E-grāmata: Life at the Center of the Energy Crisis: A Technologist's Search for a Black Swan [World Scientific e-book]

George H. Miley was a technologist. In his career in the nuclear engineering program at the U. of Illinois, he focused on finding what he calls here a "black swan": results that do not match predictions in some major way. He explains that engineers usually try to avoid them; they are signs they are wrong, and that a machine, experimental design, or theory will not work. Miley wanted one. He was part of the Cold War generation who believed the world could be saved by heroic engineers. Lurking somewhere in the world of particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, and solid-state physics might be a miraculous solution to the problem of cheap, easy, clean energy. Any unexplained event might be the first thread leading to room-temperature superconductors, practical fusion engines, or some other solution all previous theory and practice had suggested was impossible. Like everyone else, he didn't find it. Here, he writes a memoir of his search. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Life at the Center of the Energy Crisis: A Technologist's Search for a Black Swan describes the story of the author's work and struggles in the field of energy research. The author's experience in the field spans from work with Admiral Rickover and the Nuclear Navy to research with NASA designing propulsion for spacecraft to travel to Mars. The book provides insights into the differences between nuclear research done during the Cold War by the two superpowers, and offers a commentary on the flaws in each system with hope for change in the future. The book also provides a look into the development of the nuclear engineering program at the University of Illinois from the author's years as a professor and an administrator.