"James P. Hogan - Giants 1 - Inherit The Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

working in collaboration with the United States of Europe Federal Research
Institute at Geneva, had developed the theory of meson dynamics that led to
the nucleonic bomb. The theory predicted a "clean" reaction with a yield
orders of magnitude greater than that produced by thermonuclear fusion. The
holes they had blown in the Sahara had proved it.
During that period of history, the ideological and racial tensions
inherited from the twentieth century were being swept away by the tide of
universal affluence and falling birth rates that came with the spread of high-
technology living. Traditional rocks of strife and suspicion were being eroded
as races, nations, sects, and creeds became inextricably mingled into one
huge, homogeneous global society. As the territorial irrationalities of long-
dead politicians resolved themselves and the adolescent nation-states matured,
the defense budgets of the superpowers were progressively reduced year by
year. The advent of the nucleonic bomb served only to accelerate what would
have happened anyway. By universal assent, world demilitarization became fact.
One sphere of activity that benefited enormously from the surplus funds
and resources that became available after demilitarization was the rapidly
expanding United Nations Solar System Exploration Program. Already the list of
responsibilities held by this organization was long; it included the operation
of all artificial satellites in terrestrial, Lunar, Martian, Venusian, and
Solar orbits; the building and operation of all manned bases on Luna and Mars,
plus the orbiting laboratories over Venus; the launching of deep-space robot
probes and the planning and control of manned missions to the outer planets.
UNSSEP was thus expanding at just the right rate and the right time to absorb
the supply of technological talent being released as the world's major
armaments programs were run down. Also, as nationalism declined and most of
the regular armed forces were demobilized, the restless youth of the new
generation found outlets for their adventure-lust in the uniformed branches of
the UN Space Arm. It was an age that buzzed with excitement and anticipation
as the new pioneering frontier began planet-hopping out across the Solar
System.
And so NWRL Bonneville had been left with no purpose to serve. This
situation did not go unnoticed by the directors of IDCC. Seeing that most of
the equipment and permanent installations owned by NWRL could be used in much
of the corporation's own research projects, they propositioned the government
with an offer to buy the place outright. The offer was accepted and the deal
went through. Over the years IDCC had further expanded the site, improved its
aesthetics, and eventually established it as their nucleonics research center
and world headquarters.
The mathematical theory that had grown out of meson dynamics involved
the existence of three hitherto unknown transuranic elements. Although these
were purely hypothetical, they were christened hyperium, bonnevillium, and
genevium. Theory also predicted that, due to a "glitch" in the transuranic
mass-versus-binding-energy curve, these elements, once formed, would be
stable. They were unlikely to be found occurring naturally, however -- not on
Earth, anyway. According to the mathematics, only two known situations could
give the right conditions for their formation: the core of the detonation of a
nucleonic bomb or the collapse of a supernova to a neutron star.
Sure enough, analysis of the dust clouds after the Sahara tests yielded
minute traces of hyperium and bonnevillium; genevium was not detected.