Post archives
Filtering for posts categorized as ‘Visions’
2021
November 2021
19
Visions
The Rosatom historical website has an entire section devoted to "Atomic Fun" — jokes and stories from the Soviet nuclear program. It's... something.
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.
2019
December 2019
13
News and Notes | Visions
The top-secret story of why NUKEMAP switched from Google Maps to Mapbox+Leaflet.
2018
May 2018
10
News and Notes | Visions
A new exhibit on the first nuclear-armed submarines is opening this week at the Intrepid Museum in New York.
2017
February 2017
3
Visions
Reflections on the past, present, and future of NUKEMAP, five years into its existence.
2016
September 2016
23
Visions
With nuclear weapons, sometimes you have to agree to know less if you want to know anything.
July 2016
25
Visions
On the anniversary of America's first nuclear disaster, when the Manhattan Project still ruled the bomb...
May 2016
9
Visions
Taking a close look at the targets and consequences of a declassified US nuclear war plan.
April 2016
22
Visions
What do the shapes of nuclear weapons reveal, and what do they hide?
February 2016
26
Visions
What does Frayn's famous play get wrong, and what does it get right?
2015
November 2015
27
Visions
What does an atomic bomb scientist look like? Not just white men.
6
Visions
The popular version of Oppenheimer at Los Alamos is one of infinite competence, confidence, and charm. The reality is far more complex.
October 2015
13
Visions
Some notes on doing historical consulting for the period-piece, neo-noir drama, "Manhattan."
July 2015
17
Visions
What does the Trinity test signify, in the broad sweep of human history?
June 2015
26
Visions
The Soviet space dogs were more than just adorable mutts — but they were those, too.
April 2015
10
Visions
The problem with thinking about the "critical mass" as a fixed quantity, and a new visualization to aid in thinking about it in a better way.
January 2015
30
Visions
Why creating a "Manhattan Project National Park" is an important and necessary step to preserve the past.
2014
December 2014
15
Visions
Is there a big red button that can launch nuclear war? No — but thinking about why there isn't is a nice way into the complexities of command and control issues.
1
Visions
There are thousands of photographs of mushroom clouds — so why do we always see the same ones?
November 2014
14
Visions
Experiments in representing the atomic bomb and the substances that fuel it.
September 2014
26
Visions
The impressive ugliness that almost became the emblem of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
May 2014
23
Visions
What did Oppenheimer mean when he famously said, "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds"? A foray into the Bhagavad-Gita.
March 2014
28
Visions
What color was the box they kept the plutonium core in? A small digression on the fact that we can't see past events like those who lived through them did.
12
Visions
A remarkable Army map from 1945 superimposes the effects of the ruinous firebombing campaign against Japan on the continental United States.
7
Visions
A rare find: science fiction giant John Campbell wrote about dirty bombs and U-235 in the summer of 1941.
February 2014
7
Visions
The original, unedited, raw, silent footage of the Nagasaki bombing.
January 2014
31
Visions
How the wonderful, terrible display of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb changed Andrei Sakharov's views on the responsibility of scientists.
2013
December 2013
13
Visions
Should films of nuclear detonations be put in art galleries?
October 2013
23
Visions
"At the first sign of any unusual behavior inside the box he was to abandon the automobile and run as far away from it as his legs would carry him..."
August 2013
2
Meditations | Visions
I thought I knew a lot about nuclear fallout, but digging into the details taught me some subtle but important points about how it worked.
