucleus of heavy hydrogen). For several longer range versions, and to project, and in part to serve "as a this research anti the exploration of work on the much discussed Iraqi warning to all the other dealers oper- its ramifications, Rabi eventually won "supergim." ating in the undergi'ound anns bazaar the Nobel Prize. Adams speculates about what Sad- that trading with Israel's enemies is a But the real world intervened— dam Hussein intended to do with dangerous business." • Hitler oveiran Europe and threatened such an unwieldy weapon, which to take over the British Isles. The could probably not have been fired William D. Hartung is the director of United States, through a project at more frequently than three times a the Arms Transfer Control Project of M.I.T.'s "Radiation Laboratory," de- day. He leaves open the possibility the World Policy Institute in New veloped a radar technology to combat that Iraq did in fact plan to use the York City. He is ivorking on a book Gemian submarines that were threat- gim for Bull's original purpose, about the future of U.S. arms trans- ening to cut off the U.S. lifeline to launching satellites. Leaving aside fer policy. Britain. Zacharias contributed to the the question of the supergun's ulti- development of important submarine mate purpose, Adams provides the detecting systems. Afterwai'd, the fullest account yet of Bull's contribu- lab's "scientific stars" concentrated on tion to Iraij's military capabilities. technical issues related to winning the both thi'ough direct contracts with wiU' with Japan. Most of them were Iraq and through South African and A life in science enlisted into vanous aspects of the Austrian arms manufacturers' sales A Different Sort of Time: Manhattan Project. Zacharias moved of his howitzer design. The Life of Jerrold Zacharias, Scien- to Los Alamos where the atomic bomb As for the lessons to be drawn tist, Engineer, Educator was being designed. from Bull's checkered career, Adams by Jack S. Goldstein The project soon revolved around suggests in his concluding chapter M.I.T. Press, 1992 the possibility of developing an atom- that "Bull and his inventions are 373 pages; $35.00 ic bomb in time to avoid the necessity merely symbols of a gi-eater prob- of an island-by-island march across lem: the failure of the international BERNARD T. FELD the Pacific, eventually culminating in community to halt the spread of an invasion of Japan. Such a mai'ch, if weapons throughout the world, and Jen-old Zacharias was the ideal scien- carried out, would have involved the seemingly endless cycle of prolif- tist-administrator. He understood, as many casualties (although, in retro- eration that is a hallmark of the arms well as anyone he supervised, the sci- spect, it is generally believed that a business." entific and technical content of the naval blockade of the Japanese Islands Adams descnbes the strengths and work. And he did not hesitate to in- would have produced a Japanese sur- weaknesses of current efforts to curb tervene directly when he perceived a render, probably requiring more time the spread of nuclear, chemical, bio- way of accelerating progress. At the but producing fewer casualties on logical, and conventional amis, and of- same time, he gave individual scien- both sides). fers a few pointed observations about tists maximum leeway for developing Dropping the atomic bomb on Hi- ways to improve them. The one thing their skills and ideas. roshima led rapidly to the Japanese missing from Adams's analysis—and Zacharias grew up in Jacksonville, surrender and the end of the war. The it would make the strongest link with Florida. From his earliest teens, he Nagasaki bomb was superfluous, only the rest of the book—is an analysis of was interested in things technical: providing a public ciemonstration that how to deal with individuals like Bull cameras, automobile engines, and am- the vast expenditure for the Plutoni- who decide to sell their design and ateur radio transmission and receiv- um Project had not been for nothing. manufacturing knowledge to the ing. He studied engineering in high For Zacharias, myself, and the oth- highest bidder. A fuller presentation school {physics was not yet taught in ers at Los Alamos, the time had come of Adams's views on this issue would public schools) and he attended to consider how (in the immortal have been a welcome addition to the Columbia University in New York, words of General Groves) to "go back book's concluding section. where he majored in mathematics to your future lives." I was faced with Finally, the biggest mystery of the and minored in physics (no major was a choice between two offers—an as- book—who killed Bull—is not defini- available). After gi-aduation, he did sistant professorship at Purdue Uni- tively solved. It is clear that Bull was his doctoral research at the solid versity and an instructorship with gunned down by a professional assas- state laboratory of Professor Shirley Zacharias at M.I.T.'s newly-estab- sin outside his Biussels apartment in Quimby, Columbia's foremost solid lished Laboratory for Nuclear Sci- March 1990, for reasons connected state physics researcher. ence and Engineering. I chose M.I.T. with his ongoing activities as an arms After graduation he taught at and found Zacharias to be a superb merchant and scientific mercenary. Hunter College and spent his spare leader. After getting the lab under Adams provides a reasoned analysis time doing research in Professor 1.1. control, his interest slowly turned to October 1992 43 REVIEWS for Advanced Study. His early contri- butions to mathematics were impres- sive, as were his later complex and crucial calculations for the Manhattan Project and then for the H-bomb. Von Neumann genuinely feared that wai* with the Soviet Union would follow World War II, and he was re- ported to have advocated a "preven- tive war" against the Soviet Union before the Soviets could develop atomic weapons. He was a consultant for the RAND Corporation, the think tank that encouraged thinking about the unthinkable, and he provided important government and corporate counsel. It was at RAND that von Neumann studied and expanded the "prisoner's dilemma." The dilemma is this: Two prisoners in solitary confinement are each of- science teaching. His initial interest "They broke the mold after they fered a deal. If one testifies against in teaching college physics changed made him." I highly recommend it. • the other, or "defects," he/she goes when he realized that the greatest free or wins and the other gets a stiff problems arose because of the very Bernard T. Feld, a member of the prison sentence ("sucker payoff). If poor quality of science teaching in Manhattan Project, is professor emer- both testify, they get intermediate high school and gi'ade school. Typical- itus at M.I.T. and a member- of the sentences. If neither testifies (they ly, he set about remedying these de- Bulletin's Board ofDirectars. "cooperate"), they receive light sen- fects by organizing programs for tences. The dilemma occurs because teaching modern science to graduate each prisoner does better if he/she and high school teachers. He was also alone chooses to defect rather than to attracted to the challenge of teaching cooperate. But the punishment for science in the underdeveloped world, War games two defections is more severe than for and arranged for courses training sci- Prisoner's Dilemma cooperation. ence teachers in Africa. by William Poundstone In connecting game theoi^ to East- Summer studies were among Doubleday, 1992 West relations and the bomb, the au- Zacharias's favorite methods of 290 pages; $22.50 thor invokes interesting people and gathering the right people to deal events and provides some tantalizing with specific problems and issues. It LINDA GAINES hints about how this reasoning might was an obvious way to attract aca- have been used at high levels. In one demics, and Zacharias developed the This book is a pastiche. It combines possible "game," the players were the technique to a fine art. If he wanted three elements: the life of John von Allied and the Axis powers; the ac- a colleague to participate in a sum- Neumann, his development of game tions both sides could choose were mer study, that colleague would find theory, and the application of game building or not building the bomb (de- it almost impossible to turn him theory to the Cold War. Von Neu- fecting or cooperating). down. mann (1903-1957) was a pioneer of the How good an analogj' is the pnson- In all of his efforts, Zacharias had electronic digital computer, a Manhat- er's dilemma game for the develop- the unfailing cooperation and sup- tan Project pai-ticipant, and a brilliant ment and deployment of the bomb? port of his wife Leona, who was also mathematician.

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