Ebook: ENERGY

ENERGY
by Mitchell Wilson and the Editors of LIFE

TIME Incorporated New York 1963

Life Science Library. Consulting Editors René Dubos, Henry Margenau, C.P. Snow

TIME INC. BOOK DIVISION
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Editor: Norman P. Ross
Copy Director: William Jay Gold
Art Director: Edward A. Hamilton
Chief of Research: Beatrice T. Dobie

EDITORIAL STAFF FOR "ENERGY"
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Editor, LIFE Science Library: George McCue
Assistants to the Editor: Simone Daro Gossner, Harvey B. Loomis, John MacDonald
Designer: Arnold C. Holeywell
Associate Designer: Edwin Taylor
Staff Writers: Tom Alexander, James Cox, Stephen Espie, Paul Trachtman
Chief Researcher: Sheila Osmundsen
Researchers: David Beckwith, Tim Carr, Valentin Y. L. Chu, Joan C. Coates, Mollie Cooper, Eleanor W. Engelmann, Elizabeth Evans, Owen Fang, John L. Hochmann, Mary-Jo Kline, Leonard Lipton, Beatrice S. Mathews, Robert R. McLaughlin, Victor H. Waldrop
Picture Researchers: Margaret K. Goldsmith, Barbara Sullivan
Art Associate: Robert L. Young
Art Assistants: James D. Smith, W. Lee Einhorn, Charles Mikolaycak, Douglas B. Graham
Copy Staff: Marian Gordon Goldman, Suzanne Seixas, Dolores A. Littles
Publisher: Jerome S. Hardy
General Manager: John A. Watters

LIFE MAGAZINE
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Editor: Edward K. Thompson
Managing Editor: George P. Hunt
Publisher: C. D. Jackson

The text for the chapters of this book was written by Mitchell Wilson, for the picture essays by the editorial staff. Valuable assistance in the production of the book was contributed by: Margaret Sar­gent, Life film editor; Doris O’Neil, Chief of the Life Picture Library; Philip Payne of the Time-Life News Service; and Content Peckham, Chief of the Time Inc. Bureau of Editorial Reference.

Introduction
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Energy has always been the key to man’s greatest goals and to his dreams of a better world. It is sometimes said that the caveman started along the path to civilization after he had utilized the energy in fire for heat and light, and the energy in his body, through the club and the bow, for food and survival. In the centuries since then, man’s quest for mate­rial well-being has been tied largely to the harnessing of various forms of energy — in coal, in petroleum, in electricity. In modern times, man has developed increasingly complex and effective means of tapping energy for more difficult goals. Today, the quest for the moon is made possible by the harnessing of chemical energy for the rockets at Cape Canaveral; tomorrow the exploration of the planets will depend on harnessing the energy in the nucleus of the atom.

But what, precisely, is energy? It is not something you can always de­tect with the senses. If a physicist wanted to describe an apple to some­one who had never seen one, he might simply put a piece of the fruit on a table and let it be felt, smelled, tasted. But energy cannot simply be put on a table, for, as the text and the pictures in this book clearly re­veal, energy can appear in many forms. It can appear as the energy of motion, or kinetic energy. It can appear in the form of heat and light. It can appear on an atomic or molecular scale as chemical energy. It can appear in the flow of electrical current. On a nuclear scale it can appear in one of the most fearsome forms — as nuclear energy. It can even appear in the form of an apple, as it did (so the story goes) to Sir Isaac Newton, who was led to the discovery of gravitation when he was struck by an apple that had fallen from a tree. The apple in falling released potential energy.

If the mastery of energy accounts for the rise of civilization, it may also lead to mankind’s downfall. With ever-increasing energy at our com­mand, we are able not only to better our daily lives but, unfortunately, to wage war on a more efficient and grander scale as well. Nuclear ener­gy, whose promise is so bright for the peaceful future, could well be the source of the world’s destruction. If we and our children, and our chil­dren’s children, are to avoid this, it is imperative that we understand ourselves and our surroundings. There is no better starting place than to investigate the nature of energy.

Glenn T. Seaborg
Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission