75th anniversary of the Trinity atomic bomb test! Some wondeful stories about how the Manhattan Project influenced science & culture. insidescience.org/manhattan-proj…
What would have happened had Trinity test failed? Bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Soviet declaration of war & invasion of Manchuria, US rejection of the conditional surrender offer, an abortive coup by Japanese officers all took place in the same week! blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2020/07/16/wha…
Hasegawa's "Racing the Enemy" (based on US, Soviet & Japanese archives) was eyeopening. Stalin accelerated plans to invade Japan as soon as Truman told him about Trinity test in Postdam. Both atomic bomb & Soviet invasion about securing terms of surrender. books.google.com/books?id=iPju1…
FANTASTIC thread. Lots of these stories are part of physics lore. "Last night Fermi took bets on whether the bomb will ignite the atmosphere and roast the entire Earth to a crisp...the guards don’t realise Fermi is joking...
HILARIOUS, FERMI"
The Atomic Age that started 75 years ago wasn't just a rip in time. It changed the very atoms of our atmosphere permanently. It changed geopolitical world-order. It changed biology & physical space too. Thread.
Postwar civilian use of nuclear transformed biology & geosciences more than electricity. Consider
Photosynthesis: trace "hot" C-14 tagged CO2 through plants to crack defining feature of life on earth
Cracking Genetic code w "hot" phosphorus
Carbon dating insidescience.org/manhattan-proj…
Ecology itself is product of Atomic Age. Physicists, biologists & chemists use of radio-isotopes in 1950s made new view of Nature as series of networks described by flow of energy & materials. Bioaccumulation up food-chain key msg of Carson/Commoner. newyorker.com/magazine/1962/…
8/ Bomb led to ppl seeing physics as queen of Cold War Science. 21stC Global Warming will lead to reevaluation & a new origin story. Biology, Ecology, Geosciences & Climate Science all have their birth in the Trinity atomic bomb test. #GeopoliticsOfGHGs
9/ Without Trinity, radio-isotopes & fallout from insane number of atmospheric nuclear testing, there'd be no scientific understanding of Global Warming or Ecology or modern envtl movement. Its a strange irony.
Nuclear test animation by Isao Hashimoto
10/ Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is remembered for pesticides,but its her Strontium-90 that sparked envtl mvmt. Baby Tooth Survey showed most US children by late 50s had that isotope that came from fallout-> grass -> cows ->milk, in their teeth. It replaced Calcium in food chain
11/ 'Disturbing the Universe' has more tales of how Atomic Age & Ecology are intertwined. Imagine Freeman Dyson sits you down and goes "Listen. Let me tell you what went down in the 20th Century". Highly recommend this interview manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories…
75 years ago, this very moment in August changed the world forever. Much to consider in these Bulletin of Atomic Scientists articles as we navigate, once again, a dangerous period of the Atomic Age as arms-control treaties are ripped up ht @BulletinAtomicthebulletin.org/collections/hi…
"One of the lessons I take from Hiroshima is that while you & your culture are made up of the deeds of the past, where you go from that is up to the living. We can't ignore or deny the past—but we have choices in how we mobilize it towards a better future"
#Hiroshima75 commemorations in America are more critical than yrs past. They "place the use of atomic weapons within the larger history of US violence & white supremacy" and dismiss the now hoary claim that bomb “saved American lives” ht @ColdWarScienceneverjustscience.substack.com/p/remembering-…
Hasegawa's Racing the Enemy is a riveting book that integrates US/Japan/Soviet archives. Such a fog of war that Japan's physicists took 2 days to verify that Hiroshima was an atomic bomb! Truman too had been kept in dark by US military.Thread on highlights
Thread on Nagasaki atrocity. "The decision to drop the 2nd bomb... was not made by Truman, Stimson, or even Groves — it was made on the island of Tinian, by lower-level people. It was not part of a grand strategy, contrary to popular opinion" #NeverAgain
"The Financial Times has misled its readers by not clearly stating that its promotion of trade blocs and revision of other key principles means in reality the abandonment of neoliberal globalization as a project"
Martin Wolf: "It is conflicts over power that most threaten globalisation. By seeking to enhance their security, great powers make their rivals more insecure, creating a vicious downward spiral of distrust. We are already a long way down this spiral" ft.com/content/8954a5…
1/ I'm not sure that ppl outside of California have grasped the magnitude of this deadly and still-escalating wildfire catastrophe. Fires in WUIs, fanned by 80 mph+ winds, bone dry stubble, after 2 yrs of growth in wet winters. Tens of thousands of people are being evacuated.
2/"The Getty Villa Museum has caught fire as the Palisades Fire pushes forward in Southern California, according to reporting from the LA Times. The museum’s collection contains more than 125,000 artifacts, many of them Greek and Roman antiquities" latimes.com/california/sto…
3/ "A second fast-moving wildfire is burning out of control in the Los Angeles area hours after another blaze tore through the city’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, destroying many homes and prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands." sfchronicle.com/california-wil…
The market: Electricity hungry BigTech created a credits "system is akin to buying the right from a fitter colleague to say you have cycled to work, even though you arrived by a car that runs on petrol." @CamillaHodgson ft.com/content/2d6fc3…
“The market will solve climate”
The market: Oil Pipelines are ESG and low carbon! This giant tub of ice-cream won't make you fat because the tub is made of zero-calorie material & by athletes.
Netanyahu assassinates Haniyeh in Tehran & Hezbollah’s Shukr in Beirut. We are on cusp of regional war in Middle East. Forces are being deployed, Defences readied, Redlines of targets communicated.
2/ In Israel's corner are US, UK, Egypt, Saudis, Jordan &Abraham Accord (informal milvalliance) with oil Kingdoms - UAE, Bahrain.
They have communicated to Israel that they will defend Israel if it is attacked by Iran axis but will not participate in a war initiated by Israel
3/ "US is expecting the anticipated Iranian attack may be similar to the barrage of ballistic missiles & drones launched against Israel on April 13...But this attack could be larger...including the possibility of a coordinated attack with Iranian proxies from multiple directions"
The vibe shift, on the ground, in swing state Wisconsin
" Kamala Harris electrified the crowd in her first campaign rally as presumptive Democratic nominee. "I haven’t felt anything like this in many, many years,possibly since President Obama’s first run" therecombobulationarea.news/p/in-west-alli…
For 2yrs, gap between sentiment & economics widen. Did Kamala end vibecession? @kylascan
"There's layers to the cake:
How people expect things to be (expectations)
How things are supposed to be (theory)
How things are (reality)"
2/ Ecology: With super hot oceans, we are very worried about this Atlantic hurricane season. THIRTY storms are predicted plus minus 5, depending on el nino
3/London, Zurich, Bermuda are home of reinsurance.
Insurance model rely on risks being 1 Uncorrelated 2 Calculable 3 Paid for by mkt returns elsewhere
But #globalwarming upends Insurance
It correlates risks (global!); creates catastrophic fat-tails; and crimps returns everywhere.