Post archives
Filtering for posts tagged with ‘1940s’
2015
October 2015
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?
August 2015
21
Meditations
Seven decades later, how do we talk about the atomic bombs?
3
Meditations
Considering a few of the options that were on the table in 1945.
July 2015
17
Visions
What does the Trinity test signify, in the broad sweep of human history?
June 2015
12
Meditations
What remains of the Manhattan Project? A lot of documents. Some people. A few places. And a handful of artifacts.
May 2015
11
Redactions
Along with almost getting hit by a car, he made important contributions to the atomic bomb's design.
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.
March 2015
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
7
Meditations
Was a "Nazi nuclear bunker" recently discovered? Almost certainly not — but that hasn't stopped the story from being passed around.
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.
November 2014
10
Redactions
The Trinity and Fat Man atomic bombs were powered primarily by plutonium — but not exclusively.
September 2014
22
Meditations
How many people would have died if an atomic bomb had been dropped on Tokyo in early 1945, instead of firebombs? And why does it matter?
5
Redactions
When the head of the Manhattan Project had questions about the history of the atomic bomb, he had a special, secret place to look for answers.
August 2014
22
Meditations
The original target for the second atomic bomb was Kokura, not Nagasaki. Why was Kokura spared? Three theories are considered.
8
Redactions
Did Truman fundamentally misunderstand the atomic bomb because of a debate over its use?
June 2014
27
Meditations
How important was Albert Einstein's work or personal intervention to the making of the atomic bomb? Not as important as most people think.
6
Meditations
Most of Feynman's stories about the bomb are about his hijinks. But what did he really do on the Manhattan Project, and what did he think about the bomb?
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
14
Redactions
In a short story published in 1949, Leo Szilard contemplated how well he and President Truman would fare at a war crimes tribunal. His conclusion: not well.
7
Visions
The original, unedited, raw, silent footage of the Nagasaki bombing.
2013
December 2013
23
Meditations
By looking at the trends of yield-to-weight ratios, we can peel back the veil just a tiny bit on nuclear weapons design trends.
13
Visions
Should films of nuclear detonations be put in art galleries?
November 2013
8
Meditations
A portrait of a year in flux, when the possibilities of a new order moved from the limitless to the concrete.
1
Redactions
How many people did it take to make the atomic bomb? Probably many more than you realize.
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..."
