* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Hetzel Design: blending architecture and entertainment – Blooloop

    Hetzel Design: Where Architecture and Entertainment Unite in Perfect Harmony

    Country music legend rushed to hospital year after heart surgery. Here’s what we know – PennLive.com

    Country Music Legend Rushed to Hospital One Year After Heart Surgery – What’s Happening Now?

    Strictly Come Dancing results: Chris Robshaw is eliminated while drag queen La Voix escapes dance-off – Yahoo

    Strictly Come Dancing results: Chris Robshaw is eliminated while drag queen La Voix escapes dance-off – Yahoo

    Placer County town of Loomis considers entertainment zone for downtown – CBS News

    Loomis Unveils Thrilling New Entertainment Zone to Revitalize Downtown

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

    Elmira’s New Entertainment Venue ‘Centertown Social’ Adding its Final Touches – WENY News

    Elmira’s New Entertainment Venue ‘Centertown Social’ Adding its Final Touches – WENY News

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

    Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

    3 E Network Technology Group Limited Closes $1.5 Million Convertible Promissory Note Offering – Quiver Quantitative

    3 E Network Technology Group Limited Closes $1.5 Million Convertible Promissory Note Offering – Quiver Quantitative

    3 Technology Stocks to Buy Now – Yahoo Finance

    3 Must-Buy Tech Stocks You Can’t Afford to Miss Right Now

    ‘New frontier’: Austin leaders start discussions on air taxi technology – KXAN Austin

    Austin Leaders Ignite Exciting Conversations on the Future of Air Taxi Technology

    How a Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway – blog.google

    How a Gemma Model Revealed a Breakthrough Pathway for Cancer Treatment

    Italian Technology in Manufacturing: Supporting North American Industries and Keeping Production Local – Thomasnet

    How Italian Technology is Revolutionizing North American Manufacturing and Boosting Local Production

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Hetzel Design: blending architecture and entertainment – Blooloop

    Hetzel Design: Where Architecture and Entertainment Unite in Perfect Harmony

    Country music legend rushed to hospital year after heart surgery. Here’s what we know – PennLive.com

    Country Music Legend Rushed to Hospital One Year After Heart Surgery – What’s Happening Now?

    Strictly Come Dancing results: Chris Robshaw is eliminated while drag queen La Voix escapes dance-off – Yahoo

    Strictly Come Dancing results: Chris Robshaw is eliminated while drag queen La Voix escapes dance-off – Yahoo

    Placer County town of Loomis considers entertainment zone for downtown – CBS News

    Loomis Unveils Thrilling New Entertainment Zone to Revitalize Downtown

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

    Elmira’s New Entertainment Venue ‘Centertown Social’ Adding its Final Touches – WENY News

    Elmira’s New Entertainment Venue ‘Centertown Social’ Adding its Final Touches – WENY News

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

    Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

    3 E Network Technology Group Limited Closes $1.5 Million Convertible Promissory Note Offering – Quiver Quantitative

    3 E Network Technology Group Limited Closes $1.5 Million Convertible Promissory Note Offering – Quiver Quantitative

    3 Technology Stocks to Buy Now – Yahoo Finance

    3 Must-Buy Tech Stocks You Can’t Afford to Miss Right Now

    ‘New frontier’: Austin leaders start discussions on air taxi technology – KXAN Austin

    Austin Leaders Ignite Exciting Conversations on the Future of Air Taxi Technology

    How a Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway – blog.google

    How a Gemma Model Revealed a Breakthrough Pathway for Cancer Treatment

    Italian Technology in Manufacturing: Supporting North American Industries and Keeping Production Local – Thomasnet

    How Italian Technology is Revolutionizing North American Manufacturing and Boosting Local Production

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

‘The night turned into day’: How Manhattan Project scientists reacted to the world’s first atomic bomb test

July 16, 2023
in Science
‘The night turned into day’: How Manhattan Project scientists reacted to the world’s first atomic bomb test
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

We see an enormous yellow bubble that is an atomic bomb exploding against a black sky.

The first atomic bomb was tested in the early hours of July 16, 1945, at Trinity Site in New Mexico.
(Image credit: Photograph on display in the Bradbury Science museum, photo copied by Joe Raedle)

To celebrate the release of the Christopher Nolan biopic “Oppenheimer,” below is an extract from the book the movie is based on, “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” (Knopf, 2005), by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

RICHARD FEYNMAN was standing 20 miles from the Trinity site when he was handed dark glasses. 

