IF HISTORY WERE SOMETHING DIFFERENT

                                         'To speak about atomic energy in terms of atomic
                                          bomb is comparable with speaking about electricity
                                          in terms of electric chair.'
                                                                                      -Piotr Leonidovitch Kapitsa
                                                                                        Nobel Prize Winner. 1978
During the following August, we all expect to observe Hiroshima Day on the 6th. But we know again that it will be nothing but lighting a few candles speechifying and we all forget the sword of Damocles over the human civilization.

I am going to look back some 60 years ago, on the 6th August of 1945. It was a clear morning in the fourth largest city of Japan and inspite of running war, the city-dwellers saw nothing but a weather plane over their heads. Everything was going right in the morning as usual. But nobody was aware of a B-29 aircraft made to take-off at dawn carrying 'Little Boy', the curse for the world.It was 8:15 a.m. when the bomb was dropped from Enola Gay, the said US-aircraft soaring at a height of 24000 ft. Some saw the scene with utmost wonder till the slowered neutron hit a U-235 nucleus when the bomb was at aheight of 2200ft. Then came the cloud, the mushroom cloud and the temperature at the core rose to 5000 degree Celsius at once. About 72000 people died instantly. Three and a half sqaremiles of area was totally devastated. Shockwaves made the buildings within 5 km to topple down. The bomb contains 700 g of U-235 having the power of twelve and a half million tons of T.N.T.

But how this colossal carnage was brought about? We should peep into its scientific and political background thorroughly. 1932 to 1938. During these years, physicists from different corners of the world came to know how to break a heavy atom by neutron. But the fission reaction was first described properly by Otto Hann and Fritz Strassmann. A U-235 molecule is bombarded with a slowered neutron . It breaks into Ba-141 and Kr-92 nuclei and more 3 neutrons, being shelter-less, strike adjacent U-235 nuclei giving birth of the chain reaction. These three neutrons were first overlooked and the researchers cocentrated on the huge amount of energy released during fission, about 200MeV for a single U-235 nucleus. But these three neutrons were more fatal and actually destroyed Hiroshima and ended World War II witg an awesome exhibition of human greed and power. The paper about fission was first published in the 'Nature'. in the3 year of 1939.

April to July,1939. On the 17th March Neils Bohr warned about the danger of fission saying that if a bulk of U-235, enough to maintain a chain reaction for 1 minute would be bombarded by a neutron, then the laboratory as well as the adjacent township may be destroyed by the explosion.

The Clock Stopped at Hiroshima

Inspite of that, the Allied countries especially the US was interested in the research. At first it was supported by the  scientists only to prevent war-mad Hitler from making the bomb. The 6th April was a black day for the history. On that day, the decision of the manufacturing the bomb was taken by the US Sennett. The project, named as Manhattan Project Allied physicists, mostly fled from different countries of Europe occupied by Nazi Germany. The project was initiated under the supervision of General Groves in the cities of Oak-ridge, Han-ford and Los Alamos. The number of employees soon reached one and a half lac but only three or four persons knew what was going to be made bu the overwhelming effort. Robert Oppenheimer, the chief scientist of this project, selected Los Alamos due to its strategic position. Oak ridge was rejected due to its coastal position and had a fear of German submarines.

In the year of 1945, a survey team was created by the authority to select then the place of dropping the bomb. They advised as  following:

Crew of Enola Gay

The Explosion: Reconstructed With Colour

1. Since the bomb has overwhelming power, it should be dropped on a place full of huge buildings.

2. The bomb was assumed to destroy an area of 1 mile of radius. So a densely populated region of that much area should be chosen.

3. A fresh place with no previous bombing should be selected to understand the power of the bomb.

The Explosion and The Mushroom Cloud

16th. July of 1945, in the midst of the desert of Los Alamogordo, the atomic age began with the explosion of 'Trinity' at 5:30 a.m., the zero hour. It was reported that the desert sand had been turned into glass at the site of explosion for the tremendous heat

Enola Gay

But the scientists tried in vain to restrict the army from dropping the bomb on Japan. F.D. Roosevelt, the then US President died on 16th July and Harry Truman became the new president who had an overwhelming desire to glorify himself with the success of dropping the bomb. A military committee advised him to drop the bomb on a Japanese military base with no advance warning. This resulted in the monstrous manslaughter on the 6th August.

Destruction

Linus Pauling protested bravely against stocking of atomic weapons. Los Alamos created the biggest ever graveyard of the world. Pauling collected signatures of 9235 scientists from 44 countries all over the world with 52 Nobel Laureates to stop the manufacture of nuclear weapons. But alas! It's like the 'Pandora's Box', once opened can never be stopped as we see 7 more nations follow the path of the US and have made their nuclear power.
But we should guard human civilization with our utmost effort so that no war-monger can use these weapons broadening the path of ruin. Let the souls of the deceased in Hiroshima rest in peace. We will commit this sin no more.

NO MORE WAR.
LET THE SCIENCE BE UNRESTRICTED.
LET PEACE REIGN.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF4LQaWJRDg&feature=fvsr