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Hello one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century and

certainly the most controversial was the development of nuclear physics.

Harnessing the enigmatic qualities of the atoms tiny core brought us nuclear power and gave us the bomb,

a breakthrough with such far-reaching consequences that it moved the physicist

Albert Einstein to say, had I known I should have become a watchmaker.

How can such outlandish power be released from such infinitesimal amounts of matter?

And what does the signs of the nucleus tell us about how our universe is built?

Nuclear technology provokes strong emotional and political reactions, but what are the plain facts behind its development as a science?

With me to discuss the development of nuclear physics is Jim Alkalele, senior lecturer in physics at the University of Surrey, and

author of Nucleus, A Trip Into the Heart of Matter.

Christine Sutton, Particle Physicist and Lecture in Physics at St Catharines College Oxford, author of

spaceship neutrino, and John Gribbin, visiting fellow in astronomy at the

University of Sussex and author of Q is for quantum and in search of Schurdinger's cat. John Grebin, can we begin with a brief outline

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