He decided he wouldn’t see anything through the dark glasses, so instead he climbed into the cab of a truck facing Alamogordo. The truck windshield would protect his eyes from harmful ultraviolet rays, and he’d be able actually to see the flash. Even so, he reflexively ducked when the horizon lit up with a tremendous flash. When he looked up again, he saw a white light changing into yellow and then orange: “A big ball of orange, the center that was so bright, becomes a ball of orange that starts to rise and billow a little bit and get a little black around the edges, and then you see it’s a big ball of smoke with flashes on the inside of the fire going out, the heat.” A full minute and a half after the explosion, Feynman finally heard an enormous bang, followed by the rumble of man-made thunder.

James Conant had expected a relatively quick flash of light. But the white light so filled the sky that for a moment he thought “something had gone wrong” and the “whole world has gone up in flames.”

Related: Who was J. Robert Oppenheimer? Biographer Kai Bird delves into the physicist’s fascinating life and legacy

“I could feel the heat on my face a full twenty miles away.”

Bob Serber, American physicist

Bob Serber was also 20 miles away, lying face down and holding a piece of welder’s glass to his eyes. “Of course,” he wrote later, “just at the moment my arm got tired and I lowered the glass for a second, the bomb went off. I was completely blinded by the flash.” When his vision returned 30 seconds later, he saw a bright violet column rising to 20,000 or 30,000 feet. “I could feel the heat on my face a full 20 miles away.”

We see a black-and-white photo of famous scientists in suits at the bombing site.

At a nuclear test site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, atomic bomb scientists measure radioactivity in seared sand particles 2 months after the explosion when newsmen saw bomb effects for the first time. Standing left to right: Dr. Kenneth.T. Bainbridge (Harvard University); Joseph G. Hoffman, (Buffalo, NY); Dr. J.R. Oppenheimer, Director of Los Alamos Atomic Bomb Project; Dr. L.H. Hempelman, (Washington University in St. Louis); Dr. R.F. Bacher (Cornell University); Dr. V.W. Weisskopf, (University of Rochester); and Dr. Richard W. Dodson (California). (Image credit: Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images)

Joe Hirschfelder, the chemist assigned to measure the radioactive fallout from the explosion, later described the moment: “All of a sudden, the night turned into day, and it was tremendously bright, the chill turned into warmth; the fireball gradually turned from white to yellow to red as it grew in size and climbed into the sky; after about five seconds the darkness returned but with the sky and the air filled with a purple glow, just as though we were surrounded by an aurora borealis. . . . We stood there in awe as the blast wave picked up chunks of dirt from the desert soil and soon passed us by.”

Related: What was the Manhattan Project?

Frank Oppenheimer was next to his brother [Robert] when the gadget exploded. Though he was lying on the ground, “the light of the first flash penetrated and came up from the ground through one’s [eye]lids. When one first looked up, one saw the fireball, and then almost immediately afterwards, this unearthly hovering cloud. It was very bright and very purple.” Frank thought, “Maybe it’s going to drift over the area and engulf us.” He hadn’t expected the heat from the flash to be nearly that intense. In a few moments, the thunder of the blast was bouncing back and forth on the distant mountains. “But I think the most terrifying thing,” Frank recalled, “was this really brilliant purple cloud, black with radioactive dust, that hung there, and you had no feeling of whether it would go up or would drift towards you.”

Oppenheimer himself was lying facedown, just outside the control bunker, situated 10,000 yards south of ground zero. As the countdown reached the two-minute mark, he muttered, “Lord, these affairs are hard on the heart.” An Army general watched him closely as the final countdown commenced: “Dr. Oppenheimer . . . grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off. He scarcely breathed. . . . For the last few seconds he stared directly ahead and then when the announcer shouted ‘Now!’ and there came this tremendous burst of light followed shortly thereafter by the deep growling roar of the explosion, his face relaxed into an expression of tremendous relief.”

“Lots of boys not grown up yet will owe their life to it.”

J. Robert Oppenheimer

We don’t know, of course, what flashed through Oppie’s mind at this seminal moment. His brother recalled, “I think we just said ‘It worked.'”

