published.
Uranium, the element chiefly used in the atomic bomb, has the heaviest and most complex of atoms. Normally there are 92 planetary electrons, while the nucleus is made up of about 238 neutrons (which have mass without electricity), 238 positrons (which have positive electricity and very little mass) and 146 electrons, which are like positrons except that their electricity is negative. Positrons repel each other, and so do electrons; but a positron and electron attract each other. The overcrowding of mutually attracted and repelled particles in the tiny space of the uranium nucleus involves enormous potentially explosive forces. Uranium is slightly radio-active, which means that some of its atoms break up naturally. But a quicker process than this is required for the making of an atomic bomb.
Rutherford found out, about thirty years ago, that little bits could be chipped off an atom by bombardment. In 1939 a more powerful process was discovered: it was found that neutrons , entering the nucleus of a uranium atom, would cause it to split into two roughly equal halves, which would rush off and disrupt other uranium atoms in the neighbourhood, and so set up a train of explosions so long as there was any of the right kind of uranium to be encountered.
Ever since the beginning of the war, the Germans on the one side, and the British and Americans on the other, have been working on the possibility of an atomic explosive. One of the difficulties was to make sure that it would not be too effective: there was a fear that it might destroy not only the enemy, but the whole planet, and naturally experiments were risky. But the difficulties were overcome, and now the possibility which scientists have foreseen for over forty years has entered into the world of practical politics. The labours of Rutherford and Bohr , of Heisenberg and Schrödinger , and a number of other distinguished men, the ablest men of our time, and most of them both high-minded and public-spirited, have borne fruit: in an instant, by means of one small bomb , every vestige of life throughout four square miles of a populous city has been exterminated. As I write, I learn that a second bomb has been dropped on Nagasaki.
The prospect for the human race is sombre beyond all precedent. Mankind are faced with a clear-cut alternative: either we shall all perish, or we shall have to acquire some slight degree of common sense. A great deal of new political thinking will be necessary if utter disaster is to be averted.
For the moment, fortunately, only the United States is in a position to manufacture atomic bombs. The immediate result must be a rapid end to the Japanese war, whether by surrender or by extermination . The power of the United States in international affairs is, for the time being, immeasurably increased; a month ago , Russia and the United States seemed about equal in warlike strength, but now this is no longer the case. This situation, however, will not last long, for it must be assumed that before long Russia and the British Empire will set to work to make these bombs for themselves. Uranium has suddenly become the most precious of raw materials, and nations will probably fight for it as hitherto they have fought for oil. In the next war , if atomic bombs are used on both sides, it is to be expected that all large cities on both sides will be completely wiped out; so will all scientific laboratories and all governmental centres. Communications will be disrupted, and the world will be reduced to a number of small independent agricultural communities living on local produce, as they did in the Dark Ages. But presumably none of them will have either the resources or the skill for the manufacture of atomic bombs.
There is another and a better possibility, if men have the wisdom to make use of the few years during which it will remain open to them. Either war or civilization must end, and if it is to be war that ends, there must be an international authority with the sole power to make the new bombs. All supplies of uranium must be placed under the control of the international authority , which shall have the right to safeguard the ore by armed forces. As soon as such an authority has been created, all existing atomic bombs, and all plants for their manufacture, must be handed over to it . And of course the international authority must have sufficient armed forces to protect whatever has been handed over to it. If this system were once established, the international authority would be irresistible, and wars would cease. At worst, there might be occasional brief revolts that would be easily quelled.
But I fear all this is Utopian. The United States will not consent to any pooling of armaments, and no more will Soviet Russia. Each will insist on retaining the means of exterminating the other, on the ground that the other is not to be trusted.
If America were more imperialistic there would be another possibility, less Utopian and less desirable, but still preferable to the total obliteration of civilized life. It would be possible for Americans to use their position of temporary superiority to insist upon disarmament, not only in Germany and Japan, but everywhere except in the United States, or at any rate in every country not prepared to enter into a close military alliance with the United States, involving compulsory sharing of military secrets. During the next few years, this policy could be enforced; if one or two wars were necessary, they would be brief, and would soon end in decisive American victory. In this way a new League of Nations could be formed under American leadership, and the peace of the world could be securely established. But I fear that respect for international justice will prevent Washington from adopting this policy.
