Samuel Goudsmit led the team of American intelligence agents sent into the chaos of Germany towards the end of the Second World War to discover how near the Third Reich was to making a successful nuclear bomb. It seemed at the time that there was even a risk that it might be used. ALSOS (American Institute of Physics, £20.50/$29.95, ISBN 1 56396 415 5) is Goudsmit’s dramatic story of the mission. It is still feverish and exciting. Muddy photographs.
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