I'm half way through Ken Silverstein's book The Radioactive Boy Scout about a boy whose obsession with chemistry and atomic energy led to his attempting to build a nuclear reactor in his backyard as a way of fulfilling a scout badge requirement. The kid accumulated so much radioactive material by scrounging that the EPA ended up raiding his house. The book is based on the author's article which appeared in Harper's Magazine in 1998. I like the book so far because it greatly expands on the science behind the story and adds many sidebar discussions on how subcultures of technological optimism appeared after the discovery of radioactivity in the late 1800s and the splitting of the atom in the 1940s. The book is a pretty quick read, but if you don't want all the background info, I highly recommend reading the original article linked above.

- mike lee -