In view of the reluctance of mankind to form voluntarily an effective international authority, we must hope, and perhaps we may expect, that after the next world war some one Power will emerge with such preponderant strength as to be able to establish a peaceful hegemony over the rest of the globe. The next war, unless it comes very soon, will endanger all civilized government; but if any civilized government survives and achieves supremacy, there will again be a possibility of ordered progress and of the utilization of science for happiness rather than for destruction.
One is tempted to feel that Man is being punished, through the agency of his own evil passions, for impiety in inquiring too closely into the hidden secrets of Nature. But such a feeling is unduly defeatist. Science is capable of conferring enormous boons: it can lighten labour, abolish poverty, and enormously diminish disease. But if science is to bring benefits instead of death, we must bring to bear upon social, and especially international, organization, intelligence of the same high order that has enabled us to discover the structure of the atom. To do this effectively we must free ourselves from the domination of ancient shibboleths, and think freely, fearlessly, and rationally about the new and appalling problems with which the human race is confronted by its conquest of scientific power.
The links in the textual notes are to the passages in green type in Russell’s final text.
The copy-text is a photocopy plus a colour scan (RA3 Rec. Acq. 840) of the manuscript (“CT”) in the Emrys Hughes papers, National Library of Scotland. It is foliated 1, 2–8, seems to measure 211 x 268 mm., and is written in ink. An editorial hand rewrote, none too clearly, more than three dozen of Russell’s words in decipherment for the compositor. The same hand (or hands—sometimes with a blue pencil) added fifteen paragraph breaks and the instruction “Double Column”, all of which are ignored here. “45” is the publication, “The Bomb and Civilization”, Forward , Glasgow, 39, no. 33 (18 Aug. 1945): 1, 3. It has six section heads, also ignored here as non-authorial; so is a pair of non-Russellian-drawn commas around the restrictive clause “which scientists have foreseen for over forty years”.
Instead of page numbers, links are provided to the references to these citations.
Princeton University historian Angela Creager spent more than a decade researching early efforts to transform knowledge and technology developed for the Manhattan Project to peaceful uses. The research culminated in a new book, "Life Atomic: Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine," which details how that effort made possible important breakthroughs in medicine and biology.
Video stills from Nick Barberio, Office of Communications
Even before the end of World War II, scientists working on the Manhattan Project saw a future for their work beyond military might.
A new book by Princeton University historian Angela Creager explains how knowledge and technology that grew out of the secret U.S.-led effort to build atomic bombs delivered on that promise — making possible important breakthroughs in medicine and biology.
In this video , Creager discusses those breakthroughs and how they happened.
Play the "Insights With Angela Creager" video.
"Generally when both ordinary people and scholars have thought about the legacy of the Manhattan Project, we thought about the way in which physics and engineering were put to military use. We thought about a destructive legacy, the arms race, the Cold War," said Creager, the Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History . "Part of what I discovered was that atomic energy had just as much of a legacy in some of the fields we think of as peaceable as it did in military uses."
The book, "Life Atomic: Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine," is the culmination of more than a decade of research by Creager, who traveled across the country to study unpublished government documents and the papers of scientists involved in military and civilian research.
Creager, who joined the Princeton faculty in 1994, teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the history of science, the history of biology, gender and science, and technology and science. In 1998, she received the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. Creager is also the author of "The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930-1965." She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and president of the History of Science Society. Creager earned a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley and a bachelor's degree from Rice University.
Among the breakthroughs linked to atomic research that Creager highlights in "Life Atomic":
These advances were made possible by the availability of radioisotopes, which are radioactive isotopes, or variants, of stable atoms. In the post-World War II era, the U.S. government produced radioisotopes in some of the same nuclear reactors that had been built to produce material for nuclear weapons. The radioisotopes were promoted by the government and sold at a discount to laboratories, hospitals and companies, Creager said.
