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| Head of National Defense Research Committee. President of Harvard, but in Washington most of the time. |
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Worked with radiation. Known for work with radium and polonium. Provided scientists with radioactive materials free of charge. Drove her own x-ray unit to help the french.
Polish, worked in France |
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| Starts the explosion on the edge. Begins shockwave to press plutonium until it reaches critical mass |
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| Mass spectrometer- measures mass-to-charge ration of charged particles |
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Head of theoretical division of Los Alamos, working on calculation critical mass, did work on implosion
Testified on behalf of Oppenheimer |
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Little Boy, Hiroshima dropped by Enola Gay
Fat Man, Nagasaki, dropped by Bockscar
Tsar Bomba, Russian H-Bomb |
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Bomb: gamma + neutrons, more immediate
Fallout: the debris stirred up by the explosion becomes radioactive, slower |
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| Theologian, affected by seeing the racism in Harlem, worked as a spy in the Valkyrie plot against Hitler |
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| Leads plutonium generation project, Stagg Field Reactor is successful(Szilard calls it black day in history), works on plutonium reactors at Hanford using graphite moderator and water cooling and isotope separation strategies |
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God doesn't play dice w/nuclear physics; theories of relativity, signs letter to draw FDR's attention to the issue, Sachs brings the letter. Pushes pacifism.
Manhattan |
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Rome; moves to Columbia U, then to Chicago, went to Stockholm for Nobel Prize Ceremony
Beta decay
Forms and identifies artificial radioactive materials, leads at teaching new physics, gets Nobel Prize-- uses cermony as excuse to escape Italy(wife was Jewish)
Works to get supplies of U-235, Finds carbon is a good moderator
Convinces Teller to think about fusion bomb initiated by fission-- seed of H-bomb today
Fermi forms a group in Rome to do research on radioactivity induced by neutrons.
Attempted to bombard all the naturally |
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Lise Meitner's nephew; Peierls helps with fast fission/isotope separation
Copenhagen(with Bohr) Worked in Oliphant's lab
Worked on fast fission, critical mass calculations, isotope separation schemes, esp. electromagnetic separation, tickling the dragon's tail |
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Born in Germany, moved to England, worked at Los Alamos, moved back to England after WWII, arrested there for espionage
Spy for Soviets, believed in sharing information between allies
Raised as pacifist, later rejected it
Swore secrecy but contacted "Raymond", Soviet Harry God, leaves Los Alamos without telling Harry-- worked in theoretical division
Tells Gold that bomb is becoming reality |
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| Heads up Los Alamos project from army perspective, builds plants at Oak Ridge and Hanford to obtain U-235 and Pu-239 |
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Uses Deuterium and Tritium to fuse together.
Elements heated by x-rays from the fission component to a sufficient temp. for fusion to occur
Fermi and Teller come up with idea of fusion initiated by fission |
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Germany- KWI
Clara Haber commit suicide because of husband's weapon work
Was responsible for creating the technology of gas warfare and was involved in deploying it |
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KWI
Works closely with Lise Meitner
Makes chemical gas weapons. Trying to figure out what happens when you hit uranium with a neutron
Eventually he is able to do chemical separation of the materials left when uranium is struck with neutrons
Barium |
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Germany- KWI
Famous conversation with Bohr in Copenhagen, Denmark
Worked on bomb for Germany.
Discovered matrix mechanics and the uncertainty principle |
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August 6, 1945
20 kilotons
70,000 dead, more injured |
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| Small object put in middle of the plutonium to begin chain reaction. Often Polonium and Beryllium yielding neutronns |
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| Win Nobel Prize for artificial radioactive materials |
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Washington U, cyclotron created at Berkley
Mark Oliphant convinces him to work on bomb
Cyclotron, E-M separation at Oak Ridge
Kept building larger and more expensive cyclotrons
Calutron(separates uranium) developed at Berkley |
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| Used in H-bomb. Solid, stable material that can be stored for years. Turns into deuterium and tridium when hit with atoms. |
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KWI
Works with Bohr in Copenhagen, worked with Hahn
Ends up having to move to Sweden
Corresponded with Hahn about liquid drop model which she was discussing with her nephew Frisch, figure out fission.
Was at asked to work at Los Alamos but refused, moral reasons. |
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| Adventures of a Danish Student |
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| Had a great affect on Bohr regarding contradiction and paradox |
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Worked in Rutherford's Lab (Cavendish in Cambridge)
Affirms Bohr's idea of atom using X-Rays, died in WWI
Able to show that atomic number is most important in determining atoms properties, mass # is less important |
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Written by Gil Eliot
Refers to 100 million that died due to manmade science |
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| Gets microscopic samples of U-235 |
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Was carrying heavy water for the Germans to use as a moderator in their nuclear experiments.
Sunk by putting large quantity of explosives in its floor |
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| Nuclear Fission vs. Nuclear Fusion |
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Fission: discovered in 1941 by Meitner and Hahn. Typical elements are U-235 and Pu-239.
