Otto Frisch took part in some of the most exciting developments of modern physics, including the discovery of nuclear fission -- he coined that term -- which led to atomic power and atomic weapons. Working on those weapons during World War II he met the scientist and organizer, Robert Oppenheimer, and the passionate maverick, Edward Teller, as well as the mathematical genius, John von Neumann, from whom he first heard about electronic computers, which were just coming into being.

He was still a child when Einstein rose to fame and when Bohr devised his atomic model, based on Rutherford's...