Post archives
Filtering for posts tagged with ‘1940s’
2013
October 2013
11
Redactions
Who told Werner Heisenberg that an atomic bomb might be dropped on Dresden? Plus: another curious wartime leak.
4
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If the first atomic bomb had been ready in 1944, would it have been used against the Nazis? Surprisingly, Roosevelt may have been interested in doing it.
September 2013
20
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How did an article about the work at the Los Alamos laboratory come to be published in March 1944?
13
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Are there any indications that the Germans penetrated into the secrecy surrounding the American atomic bomb project during World War II? Not many.
6
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During World War II, the United States didn't just fear a German atomic bomb, but also a German dirty bomb. But secrecy made acting on such fears difficult.
August 2013
30
Meditations
The terrible banality of a weapon explicitly invented to target civilian populations.
23
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Did Klaus Fuchs tell the Soviet Union how to make a hydrogen bomb? Recently released documents from the Russian archives shed new light on the question.
16
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Japan managed to avoid getting the world's third plutonium core dropped on them, but it still managed to leave behind a deadly legacy.
9
Meditations
Why was a second bomb used against Japan, so soon after Hiroshima? A review of several theories.
6
Meditations
Thoughts on the 68th anniversary of Hiroshima, and what gets lost when we focus on individual events.
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.
July 2013
30
Visions
Two new photoessays about the first atomic bomb and its creators.
5
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An unusual view on the possibility of scientific secrecy from physicist who was inside the Manhattan Project but not making the bomb.
May 2013
31
Visions
The captivating, intimate horror of the American B-29 incendiary raids against Japan during World War II.
24
Visions
The Manhattan Project gaseous diffusion facility, K-25, was once the world's largest factory under a single roof. But what did it look like on the inside?
2
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A brief update to the last post: translations of leaflets dropped on the Japanese after Hiroshima.
April 2013
26
Redactions
Did the United States warn Japan about the atomic bombs prior to their use? A mystery is unravelled.
12
Meditations | Redactions
Blacking something out is only a step away from highlighting its importance, and the void makes us curious.
5
Visions
A vision of future war, only a few months after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
March 2013
29
Meditations
How many ways are there to talk about secrecy? Quite a few.
22
Visions
When seen in color, what were cities of dust become cities of rubble.
15
Meditations | Redactions
Did atomic secrets kill Lt. Col. Paul P. Stoutenburgh?
8
Meditations | Redactions
Where do historians stand, in the 2010s, about the decision to use the atomic bomb? A report from a recent workshop.
1
Redactions | Visions
An anonymous wartime wordsmith comes up with an novel interpretation of why Hanford was so secretive, and so unpleasant to work in.
January 2013
25
Meditations | News and Notes
Three recent losses — two people, one building — highlight that the living presence of the Manhattan Project is rapidly vanishing.
22
Visions
The U.K. Atomic Energy Authority's bizarre coat of arms, and more H-bomb drawings from George Gamow.
18
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The colorful physicist's postwar concerns about the teaching of nuclear physics, and an H-bomb doodle.
2012
November 2012
30
Redactions | Visions
The US government doesn't like to draw atomic bombs, but the Russians don't mind drawing American nukes.
October 2012
18
Redactions
Did Truman know about the radiation effects of the atomic bombs before they were used? Does it matter?
5
Meditations | News and Notes
Robert Christy, one of the last major recognizable names who worked on the atomic bomb, has passed away. How many major Manhattan Project figures remain?