Radioisotopes quickly gained acceptance as both medical therapies and radiotracers, she said.
"Tracer uses are when you replace one atom of a compound with a particular radiolabeled atom so that you can follow that label through the ordinary chemical or biological processes the compound goes through," Creager said. "So radiotracing was very widely applicable to study biochemistry, physiology, endocrinology and eventually ecology. Basically anything where a chemical compound is in motion, radiotracing is a way to look at change over time, and look at chemical transformations."
Creager said the study of photosynthesis offered a good example of how radiotracing was used. Researchers grew algae in a glass container exposed to bright light. They added carbon dioxide labeled with the radioisotope carbon-14 and let the algae take up some of the carbon dioxide. They then examined how the radiolabeled carbon had moved from one compound to another through the chemical reactions of photosynethsis.
"Even by the late 1940s, it was already apparent this could be used to crack open the photosynthetic pathway, which really hadn't been understood before," Creager said.
In a similar way, animals, and later humans, were fed food containing a radioisotope of iron in experiments that aided the understanding of iron uptake, Creager said.
The book also traces changes in the perceptions of scientists and the public about the risks of radiation. An investigation by a presidential panel in the 1990s detailed the ways in which research subjects — sometimes without their knowledge — were exposed to radiation during the postwar period. This included, for instance, pregnant women in experiments with radioiron. Creager said documents declassified in the wake of that investigation aided her research.
"Now we think the government should be involved at some level in protecting civilians from exploitation by a medical establishment that is eager for research subjects, but in the 1950s the thought was that physicians should be trusted to regulate themselves," Creager said. "The human research using radioisotopes wasn't atypical of other types of medical research at the time, even though we may look back and think it was a really bad idea."
Creager's research has carried over to the classroom. For example, she once taught a junior seminar titled "Atomic Legacies." As part of the class, eight students traveled with Creager to the National Archives outside Washington, D.C., for two days of research.
"The junior papers that were produced from this seminar were terrific, and it was also a great experience to go with them to the archives and, in many cases, have the students encounter unpublished sources for the first time and think about how they might go into writing a historical account," Creager said.
Creager's research for "Life Atomic" was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Endowment for the Humanities and Princeton University.
She has begun work on her next project, which examines changing ideas about environmental carcinogens from the 1960s through the 1980s. Many of those ideas, she said, were first shaped by research on radiation.
Bravo specializes in the history of photography and art history. Creager's scholarship examines 20th-century biomedical research. Morimoto's work focuses on nuclear history, culture and memory.
To identify genes involved in photosynthesis, a team led by Princeton researchers has built a library containing thousands of single-celled algae, each with a different gene mutation.
Looking at plants and engines, a new study suggests 'we can learn a great deal by comparing changes in nature across evolutionary time to changes in systems people are building today.'
Princeton historian Angela Creager has received the American Philosophical Society’s 2018 Patrick Suppes Prize in the History of Science for her book “Life Atomic: A History of Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine.”
Two Princeton University research projects — a new tool for visualizing drug therapy in the brain and a method for aiding the search for planets outside our solar system — have been selected to receive grants from Princeton's Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund.
A new book by Princeton University historian Angela Creager explains how knowledge and technology that grew out of the Manhattan Project paved the way for important breakthroughs in medicine and biology. In this video, Creager describes the great hopes for atomic research in the 1940s and '50s and how those hopes were later tempered by concerns about radiation exposure.
Two new studies of green algae — the scourge of swimming pool owners and freshwater ponds — have revealed new insights into how these organisms siphon carbon dioxide from the air for use in photosynthesis, a key factor in their ability to grow so quickly.
National Museum of Nuclear Science & History
National Archives News
Photograph of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. (National Archives Identifier 22345671 )
The United States bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945, were the first instances of atomic bombs used against humans, killing tens of thousands of people, obliterating the cities, and contributing to the end of World War II. The National Archives maintains the documents that trace the evolution of the project to develop the bombs, their use in 1945, and the aftermath.