Afterwards, [physicist Isidor] Rabi caught sight of Robert from a distance. Something about his gait, the easy bearing of a man in command of his destiny, made Rabi’s skin tingle: “I’ll never forget his walk; I’ll never forget the way he stepped out of the car. . . . his walk was like High Noon . . . this kind of strut. He had done it.”

“Later that morning, when William L. Laurence, the New York Times reporter selected by Groves to chronicle the event, approached him for comment, Oppenheimer reportedly described his emotions in pedestrian terms. The effect of the blast, he told Laurence, was “terrifying” and “not entirely undepressing.” After pausing a moment, he added, “Lots of boys not grown up yet will owe their life to it.”

Extracted from American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin published by Atlantic Books (2023).

Stay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter.

Alexander McNamara is the Editor-in-Chief at Live Science, and has more than 15 years’ experience in publishing at digital titles. More than half of this time has been dedicated to bringing the wonders of science and technology to a wider audience through editor roles at New Scientist and BBC Science Focus, developing new podcasts, newsletters and ground-breaking features along the way. Prior to this, he covered a diverse spectrum of content, ranging from women’s lifestyle, travel, sport and politics, at Hearst and Microsoft. He holds a degree in economics from the University of Sheffield, and before embarking in a career in journalism had a brief stint as an English teacher in the Czech Republic. In his spare time, you can find him with his head buried in the latest science books or tinkering with cool gadgets.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Live Science – https://www.livescience.com/human-behavior/warfare/how-manhattan-project-scientists-reacted-to-the-worlds-first-atomic-bomb-test

Tags: NightscienceTurned
Previous Post

Mining crystals locked in the deep-sea could help fight climate change. It may also destroy Earth’s last untouched ecosystem.

Next Post

Science news this week: Civil War haul and the moon’s hot blob

Fusobacterium nucleatum : ecology, pathogenesis and clinical implications – Nature

Unveiling Fusobacterium nucleatum: Exploring Its Ecology, Disease Connections, and Health Impact

October 21, 2025
Escherichia coli with a 57-codon genetic code – Science | AAAS

Escherichia coli Engineered with a Revolutionary 57-Codon Genetic Code

October 21, 2025
LOCALIZE IT: Over 420 anti-science bills target public health protections in statehouses across US – newspressnow.com

More Than 420 Anti-Science Bills Jeopardize Public Health Across the Nation

October 21, 2025
Halloween not your thing? Here’s when Christmas at the Newport mansions will start. – The Providence Journal

Not a Halloween Fan? Find Out When Christmas Magic Begins at the Newport Mansions!

October 21, 2025
Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

Office Technology: Dealers’ Managed IT Revenue up Nearly 30% – The Cannata Report –

October 21, 2025
UEFA becomes first sporting body to sign up to global anti-piracy coalition – The New York Times

UEFA Takes the Lead as First Sports Organization to Join Global Anti-Piracy Coalition

October 21, 2025
The lover’s guide to the 2025 World Series – The New York Times

Your Ultimate Lover’s Guide to the 2025 World Series

October 21, 2025
Rethinking Growth In A Broadening Economy – Seeking Alpha

Unlocking Success: New Insights for Thriving in a Booming Economy

October 21, 2025
Hetzel Design: blending architecture and entertainment – Blooloop

Hetzel Design: Where Architecture and Entertainment Unite in Perfect Harmony

October 21, 2025
Study suggests earlier start of hormone therapy optimizes long-term health outcomes – News-Medical

Starting Hormone Therapy Sooner May Boost Long-Term Health Benefits

October 21, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (879)
  • Economy (900)
  • Entertainment (21,771)
  • General (17,724)
  • Health (9,941)
  • Lifestyle (913)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (901)
  • Politics (910)
  • Science (16,111)
  • Sports (21,400)
  • Technology (15,880)
  • World (883)

Recent News

Fusobacterium nucleatum : ecology, pathogenesis and clinical implications – Nature

Unveiling Fusobacterium nucleatum: Exploring Its Ecology, Disease Connections, and Health Impact

October 21, 2025
Escherichia coli with a 57-codon genetic code – Science | AAAS

Escherichia coli Engineered with a Revolutionary 57-Codon Genetic Code

October 21, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version