Los Alamos National Laboratory is an incredible place. It was conceived and born amidst the most desperate of circumstances. It attracted some of the most brilliant minds, the most innovative entrepreneurs, and the most c- ative tinkerers of that generation. Out of that milieu emerged physics and engineering that beforehand was either unimagined, or thought to be f- tasy. One of the ?elds essentially invented during those years was the science of precision high explosives. Before 1942, explosives were used in munitions and commercial pursuits that demanded proper chemistry and con?nement for...