Myths of the German atom bomb

Article Abstract:

The release of the Farm Hall transcripts in 1991 provided little new information about Germany's effort to develop an atomic bomb during World War II. The transcripts contain the secretly recorded conversations of 10 German scientists whom the Allies detained for questioning because of their work on German nuclear research. The conversations force no revision of the view that the German effort kept pace with Allied research until Jun 1942 but then fell behind. However, the transcripts dispel the myth that the scientists failed on purpose because they refused to give nuclear weapons to the Nazi regime.

Germany, Column, World War II, 1939-1945, 1940s (Decade) AD

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A Nobel tale of wartime injustice

Article Abstract:

The Nobel Prize for the discovery of nuclear fission in 1944 should have been shared by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann because they contributed equally to the discovery. The decision to bestow the prize on Hahn alone reveals flaws in the decision-making. The decision may have also been affected by Meitner fleeing from Nazi Germany to Sweden. She published a separate paper on the theoretical basis of the discovery in association with Otto Frisch. The wartime conditions and the interdisciplinary nature of the discovery further compounded the decision-making process.

Planning, Achievements and awards, Nobel prizes, Hahn, Otto

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Physics not guilty

Article Abstract:

The first nuclear bomb explosion took place on Jul 17, 1945, and since then physicists have felt guilty about the part they played in the arms race. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of Los Alamos where the bomb was designed and built, urged the government of US to share its technology with the other countries. The physicists helped to alert the public about the dangers of the arms race and their only guilt is that they could not convince the politicians about the dangers of nuclear fission and the need to use it only for peaceful purposes.

Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Physicists

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