4 ms·

Frederick Reines – The singing UCI Nobel Laureate who nearly bombed Nevada

51 points by perihelions 3y ago

rl3 3y ago
>The neutrino-research community has mushroomed over the decades, ... I couldn't help but chuckle.
throwanem 3y ago
In fairness, nuking a chunk of Nevada was what the early 1950s called "Tuesday".
- ghaff 3y ago
  There was some book I read--thought it was We Swam the Grand Canyon but can't find the scene--when the author was camped over by Lake Mead somewhere and was awoken by the flash and sound of an atomic test. There's a pretty neat Atomic Test Museum in Vegas.
jcrawfordor 3y ago
Over nine hundred nuclear weapons, many of larger size, were detonated in Nevada from the early 1950s to 1992. The way the article presents that aspect is odd and suggests an author surprisingly unaware of the history of Nevada and the weapons program. I actually find it somewhat surprising the weapon-stimulated experiment was never attempted, as these kinds of experiments were conducted secondarily to a weapons test fairly routinely. A large portion of Nevada tests supported secondary research by other government agencies, universities, and private industry. A prominent example was a set of buildings to test earthquake-hardening methods, taking advantage of the consistent earthquakes incidentally produced by nuclear tests. I believe the client on that project was the University of California, but that's from memory and sources are hard to come by on older NNSS programs. One of the more famous commercial tests was by the Mosler safe company to demonstrate that their vaults could survive a nuclear attack, although this wasn't totally an independent project as Mosler had a close relationship with the military and the survivability of their vaults had implications on nuclear deterrence, their being used to store parts of the weapons stockpile.
- perihelions 3y ago
  - "Mosler had a close relationship with the military and the survivability of their vaults had implications on nuclear deterrence" /tangent That's the brand of safe Los Alamos used to store nuclear secrets during the Manhattan Project, which Richard Feynman practiced safe-cracking on, https://www.cs.virginia.edu/cs588/safecracker.pdf https://www.cs.virginia.edu/cs588/safecracker.pdf (excerpt from "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!")
defrost 3y ago
For context: The United States conducted around 1,054 nuclear tests (by official count) between 1945 and 1992, including 216 atmospheric, underwater, and space tests. a good number of these were within USofA, in Nevada, and several drifted fallout across US population centres. "Nearly bombed Nevada" is a small claim next to "actually bombed Nevada" .. or "detonated an atmospheric bomb and used it as a backdrop for a showgirl" (1953) https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/05/18/friday-image-the-dixie-showgirl-1953/ https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/05/18/friday-image-the-...
- fredsmith219 3y ago
  I love the fact that the details of the photo were provided by a Russian. Are their archives of our nuclear tests better than ours?
  - thaumasiotes 3y ago
    > Are their archives of our nuclear tests better than ours? Their archives don't have to be better for them to be more willing to publicize the information.
  - defrost 3y ago
    That'd be an "Ask Alex" (nuclear weapons historian and blog author). Hard to say, as an Australian I've managed in the past to provide some fresh details about tests back to US sources, it's certainly possible for outsiders to have a niche special subject. It's easy to imagine Russian sleepers in the US tasked with cataloging anything and everything nuclear related .. and a whole lot more as a smoke screen. That'd make for a hoarder scale archive of newspaper clippings and a family versed in playing Trivial Pursuit on dates and descriptions. Then again it may just be an expatriate Siberian obsessed with warm weather and bare legs.
    - selimthegrim 3y ago
      I always wondered whether that Connie Willis short story “And Come From Miles Around” was about aliens or Russians.
Am4TIfIsER0ppos 3y ago
Nobel laureates do a lot of bombing upholding the truest legacy of Alfred.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  For context: Alfred Nobel, who created the Nobel Prize, is the inventor of dynamite (earth shattering kaboom!) which ultimately funded the Prize.
ojbyrne 3y ago
If you’re ever in Vegas it’s worth visiting the National Atomic Museum: https://www.atomicmuseum.vegas/ https://www.atomicmuseum.vegas/
- dreamcompiler 3y ago
  There are also atomic museums in Albuquerque [0] and Los Alamos [1]. All three are pretty great, and each has a slightly different focus. Las Vegas is focused on testing and Los Alamos on history. Albuquerque is the biggest and it covers everything and has nice outdoor static displays. [0] https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/ https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/ [1] https://about.lanl.gov/bradbury/ https://about.lanl.gov/bradbury/
Linda231 3y ago
[dead]
UncleEntity 3y ago
I find it interesting that his justification for working with South Africa was "science transcended politics" when I can only imagine it was common knowledge during that time that "science doesn't transcend human rights" as the international community established through the trials of the Nazi scientists who experimented on human subjects. I've had people argue with me on this very site that the results from the Nazi experiments should be allowed to be used for reasons. Not that I'm accusing anyone of anything but I think he would have shared the same opinion regarding the treatment of the Jewish people and the general consensus that came out of it post-WWII.
olliej 3y ago
I thought the US bombed Nevada a lot?
- arethuza 3y ago
  Also the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nuclear_testing_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nuclear_testing_in_the...

