The four people behind the first atomic bomb explosion

July 16, 1945, 5:30 a.m.

In the desert area near Alamodor Air Force Base in New Mexico, a strong flash of light suddenly appeared.

This flash of light formed a huge fireball after illuminating an area of more than 60 square kilometers. Then, the fireball turned into a huge mushroom cloud, which instantly rose to a height of 3,000 meters.

At the center of the flash, an iron tower more than 30 meters high was instantly evaporated by the high temperature. And the data obtained at that time was that the power generated by this ** was equivalent to 2,000 tons of TNT explosives.

At this moment, at the observation post 14 kilometers away, more than 400 military scientists and scientists had mixed feelings after seeing this **.

Of course, everyone was happy, because this experiment, which cost a lot of money and invested countless manpower and material resources, finally succeeded.

But many of the scientists present were more apprehensive

The power produced by this ** is at least 10 times greater than the result they originally expected, which means that on the battlefield, it will not be difficult for such a bomb to kill tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people.

This successful bomb was the world's first atomic bomb.

As a terrifying phenomenon that has never appeared in the history of human civilization, the process of the atomic bomb from scratch is full of various twists and turns and even thrilling stories.

For the sake of space, today we will only talk about four people who are related to this.

The first man was called Werner Heisenberg.

He was a German super-genius with pure Germanic blood.

Heisenberg.

And he has another special identity: the head of the "uranium club" that secretly developed the atomic bomb in Germany.

In fact, Germany was the country with the best chance of developing the world's first atomic bomb at that time.

At the beginning of 1939, the world's first article on the fission of uranium atoms was published by the German chemist Hahn (for which he later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry) and the physical chemist Strassmann. The idea that uranium fission could be used to make powerful bombs was quickly endorsed by Hitler. In 1939, Germany began research on the creation of an atomic bomb – it must be noted that Germany was the only country in the world at that time to realize this and put it into practice.

At that time, Germany really had too much advantage.

First of all, Germany's chemical and heavy industry strength at that time was among the best in the world;

Secondly, Germany occupied the world's largest uranium mine in Czechoslovakia at that time;

Third, Germany had the most advanced heavy water production system in Norway at the time.

And above all, the most important thing is that Germany has the most scarce condition at the time: talent.

In the 31 years from 1901 to 1932, 33 scientists in Germany won the Nobel Prize, compared with 18 in Britain and six in the United States.

Of course, Hitler's racist and anti-Jewish policies led to the departure of a large number of scientists from Germany, and in the first year of Nazi power, 2,600 scientists were forced to leave Germany, including more than 20 Nobel laureates. But even so, Germany can still rely on a super-first-class team of scientists of so-called "pure Germanic blood" to fight against the world's elites.

Look at the German scientists who participated in the "Uranium Club": Laue (winner of the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physics), Porter (winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics), Geiger (inventor of the Geiger counter), Weizak, Bagg, Dybner, Grach, Woz, and many others, including Heisenberg, who was at the level of the "Great God" at the time.

Laue was awarded the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on "the diffraction of X-rays in crystals." It is worth mentioning that Laue has always opposed the Nazi power and advocated the separation of science and politics. In fact, many scientists in the "Uranium Club" participate only for scientific research, and the club was originally a scientific research and exchange club.

Naturally, there were many reasons, including the optimistic Hitler, who believed that he could conquer the whole world with conventional **, and then did not give much support to the development of the atomic bomb. But one person played a crucial role in the whole process of this matter.

This man was Heisenberg.

It should be said that Heisenberg's leadership in the early work was fruitful, but when he got to the critical part, he found a dismal statistic: if the Germans were to build the atomic bomb, it would have to separate at least a few tons of the most critical uranium-235 from natural uranium ore - but the abundance of the isotope uranium-235 in natural uranium was only 072%, if you want to separate a few tons, the resources invested will be astronomical.

Heisenberg truthfully reported the situation to Hitler through others, and Hitler, who was obsessed with quick solutions, was immediately interested in this research work. Until 1942, Germany was developing the atomic bomb on a par with the Allies, but after that, German scientists, who had lost the support of the Führer, almost stopped developing it.

It wasn't until August 6, 1945, that after the Americans dropped the first atomic bomb for actual combat in Hiroshima, Heisenberg, who was already ** at that time, was taken aback, and even thought that it was an American **.

However, the truth of the facts soon led the Germans to find Heisenberg's mistake in the first place

Because he did not take the neutron diffusibility into account, the amount of uranium-235 he thought he needed was increased by several orders of magnitude – in fact, only a dozen kilograms of uranium-235 were enough.

