#82 – Alex Wellerstein

#82 – Alex Wellerstein

Our guest today is Alex Wellerstein, a self-described “historian of science, secrecy, and nuclear weapons”. He’s a Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He blogs here and is on Twitter here. He is also...
#81 – GROUND ZERO

#81 – GROUND ZERO

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...
#80 – The Plug & The Hole

#80 – The Plug & The Hole

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....
#78 – Alamogordo

#78 – Alamogordo

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...
#77 – Bombing Japan

#77 – Bombing Japan

* 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...