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First Post
16-07-2025
- Science
- First Post
History Today: When Oppenheimer tested the first atomic bomb
The first atomic bomb, nicknamed 'The Gadget', was launched at the Trinity test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. Led by physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, the launch ushered in a new era - the nuclear age. The test was part of the Manhattan Project, which brought together some of the greatest scientific minds of the time, including Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman and Niels Bohr read more World's first atomic bomb was detonated in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. Image Courtesy: The world entered the nuclear age on July 16, 1945, with the detonation of the first atomic bomb, which was tested in the New Mexico desert. Code-named Trinity, it was part of the Manhattan Project, a massive scientific and military effort by the United States to develop nuclear weapons during World War II. If you are a history geek who loves to learn about important events from the past, Firstpost Explainers' ongoing series, History Today, will be your one-stop destination to explore key events. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD On this day in 1951, JD Salinger's iconic novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published. The book introduced the world to the unforgettable teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Here is all that took place on this day across the world. The first atomic bomb exploded One of most important events of the 20th Century took place on July 16, 1945. The first atomic bomb was successfully tested by the United States in Alamogordo, New Mexico. And with this, the world entered the nuclear age. The bomb, nicknamed 'The Gadget,' used plutonium-239 and was detonated at 5:29 am. The explosion created a blinding flash, a fireball that reached temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun and a mushroom cloud that rose over seven miles (11 kilometres) into the sky. It produced an energy equivalent of about 21 kilotons of TNT. A man sits next to The Gadget, the nuclear device created by scientists to test the world's atomic bomb, at the Trinity Site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Wikimedia Commons Led by physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project brought together some of the greatest scientific minds of the time, including Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman and Niels Bohr. The successful test confirmed that nuclear fission could be weaponised, changing the course of history. After witnessing the explosion, Oppenheimer famously quoted the Bhagavad Gita, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' Just three weeks later, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, leading to Japan's surrender and the end of World War II. The Trinity test not only marked the dawn of nuclear warfare but also triggered decades of arms races, Cold War tensions and ethical debates about the use of such destructive technology. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Catcher in the Rye published JD Salinger's only full-length novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published by Little, Brown and Company on this day in 1951. With the launch of the book, the world was introduced to the unforgettable teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Set in post-World War II America, the novel follows Holden over the course of three days in New York City after being expelled from prep school. Disillusioned by the 'phoniness' of the adult world and struggling with grief over the death of his younger brother, Holden narrates his journey in a raw, confessional tone that was both controversial and groundbreaking at the time. JD Salinger's classic novel, which gave life to Holden Caulfield. File image/AP While initial reviews were mixed, the book quickly gained popularity among young readers and became a bestseller. Its honest portrayal of teenage alienation, mental health, and rebellion struck a chord with postwar youth and sparked widespread debate. Salinger, who became famously reclusive after the novel's publication, never allowed a film adaptation and published little afterward. Yet his lone novel became a literary icon and has sold over 65 million copies worldwide. This Day, That Year Chicago officially opened its Millennium Park on this day in 2004. In 1979, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq. Apollo 11 lifted off from Nasa's John F Kennedy Space Center in Florida on this day in 1969.
