Hiroshima

Key point: On a clear day, an airburst at 14,000 feet above ground level would produce a nuclear fireball two miles wide that would be hotter than the surface of the sun. Maj. Andrei Durnovtsev, a Soviet air force pilot and commander of a Tu-95 Bear bomber, holds a dubious honor…

Is the coronavirus China’s Chernobyl? It could be—but only if we hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their early missteps that allowed the virus to spread unchecked for weeks. Chernobyl is the site of the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. Many consider it a pivotal cause of…

In 2018 the Trump administration published its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), the highlight of which was the option of using low-yield nuclear weapons even in response to a non-nuclear attack. While the NPR says the US will consider using nuclear weapons only “in extreme circumstances”, such “extreme circumstances could include…

Rosamund Pike plays Marie Curie in Radioactive.Credit: StudioCanal and Amazon Content Services Radioactive Director: Marjane Satrapi Shoebox/Working Title/StudioCanal (2019)Surfaces in Radioactive catch the eye. Rainwashed Parisian cobbles, blackboards, laboratory glassware, the textures of linen and woollen clothing, even — startlingly — naked skin; all are carefully framed and lovingly lit.…

Rosamund Pike plays Marie Curie in Radioactive.Credit: StudioCanal and Amazon Content Services Radioactive Director: Marjane Satrapi Shoebox/Working Title/StudioCanal (2019)Surfaces in Radioactive catch the eye. Rainwashed Parisian cobbles, blackboards, laboratory glassware, the textures of linen and woollen clothing, even — startlingly — naked skin; all are carefully framed and lovingly lit.…

The Binnenalster and Central Station in Hamburg in 1941, cloaked against aerial attack. In 1941, the Nazis camouflaged an entire lake at the centre of Hamburg.A painted tarp was made to look like a bunch of city blocks from above, in the hope of misdirecting RAF bombers.But the Brits weren't…

The Binnenalster and Central Station in Hamburg in 1941, cloaked against aerial attack. In 1941, the Nazis camouflaged an entire lake at the centre of Hamburg.A painted tarp was made to look like a bunch of city blocks from above, in the hope of misdirecting RAF bombers.But the Brits weren't…

Key point: Of course, none of these conventional weapons comes close to the power of a nuclear weapon. The United States Air Force has dropped one of the largest non-nuclear bombs ever built on an ISIS terrorist tunnel network in Afghanistan. The weapon—called the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast— was…

In the tradition of the Enlightenment salons that helped drive the Age of Reason, Science Salon is a series of conversations between Dr. Michael Shermer and leading scientists, scholars, and thinkers, about the most important issues of our time. Listen to Science Salon via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play Music,…

Key point: ​For years after World War II, the Soviets charged that the nuclear attacks on Japan were a warning to the USSR. Every summer, as the anniversaries of the U.S. nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki approach, Americans engage in the painful moral exercise of wondering whether President Harry Truman…