The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki features a letter written by Luis Alvarez, a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, on August 6, 1945, after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
[Photograph: The atomic cloud rising over Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945. National Archives Identifier 535795 ]
A People at War looks at the 509 Composite Group, the unit selected to carry the atomic bomb to Hiroshima.
[Photograph: Col. Paul Tibbets, Jr., waves from the cockpit of the Enola Gay before departing for Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. National Archives Identifier 535737 ]
"Little Boy" atomic bomb being raised into plane on Tinian Island before the flight to Hiroshima. National Archives Identifier 76048583
Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. National Archives Identifier 22345671
Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. National Archives Identifier 22345679
Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. National Archives Identifier 22345680
Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. National Archives Identifier 148728174
Nuclear weapon of the "Fat Man" type, the kind detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. National Archives Identifier 175539928
The atomic cloud rising over Nagasaki, Japan. National Archives Identifier 535795
Nagasaki after the atomic bomb. National Archives Identifier 39147824
Nagasaki after the atomic bomb. National Archives Identifier 39147850
Atomic Bomb Preparations at Tinian Island, 1945
Photographs used in the report Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
Manhattan Project Notebook
Atomic bomb/Enola Gay preparations for the bombing missions
Post-bombing aerial and on-the-ground images of Hiroshima
Empty bottle of Chianti Bertolli wine signed by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Effects, 1945
The Last Bomb , a 1945 film, done in Technicolor, by the Army Air Forces Combat Camera Units and Motion Picture Units covering the B-29 bombing raids on Japan
Effects on the human body of radiation from the atomic bomb
Photos: Atomic Bomb Preparations at Tinian Island, 1945
Atomic bomb/ Enola Gay preparations for the bombing missions
Post-Hiroshima bombing aerial and on-the-ground images
Color image of Hiroshima after bombing
Manhattan Project records from Oak Ridge, TN
Unwritten Record: Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Unwritten Record: Witness to Destruction: Photographs and Sound Recordings Documenting the Hiroshima Bombing
Forward with Roosevelt: Found in the Archives: The Einstein Letter
Pieces of History: Little Boy: The First Atomic Bomb
Pieces of History: Harry Truman and the Bomb
Pieces of History: Morgantown Ordnance Works (part of the Manhattan Project) Panoramas, 1940–1942
Today's Document: Petition from Manhattan Project Scientists to President Truman
Docs Teach resources on the atomic bomb
Teaching with Documents: Photographs and Pamphlet about Nuclear Fallout
Kennedy Library: “The Presidency in the Nuclear Age”
Roosevelt Library: Albert Einstein’s letter to FDR regarding the atomic bomb
Truman Library: “The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb ”
Truman Library: Additional records on the bombing of Hiroshima
Truman Library: President Truman's Diary Entry for July 17, 1945 (the day before Truman learned that the United States had successfully tested the world's first atomic bomb)
Truman Library: Memo for the Record, Manhattan Project, July 20, 1945
Truman Library: Petition from Leo Szilard and other scientists to President Truman
Eisenhower Library: Atoms for Peace
Kennedy Library: “ The Presidency in the Nuclear Age: The Race to Build the Bomb and the Decision to Use It”
IMAGES
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This paper chronologically summarizes the human consequences of the atomic bombings beginning from the immediate death followed by subsequent death within three months, then an earliest appearing late effect manifesting as leukemia which was first malignancy, and further followed by many solid cancers as a long-lasting delayed effect until the ...
Looking for a good essay, research or speech topic on Nuclear Weapon? Check our list of 81 interesting Nuclear Weapon title ideas to write about!
Looking for a good essay, research or speech topic on Hiroshima? Check our list of 86 interesting Hiroshima title ideas to write about!
PDF | Seventy-four years have passed since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Approximately 210,000 victims died, and another 210,000 people... | Find, read and cite all the research ...