51 points by perihelions 3y ago

rl3 3y ago

>The neutrino-research community has mushroomed over the decades, ... I couldn't help but chuckle.

throwanem 3y ago

In fairness, nuking a chunk of Nevada was what the early 1950s called "Tuesday".

ghaff 3y ago
There was some book I read--thought it was We Swam the Grand Canyon but can't find the scene--when the author was camped over by Lake Mead somewhere and was awoken by the flash and sound of an atomic test. There's a pretty neat Atomic Test Museum in Vegas.

jcrawfordor 3y ago

Over nine hundred nuclear weapons, many of larger size, were detonated in Nevada from the early 1950s to 1992. The way the article presents that aspect is odd and suggests an author surprisingly unaware of the history of Nevada and the weapons program. I actually find it somewhat surprising the weapon-stimulated experiment was never attempted, as these kinds of experiments were conducted secondarily to a weapons test fairly routinely. A large portion of Nevada tests supported secondary research by other government agencies, universities, and private industry. A prominent example was a set of buildings to test earthquake-hardening methods, taking advantage of the consistent earthquakes incidentally produced by nuclear tests. I believe the client on that project was the University of California, but that's from memory and sources are hard to come by on older NNSS programs. One of the more famous commercial tests was by the Mosler safe company to demonstrate that their vaults could survive a nuclear attack, although this wasn't totally an independent project as Mosler had a close relationship with the military and the survivability of their vaults had implications on nuclear deterrence, their being used to store parts of the weapons stockpile.

perihelions 3y ago
- "Mosler had a close relationship with the military and the survivability of their vaults had implications on nuclear deterrence" /tangent That's the brand of safe Los Alamos used to store nuclear secrets during the Manhattan Project, which Richard Feynman practiced safe-cracking on, https://www.cs.virginia.edu/cs588/safecracker.pdf https://www.cs.virginia.edu/cs588/safecracker.pdf (excerpt from "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!")

defrost 3y ago

For context: The United States conducted around 1,054 nuclear tests (by official count) between 1945 and 1992, including 216 atmospheric, underwater, and space tests. a good number of these were within USofA, in Nevada, and several drifted fallout across US population centres. "Nearly bombed Nevada" is a small claim next to "actually bombed Nevada" .. or "detonated an atmospheric bomb and used it as a backdrop for a showgirl" (1953) https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/05/18/friday-image-the-dixie-showgirl-1953/ https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/05/18/friday-image-the-...

fredsmith219 3y ago
I love the fact that the details of the photo were provided by a Russian. Are their archives of our nuclear tests better than ours?
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  > Are their archives of our nuclear tests better than ours? Their archives don't have to be better for them to be more willing to publicize the information.
- defrost 3y ago
  That'd be an "Ask Alex" (nuclear weapons historian and blog author). Hard to say, as an Australian I've managed in the past to provide some fresh details about tests back to US sources, it's certainly possible for outsiders to have a niche special subject. It's easy to imagine Russian sleepers in the US tasked with cataloging anything and everything nuclear related .. and a whole lot more as a smoke screen. That'd make for a hoarder scale archive of newspaper clippings and a family versed in playing Trivial Pursuit on dates and descriptions. Then again it may just be an expatriate Siberian obsessed with warm weather and bare legs.
  - selimthegrim 3y ago
    I always wondered whether that Connie Willis short story “And Come From Miles Around” was about aliens or Russians.

Am4TIfIsER0ppos 3y ago

Nobel laureates do a lot of bombing upholding the truest legacy of Alfred.

Dalewyn 3y ago
For context: Alfred Nobel, who created the Nobel Prize, is the inventor of dynamite (earth shattering kaboom!) which ultimately funded the Prize.

ojbyrne 3y ago

If you’re ever in Vegas it’s worth visiting the National Atomic Museum: https://www.atomicmuseum.vegas/ https://www.atomicmuseum.vegas/

dreamcompiler 3y ago
There are also atomic museums in Albuquerque [0] and Los Alamos [1]. All three are pretty great, and each has a slightly different focus. Las Vegas is focused on testing and Los Alamos on history. Albuquerque is the biggest and it covers everything and has nice outdoor static displays. [0] https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/ https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/ [1] https://about.lanl.gov/bradbury/ https://about.lanl.gov/bradbury/

Linda231 3y ago

[dead]

UncleEntity 3y ago

I find it interesting that his justification for working with South Africa was "science transcended politics" when I can only imagine it was common knowledge during that time that "science doesn't transcend human rights" as the international community established through the trials of the Nazi scientists who experimented on human subjects. I've had people argue with me on this very site that the results from the Nazi experiments should be allowed to be used for reasons. Not that I'm accusing anyone of anything but I think he would have shared the same opinion regarding the treatment of the Jewish people and the general consensus that came out of it post-WWII.

olliej 3y ago

I thought the US bombed Nevada a lot?

arethuza 3y ago
Also the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nuclear_testing_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nuclear_testing_in_the...