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The Bitter Aftertaste of "Technical Sweetness"
Echoing Frankenstein’s story, the creation of the atomic bomb illustrates how scientific zeal can blind researchers to foreseeable dangers.
Situated at the timberline more than 7,000 feet atop a mesa in New Mexico, Los Alamos was a heady atmosphere in which to work: led by the brilliant J. Robert Oppenheimer, filled with past and future Nobel Prize winners, and pressurized by the war. The scientists at Los Alamos confronted a number of technical challenges, particularly regarding how to ensure that maximum energy would be released from the hard-to-collect fissile material being produced at Oak Ridge (enriched uranium) and Hanford (plutonium). “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” (Vintage Books) “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” (Simon and Schuster) “The Day the Sun Rose Twice: The Story of the Trinity Site Nuclear Explosion, July 16, 1945” (University of New Mexico Press)
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