It begins with a detailed introduction to the project and includes an alphabetical collection of relevant entries on such topics as the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb; Enrico Fermi, creator of the first nuclear reactor; Hiroshima, the target of the first atomic bomb; and Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project.
We believe new research is needed to better assist the social studies community in helping students grasp the destructive nature and consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. This manuscript presents an ethnological study of six atomic bomb survivors from Japan during World War II.
On the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the National Security Archive updates its 2005 publication of the most comprehensive on-line collection of declassified U.S. government documents on the first use of the atomic bomb and the end of the war in the Pacific. This update presents previously unpublished material ...
Drawing on the latest research on the atomic bomb and its history, the contributors to this provocative collection of eighteen essays set out to answer two key questions: First, how did the atomic bomb, a product of unprecedented technological innovation, rapid industrial-scale manufacturing, and unparalleled military deployment shape U.S ...
By 1944, six thousand scientists and engineers from leading universities and industrial research labs were at work on the development of the world's first-ever nuclear weapon. Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist, headed the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Manhattan Project's principal research and development facility. For security reasons, the facility was located in the desert near Los ...
Vincenzo Cioci Abstract the development of the atomic bomb in the first half of the twentieth century marked a turning point in the history of nuclear science because it revealed the close relationships that exist among science, technology and society. in this paper the main discoveries that led to the scientific and technological development of the atomic bomb are presented together with the ...
In 1942, just months after the United States entered World War II, a secret program, the Manhattan Project was created under the command of Brigadier General Leslie Groves and the scientific direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer. British and American scientists began developing a new kind of weapon, an atomic bomb. By July 1945 the weapons were ready to be used against the one remaining Axis ...
On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands of people - many instantly, others from the effects of radiation. Death estimates range from 66,000 to 150,000. This first use of a nuclear weapon by any nation has long divided Americans and Japanese.
It is for these reasons that an analysis of whether the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was a reasonable and just decision is apropos. For absent a deeper understanding of the events of the time and the factors considered in using the atomic bomb, decision-makers today are liable to make errors in judgment that could have enormous consequences.
Manhattan Project, U.S. government research project (1942-45) that produced the first atomic bombs. The project's name was derived from its initial location at Columbia University, where much of the early research was done. The first bomb was exploded in a test at Alamogordo air base in southern New Mexico on July 16, 1945.
In the case of the atomic bomb, basic research seeking nature's secrets initiated a chain reaction of new knowledge, impossible to control. So the mushroom cloud that resulted symbolizes one of ...
Absolutely FREE essays on Atomic Bomb. All examples of topics, summaries were provided by straight-A students. Get an idea for your paper
Seventy-five years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a new treaty offers renewed hope for a nuclear-free world.
Why Oppenheimer has important lessons for scientists today Atomic bomb historian Richard Rhodes talks to Nature about how researchers fare in the film, and what it gets right and wrong.
The Manhattan Project was a top-secret program to make the first atomic bombs during World War II. Its results had profound impacts on history: the subsequent nuclear arms race has radically ...
Russell's paper "The Atomic Bomb" (published as "The Bomb and Civilization") was written in 1945. The editor of this paper, which is scheduled to be in Volume 24, is Kenneth Blackwell. Let him know of any errors. A conventional view of the headnote, paper and apparatus as they are to be printed in the edition is available in PDF format.
The book, "Life Atomic: Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine," is the culmination of more than a decade of research by Creager, who traveled across the country to study unpublished government documents and the papers of scientists involved in military and civilian research.
Student Research and Study Topics. Long before the Manhattan Project began, European scientists labored over the possibilities of a nuclear chain reaction. Early Atomic Science. Nuclear Fission. Uranium. Many think that Hitler sowed the seeds of Germany's defeat when he introduced the laws barring Jewish individuals from university teaching ...
The United States bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945, were the first instances of atomic bombs used against humans, killing tens of thousands of people, obliterating the cities, and contributing to the end of World War II. The National Archives maintains the documents that trace the evolution of the project to develop the bombs, their use ...