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RegisterPosted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: January 17, 2026, 04:34:27 pm »No one had nukes from prehistory until the 1940s. Western civilization changed it all:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nuclear_weapons
But Westerners never blame Western science and machinism. In contrast:
But even this was not enough:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard
Szilard should have been executed before he was able to flee.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nuclear_weapons
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In the first decades of the 19th century, physics was revolutionized with developments in the understanding of the nature of atoms including the discoveries in atomic theory by John Dalton.[1] Around the turn of the 20th century, it was discovered by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden and then Ernest Rutherford, that atoms had a highly dense, very small, charged central core called an atomic nucleus. In 1898, Pierre and Marie Curie discovered that pitchblende, an ore of uranium, contained a substance—which they named radium—that emitted large amounts of radiation. Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy identified that atoms were breaking down and turning into different elements. Hopes were raised among scientists and laymen that the elements around us could contain tremendous amounts of unseen energy, waiting to be harnessed. In 1905, Albert Einstein described this potential in his famous equation, E = mc2.
H. G. Wells was inspired by the work of Rutherford to write about an "atom bomb" in a 1914 novel, The World Set Free, which appeared shortly before the First World War.[2] In a 1924 article, Winston Churchill speculated about the possible military implications: "Might not a bomb no bigger than an orange be found to possess a secret power to destroy a whole block of buildings—nay to concentrate the force of a thousand tons of cordite and blast a township at a stroke?"[3]
At the time however, there was no known mechanism which could be used to unlock the vast energy potential that was theorized to exist inside the atom. The only particle then known to exist within the nucleus was the positively-charged proton, which would act to repel protons set in motion towards it. Then in 1932, a key breakthrough was made with the discovery of the neutron. Having no electric charge, the neutron is able to penetrate the nucleus with relative ease.
But Westerners never blame Western science and machinism. In contrast:
Quote
In January 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany and suppressed Jewish scientists.
But even this was not enough:
Quote
Physicist Leo Szilard fled to London where, in 1934, he patented the idea of a nuclear chain reaction using neutrons. The patent also introduced the term critical mass to describe the minimum amount of material required to sustain the chain reaction and its potential to cause an explosion (British patent 630,726).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard
Quote
He was born as Leó Spitz in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, on February 11, 1898. His middle-class Jewish parents
Szilard should have been executed before he was able to flee.
