In 1942, when fifteen-year-old Tony Brenner started to give his talk on neutrons before his High School Club, he never expected to be spirited away— because he was a threat to the security of the United States.

As a result of that talk, Tony found himself working on a secret project with his father, a physicist, and his father's colleagues, several of them Nobel Prize winners. Tony could hardly believe it all — that two little pounds of a mysterious gray metal would one day send off a skyrocketing, mushroom-shaped blast felt over two hundred miles away; and that he was taking part in the race to perfect the atomic bomb.

Through Tony's experiences, every exciting detail of the most far-reaching scientific experiments of our time come to life— from the early discoveries to the release of the first atomic bomb, which was to bring World War II to a sudden and unforgettable close. This book recreates one of the most exciting and awesome moments in the history of the world— the moment both great and terrible that ushered in the Atomic Era.

From the dust jacket