Schematic diagram of uranium fission.

However, this statement caused discontent among many people, including American scientists, who believed that he was lying.

Did Heisenberg not want the Nazis to create an atomic bomb, so he deliberately clicked on the wrong "tech tree"? This debate is directly related to Heisenberg's role during World War II. However, there is still no clear answer, so it is called the "Heisenberg Mystery" in the history of human science in the 20th century.

After the war, Heisenberg had the opportunity to meet with the scientists who had made the atomic bomb, and none of those scientists wanted to shake hands with Heisenberg because he was the one who helped the Nazis build the atomic bomb. And Heisenberg himself was amazed - it wasn't me who created the murder, it was you!

In any case, Heisenberg was the most likely person to lead the development of the first atomic bomb, but he failed.

Next, the second person, his name is Albert Einstein.

He was a Jew born in the German city of Ulm.

Einstein.

However, Einstein's greatest credit for the first atomic bomb – although he later regretted it – was that he took the lead in writing a letter to Roosevelt.

At the beginning of 1939, Bohr, a Danish "god-level" scientist, learned through some channel that Germany had begun to develop the atomic bomb. Worried, he immediately rushed to the United States and told the news to the Italian-American physicist Fermi and the Hungarian physicist Zirad who were living in exile in the United States. Everyone agreed that once the Nazis preemptively built the atomic bomb, it would be a great disaster for the entire human civilization!

For this reason, Zirad began to lobby the United States, hoping that the United States could develop an atomic bomb before Germany. However, because the theory in this regard was too advanced at that time, and Zirad's "coffee position" was not enough, the United States did not think that the Germans were making a fuss about developing a bomb first.

So what if you ask a "big coffee" to talk about it? Zirad thought about it and thought of his friend, the "superstar" Albert Einstein.

Zilard's views were supported by Einstein, so, on August 2, 1939, Zilard drafted a letter, which Einstein wrote directly to the then American ** Roosevelt in his own name:

Dear Excellency:

I read the manuscripts of Fermi and Szilard's recent research work. This leads me to anticipate that elemental uranium will become a new and important energy source in the near future. In view of this situation, people should be vigilant. When necessary, prompt action is also required. It is therefore my duty to draw your attention to the fact that, in the near future, it will be possible to create a new type of bomb of great power.

To this end, I suggest that you authorize a person whom you trust, so that he can liaise informally with the various authorities, report to them on a regular basis on all studies, and advise them, in particular in an effort to secure uranium mines in the United States. At the same time, establish contacts with relevant parties and business laboratories to accelerate the experimental work.

Yours sincerely. Albert einstein.

Einstein's famous letter.

Just a month after Einstein's first letter, Germany blitzed Poland and the curtain began on the European theater of World War II.

Seeing that Germany was in full swing in Western Europe, Einstein, who was anxious, wrote a second letter to Roosevelt in March 1940, urging him to hurry up.

This time, Roosevelt took it seriously.

On December 6, 1941, under the impetus of Roosevelt, the United States officially formulated a top-secret program codenamed "Manhattan", which Roosevelt gave "special priority above all actions" - to build the first atomic bomb in human history at all costs, ahead of Germany.

But something puzzling happened:

As the world's top physicist at that time and the initiator of the development of the atomic bomb, Albert Einstein was completely excluded from the "Manhattan Project".

In fact, in the list of 31 scientists delineated at the beginning of the "Manhattan Project", Einstein's name was prominently listed. But later, his name was circled. Because, he did not pass the "political trial" of the FBI - they suspected Einstein of communist tendencies.

At that time, the factories that entered the "Manhattan Project" were subject to strict inspection.

So did Einstein himself want to join the "Manhattan Project"? Not necessarily. Not only that, but Einstein, including Zirad, who was the most active at the time, later became the most staunch opponent of the United States in developing the atomic bomb.

In early April 1945, when the dust had almost settled on the end of World War II, another letter from Einstein appeared on Roosevelt's desk, along with a memo written by Zilard. But this letter is not to urge the development of the atomic bomb, but to request an order to immediately stop all work on the development of the atomic bomb.

Einstein's reasoning was that the German threat no longer existed in the light of the world situation in 1945, and there was no reason to call for the development of an atomic bomb in the first place. On the contrary, if the United States continues to develop it, it is likely to trigger a global nuclear race, and then there is a risk of destroying the entire human race.

Scientists' ideas are still too naïve.

