May 18, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Kistiakowsky and his team armed the device shortly after 5am and retreated to the control bunker. Their final task was to switch on a string of lights on the ground that would serve as an ‘aiming point’. The air force wanted to know what the effect of the blast would...
May 12, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Back to Alamogordo. The army leased a ranch in the middle of the Jornada del Muerto site and converted it into a military police station and field laboratory. They thoroughly vacuumed it to make a makeshift clean room and sealed its windows with black electrical tape....
Apr 27, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Today we have a special guest – Jeff Hogue from the “History of the Cold War” podcast. We invited Jeff on to chat about his thoughts on the bombing of Japan.
Apr 19, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
On 6 June, Stimson again briefed Truman on S-1. * The briefing summarized the consensus of the Interim Committee, set up as an advisory group on atomic research.* It’s job was the advise on the proper use of atomic weapons in wartime and to develop a position for the...
Apr 14, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
* Which brings us to April 1945.* Only weeks before Germany surrendered on May 7, FDR dies.* And Truman takes over as POTUS.* He knew nothing of the Manhattan Project or the atomic bomb.* He was briefed on it immediately by Sec of War Stimson.* By the time Truman took...
Mar 29, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Of course, while the bomb was being designed, they had to figure out how they were going to deliver it. And WHO was going to deliver it. Way back in March 1944, the US Army Air Force, with William Sterling “Deak” Parsons and his team at Los Alamos, developed two...
Mar 23, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
* President Roosevelt authorized the Manhattan Project to go full steam 26 days after Fermi’s success, on 28 December 1942* The U.S. would end up spending $2 billion on it. (about $22 billion in 2018 dollars)* Do you know why it cost so much?* 130,000 people* When I...
Mar 18, 2018 | Free, Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Benn Steil is an American economist, author of a great new book on “The Marshall Plan”, and senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mar 2, 2018 | Free, Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
* Fission involved breaking apart the nuclei of heavy elements like uranium or plutonium.* Fusion involves forcing the nuclei of lighter elements, like hydrogen or deuterium, together.* And deuterium, which is basically heavy hydrogen, is far easier to get your hands...
Feb 24, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
* President Roosevelt responded to Einstein’s letter by setting up the Advisory Committee on Uranium under Lyman J. Briggs, director of the National Bureau of Standards.* Side note: his daughter Isabel would eventually marry Clarence Myers and go on to generate the...
