Energy from Heaven and Earth; In which a story is told about energy from its origins 15,000,000,000 years ago to its present adolescence--turbulent, hopeful, best by problems and in need of help

San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1979. Second Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. George Bing. xiv, 322 pages. Illustrations. Map. Footnotes. Index. Inscribed by Edward Teller on the half-title page. Inscription reads To Vic with best wishes Edward. This was inscribed to Vic Reis a senior U.S. national security official. The first draft of this book was based on lectures given by the author in 1975: the Harvey Prize Lectures, Technion; and Distinguished Visiting Lectures of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1975. One chapter was based on a lecture delivered at Acadia University, Nova Scotia. Edward Teller (January 15, 1908 - September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist. Teller was known both for his scientific ability and for his volatile personality. Teller was an early member of the Manhattan Project, charged with developing the first atomic bomb, and proposed the solid pit implosion design which was successful. He made a serious push to develop the first fusion-based weapons as well, but these were deferred until after World War II. He did not sign the Szilard petition, which sought to have the bombs detonated as a demonstration, but not on a city, but later agreed that Szilard was right, and the bombs should not have been dropped on a defenseless civilian population. He was a co-founder of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and was both its director and associate director for many years. He was noted for for his advocacy for nuclear energy development, a strong nuclear arsenal, and a vigorous nuclear testing program. Victor Herbert Reis (born 11 February 1935) is a technologist and former U.S. government official, best known as the architect and original sponsor of the U.S. nuclear Stockpile Stewardship Program and its associated Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI), which resulted in the creation of several new generations of government-sponsored supercomputers. Reis was Assistant Director for National Security and Space in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President, 1981-1983. Leaving government, he became senior vice president for strategic planning at the Science Applications International Corp., 1983-1989. He then returned to government as, first, Deputy Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 1989-1990; then that agency's Director, 1990-1991; and subsequently Director of Defense Research and Engineering at the U.S. Department of Defense. Reis served as Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs in the U.S. Department of Energy from 1993 to 1999, where he led the development of the DOE's Stockpile Stewardship Program, which was formally established by the 1994 National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 103-160). After the U.S. moratorium on nuclear testing in 1992, Reis was among the first to recognize the need for a new, formal program in maintaining the U.S. nuclear stockpile, replacing data formerly obtained by testing with data from supercomputer simulation and small-scale non-nuclear experiments. In 2005, he became senior advisor in the Office of the Secretary, Department of Energy. Reis was also a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of the U.S. Strategic Command.