Inside The Atom

[theshadowknows]

[Blaine91555]

Wow. I can't help but wonder how many of the people using those old methods of handling radioactive material went bald and died young. So naive. It's a wonder we survived the first decade of the Cold War.

[sprocketuk]

That was a great vid.
I just love the jaunty way they portrayed such things back then.
God we really were dumb as doornails.

[argentus]

It seems truly amazing that we haven't done more damage with nukes that we think that we have.   I mean, it's as if children were given guns and they studied them, and one of them was the first to figure out how to fire them, and thus ruled things for a while.   

We really are quite primative creatures, aren't we?   I sure hope we figure things out before we do something irreversable.   No wonder the EBEs don't want to sit down and chat with us.   Would you?

[theshadowknows]

Wow. I can't help but wonder how many of the people using those old methods of handling radioactive material went bald and died young. So naive. It's a wonder we survived the first decade of the Cold War.

For more reasons than one. The Broken Arrow incidents alone are enough to keep you awake at night.

[Blaine91555]

For more reasons than one. The Broken Arrow incidents alone are enough to keep you awake at night.

What sends chills up and down my spine is that when they pushed the button for the first time, not a single person working on it knew if the reaction would stop or just keep going until the Earth was a cloud of dust.

[TDDA]

What sends chills up and down my spine is that when they pushed the button for the first time, not a single person working on it knew if the reaction would stop or just keep going until the Earth was a cloud of dust.

Yes that little detail about setting the atmosphere on fire was chilling for me, too!

On the other hand, someone would have done it anyways. I really wonder if there is a lot of secret stuff just because of things like this. Like, imagine, anti-grav and shielding tech in the hands of common people.

People ask for flying cars and most can not even navigate in 2D. Imagine what would happen if anti-grav crafts are a thing and one just plows through a city, even just by accident.

[Blaine91555]

Yes that little detail about setting the atmosphere on fire was chilling for me, too!

On the other hand, someone would have done it anyways. I really wonder if there is a lot of secret stuff just because of things like this. Like, imagine, anti-grav and shielding tech in the hands of common people.

People ask for flying cars and most can not even navigate in 2D. Imagine what would happen if anti-grav crafts are a thing and one just plows through a city, even just by accident.

It makes me think that it's fine with me if we don't know everything. We are certainly not ready for a lot of what's coming in the near future.

I view the idea of robots and AI as equivalent to the atom bomb. Yet another potential world-ender out before we are ready as a species.

[Astyanax]

Wow. I can't help but wonder how many of the people using those old methods of handling radioactive material went bald and died young. So naive. It's a wonder we survived the first decade of the Cold War.

Surprisingly few. On the Manhattan Project, only four. The most spectacular case was that of Louis Slotin.

The most famous case of occupational radiation poisoning is, of course, Marie Curie, whose coffin is lined with lead to prevent her remains from contaminating any more victims. Her notebooks and papers are still too radioactive to be safely handled.

The 10 Worst Radiation Poisoning Cases in History.

Make no mistake about it: nuclear radiation can be deadly. People around Chernobyl have higher death rates from various diseases including cancer than the rest of the Ukrainian population. But it’s not quite as deadly as tree-huggers and other internet alarmists make out: consider the cases of the Radium Girls.

[Blaine91555]

Surprisingly few.

Thanks for the links.