Post archives
Filtering for posts categorized as ‘Redactions’
2024
September 2024
2023
July 2023
2022
May 2022
6
Redactions
What if Japan did offer nearly-full surrender terms to the US in early 1945? In the 1940s, just this was claimed — but it's not very likely.
2
Redactions
Did the Japanese offer to surrender before Hiroshima? Short answer: no. Long answer: also no, but it's a bit complicated.
2021
November 2021
12
Redactions
Ever wonder how many people currently have the enigmatic Q Clearance, the required security clearance for access to nuclear secrets? Well, I found out.
October 2021
29
Redactions
The untold story of the world's largest nuclear bomb, the Tsar Bomba, and the secret US efforts to match it.
June 2021
14
Redactions
A bizarre leak from a powerful Senator made the Top Secret debate over building the hydrogen bomb part of national discourse — and doomed its direction.
May 2021
17
Redactions | Visions
How the wrong settings on a photocopier has let us have a glimpse at a forbidden image of a modern thermonuclear warhead.
2020
August 2020
4
Redactions
My new article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists outlines the history of casualty estimation attempts, and why they have been inherently fraught.
2019
December 2019
3
Redactions
In 1953, an eminent US scientist lost the "secret of the H-bomb" under bizarre circumstances. Read the documents behind the tale.
2018
June 2018
29
Redactions
What would it take to turn the world into one big fusion reaction, wiping it clean of life and turning it into a barren rock? Asking for a friend.
January 2018
19
Redactions
A remarkable set of speech drafts from August 6-9th, 1945, shows an evolution in Truman's thinking about the bomb — from an unambiguous good, to a horror that needed to justified.
2017
May 2017
2
Redactions
Was the first history of the atomic bomb biased towards physics to avoid public associations with chemical weapons? My take on a recent article.
April 2017
10
Redactions
New sources further illuminate the tricky issue of the nuclear chain of command.
2016
September 2016
30
Redactions
If he had lived to make the decision, would Roosevelt have dropped the atomic bomb?
May 2016
23
Redactions
Digging into the unusual death of Louis Slotin and the fate of the bomb core that killed him.
February 2016
12
Redactions
How did the first history of the atomic bomb end up in a Soviet Gulag prison?
5
Redactions
The year in historical nuclear scholarship.
2015
December 2015
11
Redactions
Who killed J. Robert Oppenheimer's Communist lover?
November 2015
20
Redactions
Reading about the various radiation hazards in the Manhattan Project's history can be spine-tingling, even with a measured view of the dangers.
13
Redactions
At what point did the Manhattan Project scientists and administrators realize they weren't in a race with Nazi Germany after all?
October 2015
30
Redactions
One of the most unusual, curious, and controversial members of the Manhattan Project was their in-house newspaperman from the New York Times.
23
Redactions
How far would Manhattan Project security go to deal with a problematic genius?
9
Redactions
Niigata was one of the possible targets for atomic attack in 1945. Why was it spared? And why don't we ever talk about it?
September 2015
4
Redactions
Did "Big Science" pioneer Ernest Lawrence believe that Japan should have been warned before Hiroshima?
May 2015
11
Redactions
Along with almost getting hit by a car, he made important contributions to the atomic bomb's design.
March 2015
27
News and Notes | Redactions
The US government has once again created a headache for itself in trying to censor information about the hydrogen bomb.
6
Redactions
In 1945, some scientists thought we should "demonstrate" the bomb to Japan before dropping it on a city. Others disagreed. Who was right?
February 2015
13
Redactions
The details of the two dozen Manhattan Project deaths at Los Alamos reveal much about the work of building the bomb, and the people who did it.
January 2015
16
Redactions
What do the newly released Oppenheimer transcripts tell us about the security hearing, and its original redaction?
