So interesting story about this. We originally didn't know Lithium-7 would be useful in thermonuclear weapons. It was assumed that it would be inert and that o

So interesting story about this. We originally didn't know Lithium-7 would be useful in thermonuclear weapons. It was assumed that it would be inert and that only the Lithium-6 would react with neutrons from the fission primary and breed tritium for the fusion secondary. Then we tested a bomb [0] and the yield on it was accidentally 2.5x greater than anticipated. So large, in fact, that it is still the largest bomb ever detonated by the USA. It turns out that Lithium-7 will also breed tritium if the neutrons are powerful enough, and emits an additional neutron to continue the reaction. Reactions that we might never have discovered (or probably not until later) if it hadn't been for this mistake. The end result was a lot more fuel for the bomb, and the explosion was so large that many of the measuring instruments were vaporized. The large yield also contributed to a radiological disaster [1], which was then the inspiration for the original Godzilla [2]. Anyways, that's how a math/chemistry mistake lead to the most famous kaiju movie (series) of all time. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukury%C5%AB_Maru https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukury%C5%AB_Maru [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film)