Metro
10-06-2025
- Science
- Metro
This is where the UK plans to hide nuclear power waste for thousands of years
Here's a puzzle for you. Imagine you have enough 'stuff' to fill St Paul's Cathedral to the brim five times over. This stuff is toxic to life on Earth. And it's going to stay toxic for centuries. Where are you going to put it? It's a question that has vexed experts ever since the world was yanked into the atomic age by US physicist J Robert Oppenheimer around 80 years ago. At first, it was military nuclear tests, and then it was civil nuclear power: all of it produces radioactive waste, and that needs to go… somewhere. Amid the British government's enthusiastic backing of nuclear power and investment in the new Sizewell C power plant on the Suffolk coast, figuring out the destination for this lethal product is as important as ever. 'Things that were ruled out along the way were the classic, why can't we fire it up into space?' said Neil Hyatt, Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK's Nuclear Waste Services (NWS). 'Well, look at the track record of space launches and how many are unsuccessful, and imagine that's not a satellite coming back down to Earth but spent nuclear fuel…' Some suggested it could simply be placed far from civilisation – but this required ensuring people would know to stay a safe distance for thousands of years, as languages evolve and symbols change meaning. Ideas included new religions, hostile architecture and glowing cats, resulting in one of the greatest Wikipedia pages of all time. In the early days, the UK got rid of our potentially cancer-causing waste by chucking it in the sea near the Channel Islands. But as political pressure grew and the London Convention banned marine dumping of radioactive products, scientists had to get more creative. Gradually, international thought was united around one deceptively simple idea: put the waste very, very deep under the ground. Sadly, it's not the glowing green sludge that you've seen Homer Simpson spill from metal barrels at Springfield Power Plant. High-level waste, which results from the reprocessing of spent fuel, is radioactive liquid which is converted into a solid block of glass. Intermediate-level waste consists of the leftovers from old and operating nuclear facilities, including fuel cladding, rubble, and – yes – some sludge. It's usually immobilised in cement and packed into stainless steel containers. In 1982, a specialist body called Nirex was set up with a remit to find a place to build an underground store in the UK, but every initiative crumbled in the face of protests. Some didn't even get as far as drilling to investigate the local rock. Seventeen years later, in 1999, a report from the House of Lords said any efforts to create a facility for 'deep geological disposal' would need to involve communities from the start. Selecting a site is complicated – like everything else in this story – by the extreme timescales involved. The waste will stay toxic for so long, scientists must take into account how the ground itself is going to shift over the next 100,000 years. Yes, that's 100 millennia from now. For context, it's been about 100,000 years since Homo Sapiens first left Africa. 'We're looking for rocks that have been stable for millions of years or hundreds of millions of years,' said Professor Hyatt. 'The reason for that is the radioactive waste hazard decays quite quickly over the first sort of 300 years, and then you're left with this tail that decays a bit more slowly. 'After the order of 100,000 years or so, the radioactivity has decayed to a level approximately equal to the original uranium ore.' There are currently three sites in contention to house the UK's geological disposal facility (GDF): Mid-Copeland and South Copeland in Cumbria, and Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire. All are free to withdraw from the process whenever they like. That approach is influenced by Onkalo in Finland, a similar project which is decades ahead of the British effort. Pasi Tuohimaa, a spokesperson for site operators Posiva, said: 'None of the projects in the world fail because of not knowing the technology. Instead, they fail because of the political situation or bad communications.' But aside from investment in community projects, the main incentive for the selected sites to stick with the proposal is the sheer scale of it. The storage vaults for the UK's 750,000m3 of waste will be constructed in tunnels covering an area of around 36km2 at a depth of between 200 and 1,000 metres. If all goes to plan, the process of depositing will begin in the 2050s and end about 175 years later. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Like a medieval cathedral, generations of people will work on the project, knowing they will never live to see the moment it is backfilled and the contents are (fingers crossed) never seen again. It's almost certainly the biggest infrastructure project in the UK that most people have never heard of. As Professor Hyatt says, it's a 'long, long, long, long mission life.' More Trending The Finnish nuclear waste at Onkalo will be stored in rock that has barely moved in close to a billion years, which – according to Mr Tuohimaa – demonstrates how safe it is. 'The nuclear industry is the only industry in the world that knows where its waste is after the next ice age,' he said. 'When there's no London left, and there's two kilometres of ice on top of northern Europe, there's no Stockholm, there's no Copenhagen, everything is demolished – but we know where our waste is.' This story was first published on September 1 2024. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: The teenage Orkney killer who got away with murder for 14 years MORE: Rich people 'will have robot butlers by 2030′ – but there's a major flaw MORE: What is New World Screwworm and can it spread to humans?