They have stirred up a country's ambition to master an exclusive core **, and a project that has invested billions of dollars will be stopped, how is it possible?

Einstein felt that his fears became a reality on August 6, 1945.

Scene from the Hiroshima atomic bomb**.

My biggest feeling now is regret, regret that I shouldn't have written that letter to Roosevelt in the first place, ......I was trying to snatch the atomic bomb, the evil instrument of murder, from the madman Hitler. I can't imagine that I will send it to another madman ...... nowWhy should we use tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children as living targets for this new bomb? ”

As a result, Einstein became the person who proposed the development of the atomic bomb at the beginning, but was later excluded, and finally regretted it extremely.

It's time to talk about a third person, Robert Oppenheimer.

He's an American-born German-Jew – and like the first two, a super-genius.

Oppenheimer.

When Albert Einstein was excluded from the Manhattan Project, the first technical head that came to mind for Major General Reisley Grovis, who was in charge of the program, was Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, and was studying Sanskrit on his own because he liked to read the Sanskrit version of the Bhagavad Gita.

Oppenheimer accepted the invitation and became chief scientist and general technical advisor to the Manhattan Project. He was willing to participate for the same reasons as Einstein and others, hoping for an early end to the war, but as a scientist, this curiosity to see for himself how far atomic energy could be used was a huge motivator.

Oppenheimer initially miscalculated the situation, believing that only six physicists and more than 100 engineers would be enough.

But in fact, the Manhattan Project had a total of 53 at its peak90,000 people participated, maintaining a scale of more than 100,000 people all year round, and the United States invested $2.5 billion in this effort, which can be said to be a national effort. Take the separation of uranium-235 as an example, although Heisenberg miscalculated the amount of uranium-235 needed for an atomic bomb, even if only a dozen kilograms of pure uranium were separated, the United States also established an electromagnetic separation plant for this purpose, and this cost alone invested more than 300 million US dollars.

The electromagnetic separation facility at Oak Ridge, codenamed Y-12, was the scene during the construction of the first phase of the project.

A Manhattan Project plant is being built in Tennessee, but no one knows they're building an atomic bomb.

After the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Oppenheimer's guilt grew stronger. Others call him the "father of the atomic bomb", but as a member of the American delegation to the UN General Assembly, he openly declared: "My hands are covered with blood."

Although it was not Oppenheimer himself who dropped the atomic bomb, he said to reporters

Neither accusations, nor sarcasm, nor praise can free physicists from instinctive guilt, because they know that their knowledge should not have been put to use. ”

However, Oppenheimer's troubles were much more than guilt.

When Oppenheimer was appointed head of the Manhattan Project, U.S. intelligence raised strong opposition on the grounds that Oppenheimer had courted a schoolgirl named Tetlock in 1936, who was a Communist. Oppenheimer's later wife, Catherine, was also a leftist, so he himself had deep ties to the Communist Party.

Beginning in 1950, "McCarthyism" prevailed in the United States, and Oppenheimer was targeted without any suspense. It didn't take long for him to be accused of collaborating with the Communists, including harboring Soviet spies, opposing the creation of hydrogen bombs, and so on. In December 1953, Oppenheimer was suspected of being a member of the Soviet Union and was prosecuted for "his left-leaning activities in his early years and the strategic decision to delay the development of the hydrogen bomb", which was the sensational "Oppenheimer case" at that time.

More than 150 scientists, including Einstein, interrogated Oppenheimer, who was repeatedly featured in the New York Times, but Oppenheimer was eventually denied a "safety concession" to participate in atomic energy research.

Oppenheimer.

So, Oppenheimer was the one who presided over and completed the construction of the atomic bomb, but was ultimately excluded.

Finally, it was the turn of the last man, and his name was Harry S. Truman.

Unlike the first three, Truman was a purebred American. The same difference is that he's not a scientist, he's a **.

Truman.

The newly appointed ** was riddled with everything, so it was not until April 24 that US Secretary of the Army Stimson and Lieutenant General Groves, commander of the "Manhattan Project" engineering zone, came to the office of the White House ** and informed Truman of the "Manhattan Project" that was nearing completion.

Although he had been a deputy before, this was also the first time that Truman had fully understood such a staggering plan - after listening to the debriefing, he directly sat down in his chair.

In fact, there was not much time left for Truman to savor, because the project was entirely a "legacy" left by his predecessor, Roosevelt. Before he could figure out why nuclear fission could be used to build a "superbomb," the first atomic bomb had been successfully tested in the desert of New Mexico.

