Tag: Nuclear explosives

  • The Forgotten Element in Averting Nuclear Catastrophe

    The Forgotten Element in Averting Nuclear Catastrophe

    Image by Creative Commons 4.0 What will it take to end the nuclear nightmare that has gripped the world since the atomic bombings of 1945? For a time, that nightmare seemed to have abated for, in response to massive popular resistance to the prospect of nuclear war, governments turned to signing nuclear arms control and […]

  • Einstein’s Postwar Campaign to Save the World from Nuclear Destruction

    Einstein’s Postwar Campaign to Save the World from Nuclear Destruction

    Although the popular new Netflix film, Einstein and the Bomb, purports to tell the story of the great physicist’s relationship to nuclear weapons, it ignores his vital role in rallying the world against nuclear catastrophe. Aghast at the use of nuclear weapons in August 1945 to obliterate the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Einstein threw […]

  • The Oppenheimer Imperative: Normalising Atomic Terror

    The atomic bomb created the conditions of contingent catastrophe, forever placing the world on the precipice of existential doom.  But in doing so, it created a philosophy of acceptable cruelty, worthy extinction, legitimate extermination.  The scenarios for such programs of existential realisation proved endless.  Entire departments, schools of thought, and think tanks were dedicated to […]

  • The Atomic Genie Escapes

    1945: Alamagordo Never have scientists so fervently prayed. Slumping against a wooden post, Robert Oppenheimer reminds himself not to weaken: “I must remain conscious!” The countdown proceeds: “five . . . . four . . . . three . . .  two . . . ” Afraid it may electrocute him, the normally unflappable Sam […]

  • Nuclear War on Edge

    Nuclear War on Edge

    Nuclear war is unthinkable, but also uncontrollable once a spark is lit. There’s no turning back once that big misstep occurs. Indeed, the film Dr. Strangelove (Director Stanley Kubrick, 1964, Columbia Pictures) is all about what could happen if the wrong person pushes the wrong buttons, as US Air Force General Jack Ripper (George C. […]

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