Radiance [Book Review]

C arter Scholz’s novel is a tale of the dark side of governmentsponsored R&D. In it, he examines the workings of a thinly veiled version of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory known as “the Lab.” It’s the mid-1990s, and the Lab is in search of a post–Cold War mission, and no one, not even its hapless directors, can quite control it. Radiance paints a picture of a research establishment that co-opts brilliant and dedicated individuals into perpetuating its own existence instead of serving the national interest. Presidents and senators come and go, but the Lab remains. Projects that fall out of political fashion or show no technical merit continue anyway, cloaked by an assortment of more palatable disguises (Star Wars becomes a defense system against rogue asteroids). The book begins with the collapse of the Lab’s Superbright project. This is an attempt to develop a satellite-based X-ray laser powered by a nuclear explosion, which would simultaneously shoot down dozens of intercontinental ballistic missiles during its brief active life. Philip Quine, a oncepromising physicist, is charged with creating a theoretical model that will accurately predict the laser’s behavior. But Quine suspects that the scientific basis for the project is quite shaky, little more than simulations massaged to fit dubious experimental data (“It’s a case of data not conforming to theory,” quips one character). Meanwhile, the Lab’s director, Leo Highet, is hell-bent on presenting the government with favorable results from an upcoming test of Superbright. But Quine manages to demonstrate that the test’s evidence for the project’s success is nothing more than an experimental artifact. In the ensuing political storm, Highet is ousted and Quine elevated to the directorship. Most books would end here, but it is at this point the story really hits its stride. As Quine tries to bring the Lab to heel, he invariably finds himself pushed further and further away from his original good