Award-winning science writer, University of Oxford physicist, and former CERN staff member Frank Close presents a new history of the development of nuclear power, showing how knowledge is often advanced by personal convictions and relationships, and indeed by chance, in a remarkable way.

Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age: 1895-1965 is the story of how pursuit of this hidden source of nuclear power, which began innocently and collaboratively, was overwhelmed by the politics of the 1930s, and opened the way to the so-called “backyard weapon”, that could destroy all life on earth – from anywhere.

Tickets: Frank Close: Destroyer of Worlds - Canterbury Festival

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