Involves firing neutron into the nucleus of one of these elements to cause elements to break apart into smaller elements, releasing energy
Fusion: Discovered in late 1940's. Clearly seen in the sun. Typical elements are Hydrogen and Helium. Involves the nucleus getting larger and then losing mass suddenly, releasing a lot of energy. Much more powerful than fission |
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US uses light water reactors which need enriched uranium
Pressurized reactor- 2 cycles
Boiling water- 1 cycle |
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Grew up in NYC and New Mexico
Harvard, Berkley
Brings quantum mechanics to California; works with Fermi to talk about chain reactions, leadership role in theoretical design of the bomb
Picks lab at Los Alamos
Unlikely leader, brother was a communist
Became director of the center for advanced studies at Princeton, opposes H-bomb |
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| Came under suspicion during McCarthy anti-communism era of the 1950's. Called to hearing by Atomic Energy Commission. Teller testifies against. Groves, Bethe, and many others for him. Clearance was revoked |
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U-235 is easier to make into a bomb. Easier to get to go off. Still very tough to get(Oak Ridge, TN). Pu-239 is harder to make into a bomb. The need for critical mass. Harder to get bomb to go off, therefore safer. (Hanford, WA)
Plutonium is made from Uranium by beta decay |
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| Protocols of the Elders of Zion |
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| Fake document, but was supposedly exposing the Jewish people plotting to take over the world. Used by Hitler to justify his campaign against the Jews. |
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| President for 10 years. Sachs brings Einstein's letter to him and he agrees to start the Manhattan project. Keeps the US out of WWII as long as possible. Hates war but lives with it almost his entire presidency |
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| neutron splits into proton and electron, moves up on periodic table |
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Born and did undergrad in New Zealand
Went to grad school in Cambridge - Cavendish Lab (with J.J. Thomson)
Worked in Canada at McGill
Went to Manchester U to work with Bohr
Gold foil experiment- decided there must be positive dense matter
Thought scientists should work under master scientists(Polanyi)
Discovered alpha initiated reactions
Got a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908, was insulted it wasn't in physics
His nuclear experiments led to Bohr's atomic model which they both received Nobel prize for |
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| Conveyed short history background and weapons potential of nuclear fission in uranium to FDR |
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| 5 year old girl who got enough radiation to get leukemia from Hiroshima, eventually died. Symbol of innocent victims of war |
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| Creates a firestorm. Used in destruction of Hamburg |
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Berkeley, moves to Met Lab
Discovered Neptunium and Plutonium. Pu-239 fissions easily |
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| Open spread of information at Los Alamos |
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Tickling the dragon's tail
Daghlian incident |
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Chicago
Leaders: Fermi, Szilard
Admin. leader: A. Compton
National leader: Conant
When this is successful-reached self-sustaining chain reaction, Szilard says it's a black day in history
Stagg Field project in Chicago brought together mostly natural Uranium(U-238) in an attempt to figure out if a chain reaction was possible. The discovery of graphite (as per Szilard as a moderator and further purification of U-235 was important. |
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Nuclear test done in the Pacific results in radiation still falling on us. Still affecting us causing mutations and cancer
Strontium in our bombs because it's in the same group as calcium |
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From Hungary
Studied at U. Berlin; Oxford
Friends with Einstein and shared a patent with him; gets financial help from Strauss
Thought up the idea of chain reaction
Thesis on thermodynamics, wants to organize scientists and maintain control, wants to keep the army out of it
Thought of Stagg Field as black day in history |
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| Holds things together long enough for bomb to go off |
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Father of the H-bomb, fusion-based weaponry
Eventually joins Fermi in Chicago
Worked at Los Alamos
Testified against Oppenheimer |
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Cambridge
Teaches Rutherford(bad experience for Ruthie)
Radio, Rontgen Rays, |
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Pennsylvania
Partial nuclear meltdown at the Three-Mile Island plant. The reactor involved was a PWR reactor. The pumps failed in the secondary loop, which ended up backing up into the primary loop in the reactor core. There were operator error. They thought valves were closed that were open |
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Alamagordo, NM
Test site for atomic bomb
6 months creating and putting up diagnostic equipment. Huge investment. Plutonium core worth millions of dollars. July 16, 1945. Tremendous explosion, light. A huge success. Affects every scientist there. |
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| U-235 fissions much more easily. The graph of U-238 has a bump in it representing the absorption of the neutrions being captured by the nucleus |
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| Used chemistry to motivate Israel, early Zionist |
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| Literary conceptions of atomic warfare in "World Set Free" |
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| Rhodes perspective is that the Great War looks innocent to modern eyes because we are removed by time/distance. the war did not involve modern technology, and almost nocivilians die in WWI. WWI saw invention of machine gun by American inventors. SInce the machine gun mechanized warfare, it allowed far more people to be killed at a greater distance |
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| Hungarian philosopher/scientist who emphasized that science depends so critically on "consensus" and on mentorship of younger workers by a master scientist |
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Denmark, University of Copenhagen,
Manchester University(w/Rutherford)
Theoretical model of the nuclear atom, develops quantum mechanics/w his students (esp. Heisenberg)
Liquid drop model of nucleus
Identifies U-235 and U-238 work differently
Thinks Churchill and FDR should share bomb info with USSR
Works at Los Alamos
Flew to England from Sweden in a Mosquito bomber without an oxygen mask |
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| Calutrons and the Y-12 complex |
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| Oak Ridge isotop separation with electromagnetic, as with cyclotrons |
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Cavendish Lab at Cambridge
Joliet-Curies almost make same discovery.
Student and colleague of Rutherford's.
Discovers neutron, 1932. Bethe considers everything before this to be prehistory of nuclear physics and after this to be history of nuclear physics. Eventually takes sleeping pills |
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Ukraine/Soviet Union
Nuclear disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. Soviet Union tried to cover it up. |
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Niels Bohr's idea that two seemingly exclusionary options can both be true
Allowed Bohr to explain why electrons could behave both as a particle and a wave. Einstein did not like this idea. |
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Chicago
Leader with Szilard and Fermi
Mennonite, decides to work on bomb, works on chain reactor experiment
Nobel Prize winner
Stagg Field Project |
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Director of Economic Stabilization and then Director of War Mobilization
Pissed at Truman because he thought he'd be vice president
In all three branches of gov't at some point
Wants to use bombs |
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Secretary of War
Told Truman about atomic bomb
Pushes voice of conscience against use of the bomb |
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Long effort to use the B-29 to break down the will of the Japanese to fight
Dresden Story- raid initiated by Churchill |
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