Telegraph
28-01-2025
- Science
- Telegraph
Doomsday Clock moves closer than ever to midnight over AI and lab leak fears
On Tuesday, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which reassesses the clock annually, set the time at 89 seconds to midnight – The countdown was established in 1947 by Albert Einstein, J Robert Oppenheimer and University of Chicago scientists, who were working on the Manhattan Project to design and build the first atomic bomb. The scientists wanted a simple way of demonstrating how close humanity was to destroying the world with dangerous technologies of its own making. In a statement, the Bulletin said: 'High-containment biological laboratories continue to be built throughout the world but oversight regimes for them are not keeping pace, increasing the possibility that 'Rapid advances in artificial intelligence have increased the risk that terrorists or countries may attain the capability of designing biological weapons for which countermeasures do not exist. 'An array of other disruptive technologies advanced last year in ways that make the world more dangerous.' The panel, which includes nine Nobel laureates, also warned that the Ukraine war could 'become Drone warfare, bird flu and climate change were also cited as ongoing dangers, with experts warning that global warming was now viewed as low priority by countries such as the United States. 'Keep world's top scientists awake at night' Dr Daniel Holz, chairman of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and professor at the University of Chicago, said: 'The purpose of the Doomsday Clock is to start a global conversation about the very real existential threats that keep the world's top scientists awake at night. 'National leaders must commence discussions about these global risks before it's too late. Reflecting on these life-and-death issues and starting a dialogue are the first steps to turning back the clock and moving away from midnight.' Over the years, When it was first established, the clock was originally set to seven minutes to midnight and the world reached its safest point in 1991, when it read 17 minutes to midnight as the Cold War officially ended and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty greatly reduced the number of strategic nuclear weapons deployed by the US and Russia. Until recently, the closest the clock had come to midnight was two minutes, which happened in 1953, when the US upgraded its nuclear arsenal with the hydrogen bomb. But ongoing nuclear threats, missile development, climate change and the pandemic have continued to push the hands towards global catastrophe. 'We make an impassioned plea' Experts said the current dangers were being 'greatly exacerbated' by the threat of 'misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories', which 'increasingly blur the line between truth and falsehood'. They warned that 'advances in AI are making it easier to spread false or inauthentic information across the internet – and harder to detect it'. The scientists concluded their statement by saying that 'blindly continuing on the current path is a form of madness', before urging the US, China and Russia to 'pull the world back from the brink'. Juan Manuel Santos, the former president of Colombia and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who participated in the 2025 global risk announcement, said: 'The Doomsday Clock is moving at a moment of profound global instability and geopolitical tension.' 'As the hands of the clock get ever closer to midnight, we make an impassioned plea to all leaders: now is the time to act together!'
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Doomsday Clock moves closer than ever to midnight over AI and lab leak fears
The Doomsday Clock, which symbolises the current threat of global annihilation, has ticked closer to midnight than ever before, fuelled by the threat from AI and lab leaks. On Tuesday, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which reassesses the clock annually, set the time at 89 seconds to midnight – a second closer than last year and the nearest it has been since its inception. The countdown was established in 1947 by Albert Einstein, J Robert Oppenheimer and University of Chicago scientists, who were working on the Manhattan Project to design and build the first atomic bomb. The scientists wanted a simple way of demonstrating how close humanity was to destroying the world with dangerous technologies of its own making. In a statement, the Bulletin said: 'High-containment biological laboratories continue to be built throughout the world but oversight regimes for them are not keeping pace, increasing the possibility that pathogens with pandemic potential may escape. 'Rapid advances in artificial intelligence have increased the risk that terrorists or countries may attain the capability of designing biological weapons for which countermeasures do not exist. 'An array of other disruptive technologies advanced last year in ways that make the world more dangerous.' The panel, which includes nine Nobel laureates, also warned that the Ukraine war could 'become nuclear at any moment', while conflict in the Middle East 'threatens to spiral out of control'. Drone warfare, bird flu and climate change were also cited as ongoing dangers, with experts warning that global warming was now viewed as low priority by countries such as the United States. Dr Daniel Holz, chairman of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and professor at the University of Chicago, said: 'The purpose of the Doomsday Clock is to start a global conversation about the very real existential threats that keep the world's top scientists awake at night. 'National leaders must commence discussions about these global risks before it's too late. Reflecting on these life-and-death issues and starting a dialogue are the first steps to turning back the clock and moving away from midnight.' Over the years, the clock's hands have moved forwards and backwards as the threats to the world changed. When it was first established, the clock was originally set to seven minutes to midnight and the world reached its safest point in 1991, when it read 17 minutes to midnight as the Cold War officially ended and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty greatly reduced the number of strategic nuclear weapons deployed by the US and Russia. Until recently, the closest the clock had come to midnight was two minutes, which happened in 1953, when the US upgraded its nuclear arsenal with the hydrogen bomb. But ongoing nuclear threats, missile development, climate change and the pandemic have continued to push the hands towards global catastrophe. Experts said the current dangers were being 'greatly exacerbated' by the threat of 'misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories', which 'increasingly blur the line between truth and falsehood'. They warned that 'advances in AI are making it easier to spread false or inauthentic information across the internet – and harder to detect it'. The scientists concluded their statement by saying that 'blindly continuing on the current path is a form of madness', before urging the US, China and Russia to 'pull the world back from the brink'. Juan Manuel Santos, the former president of Colombia and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who participated in the 2025 global risk announcement, said: 'The Doomsday Clock is moving at a moment of profound global instability and geopolitical tension.' 'As the hands of the clock get ever closer to midnight, we make an impassioned plea to all leaders: now is the time to act together!' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
