Critical Connections

Join Mike Stallo, the library’s local history specialist, as he welcomes authors Lee Riedinger, Al Ekkebus, and Ray Smith to talk about the new book Critical Connections.

“The Manhattan Project required the combination of four secret sites—Clinton Laboratories, Y-12, K-25, and S-50—75,000 workers, and the nation’s finest scientists to create the Secret City, Oak Ridge. From the beginning, the effort was aided by the nearby University of Tennessee, which provided expertise to make the weapon possible.

Critical Connections chronicles how Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Y-12 National Security Complex, and their partners became outstanding examples of the military-industrial-educational complex from the Cold War to the present day. The authors highlight the scientific developments these connections have brought, from nanotechnology to nuclear fission, from cryogenic experiments on mice to the world’s fastest supercomputer. The partnerships between a university, a city, and federal facilities helped solve some of the greatest challenges of the twentieth century—and point toward how to deal with those of the twenty-first.”

Sponsored by the Friends of the Oak Ridge Public Library