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Tech NewsMany Marshall Islands Residents Still Can’t Go Home After Nuclear Tests
In tests to determine if the northern Marshall Islands are safe for resettlement after nuclear testing nearly 70 years ago, scientists discovered that the areas are worse off than previously thought. A team of scientists from Columbia University published a study in June in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that hammers home … Continued
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Tech News
This Weather Phenomenon Caused a Nuclear Bomb Test to Go Horribly Awry
In 1955, the Soviet Union tested a bomb designated RDS-37 at a missile testing site in northeast Kazakhstan. The bomb’s power had been scaled down for the test, but a relatively rare weather phenomenon gave it an unexpected, and destructive, increase in power. The Semipalatinsk test site would, under normal conditions, have been a safe … Continued
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Tech News
Inside the Former Soviet Union’s Secret Nuclear Test Cities
Though it played out on the international stage, the arms race between the United States and the USSR took place mainly in rural, isolated parts of the world. The Americans tested their nuclear bombs on a desolate patch of Nevada. The Russians chose a barren polygon-shaped patch of what is now Kazakhstan. The photographer Nadav … Continued
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Tech News
Reviewing the Science of Godzilla for Plausibility and Imagination
A giant radioactive monster terrorizing a city inherently relies on a certain flexibility to the laws of physics and the nature of science. Even so, the science content between the 1954 original Godzilla and the 2014 remake contrast as starkly as the special effects. No spoilers. Bikini Atoll atom bomb tests. Image credit: US Navy … Continued
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Tech News
Atomic Bomb Testing Dummy (1953)
March 1953: A dummy sitting behind a protective shield in a Nevada basement used for atomic bomb testing. The mannequins used for these kinds of tests were often purchased from downtown Las Vegas department stores like J.C. Penney’s. [National Geographic’s Tumblr “Found”]
By Matt Novak -
io9Watch a nuclear bomb create a lake
This is the Chagan nuclear test. It was part of a larger effort to both test nuclear weapons and to use those weapons for peaceful purposes. The result is a lake it is barely safe to swim in and a severely polluted river nearby. An often-overlooked aspect of nuclear proliferation was the effort to use … Continued
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Tech NewsThese Five Men Volunteered to Let a Nuke Explode Over Them
Sixty five years ago today, the Department of Defense launched a nuclear missile test in Nevada, as they would hundreds of times again. But this time, five guys and a cameraman were placed right underneath the massive atomic explosion. Why? The DoD, NPR explains, wanted to show that nuclear warfare was safe, and that an … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
io9
Remembering the day when the US nuked its own communications satellite
Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the launch of Telstar 1, the first U.S. communications satellite to relay television signals, phone calls, and fax images through space. But just as the astromech-like satellite started to settle in orbit and make its ground-breaking transmissions, it had to contend with nothing less than the remnants of a … Continued
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io9
Supercomputer simulates nuclear explosion down to the molecular level
Treaties forbid the detonation of nuclear test weapons — which creates problems for national defense developers who need to efficiently certify the effectiveness of their arsenal. Luckily for them, a powerful new supercomputer is now able to replicate the physical impact of nuclear explosions — albeit digitally. And luckily for us, the resulting innovations may … Continued