Scientists are only responsible for creating the atomic bomb, and politicians, next, will decide how to use it.

In order to wait for the news of the successful atomic bomb test, Truman deliberately postponed his participation in the "Potsdam Conference" - at that summit attended by both Stalin and Churchill, what could be more powerful than the success of the atomic bomb to reflect the national strength of the United States and deter other adversaries?

So during the Potsdam Conference, Truman was a little apprehensive. Especially on July 16, he seemed very anxious until he received two secret documents from China.

The first document, sent by General Groves:

The surgery was completed in the morning and the follow-up diagnosis continues, but the results have been very satisfactory and even exceeded expectations."

The second letter was sent by Stingsheng, just one sentence:

The baby was born. ”

As a result, Truman became the one who had no idea of the existence of the atomic bomb beforehand, and then suddenly possessed it.

Stalin, Truman and Churchill at the Potsdam Conference.

We've just succeeded in a powerful experiment.

Truman's vague remarks certainly required secrecy, but because he himself did not know how powerful the atomic bomb was, he could only be vague.

Stalin, who heard this at that time, did not have any expression on his face, only said one sentence:

Well, let's use it against the Japanese. ”

Truman thought that Stalin had not understood what he meant. But what he didn't know was that Stalin might have more information about the atomic bomb through the Soviet intelligence network, including the "Manhattan Project," than he did about the United States.

Stalin, who was quiet during the day, returned to his residence at night to hold accountable the person in charge of the Soviet Union's atomic bomb research and development work, demanding that the Soviet Union's own atomic bomb be built as soon as possible.

On August 6, 1945, mankind's first atomic bomb for actual combat was launched in Hiroshima, Japan**.

On August 9, 1945, the second one was in Nagasaki, Japan**.

On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb was successfully tested.

On October 3, 1952, Britain's first atomic bomb was successfully tested.

On February 13, 1960, France's first atomic bomb was successfully tested.

On October 16, 1964, China's first atomic bomb was successfully tested.

As Albert Einstein and others predicted, the human world began to enter the nuclear race.

[Aqiu said].

On the campus of the University of Chicago in the United States, there is a special clock.

This clock only has a pendulum, no mechanical structure, and is completely dialed by human power. On the entire dial, there is only a scale in the upper left 15-minute area, which is close to 12 o'clock.

This simple clock has a catchy name - "Doomsday Clock".

After the successful test of the first atomic bomb in 1945, the American scientists involved in its development, along with 17 Nobel laureates, founded a journal called the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to promote nuclear energy in the service of world peace. In 1947, the founders of the magazine set up such a clock and placed the initial hand at 23:53 – once the hand pointed to 12 o'clock, it meant the outbreak of nuclear war and the destruction of mankind.

Over the past 71 years, the "Doomsday Clock" has been turned many times in response to changes in the situation in the world at that time. In 1953 and 2018, the "Doomsday Clock" was dialed to 23:58, the closest moment ever - only 2 minutes before the end of the world.

In 1953, the United States and the Soviet Union successfully tested hydrogen bombs one after another, and the world was shrouded in a nuclear cloud.

In 2018, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists gave the following reasons: the United States' repeated inappropriate remarks about nuclear and climate change, as well as the tensions caused by the United States.

This is actually a very interesting thing: human beings themselves invented nuclear **, and then they are constantly reminded in horror that this thing will destroy human civilization at any time.

However, the most worrying thing is that this worry is by no means unnecessary.

According to statistics released by Sweden in 2017, there are still 14,935 nuclear warheads in the world today, despite multiple rounds of destruction. In terms of quantity, Russia ranked first with 7,000 pieces, the United States with 6,800 pieces, France with 300 pieces, China with 270 pieces, followed by Britain with 215 pieces, and Pakistan with 140 pieces.

But why a thousand nuclear warheads? It only takes a few dozen,** and the resulting series of reactions, including a nuclear winter, to destroy all of humanity.

In the entire history of the Doomsday Clock, the hands were moved to 12 o'clock the farthest from 12 o'clock, in 1991, when they were moved to 11:43. That's because in that year, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the first round of strategic nuclear reductions.

But even then, it was only 17 minutes before the destruction of humanity.

May there be peace in the world.

1. Glory and Dreams: A Narrative History of the United States, 1932 and 1972 (William Manchester, CITIC Press).

2. "Heisenberg and the German Atomic Bomb Program" (Nordic Volunteers, Iron and Blood Network).

3. Encyclopedia "Oppenheimer" entry.