From: scerir (scerir@libero.it)
Date: Thu Aug 29 2002 - 02:22:36 MDT
John K Clark:
... I try to put myself in the mindset of somebody from 1940 ...
Many told me that, at that time, the only solution appeared to be
this one: invent a new powerful weapon and throw it.
Berlin was, of course, the target.
Bohr was greatly troubled by the possibility of German atomic
weapons (Heisenberg was, after all, his best "pupil"). And he knew that
as early as 1942 Stalin had called physicists (Kapitza, i.e.) to study
the possibility of developing an atomic weapon.
On 16 May 1944, three weeks before the D-day - at that time physicists
did not have yet the means for constructing a deliverable weapon -
Bohr met Churchill, trying to explain him the possibility but also the great
danger of using atomic weapons, especially on Berlin. Bohr spoke about
his "open world" idea. "It was terrible" Bohr said, because Churchill "
scolded me like a schoolboy". But Churchill had already made up his
mind and did not want to hear any further argument. Four months later
Churchill wrote that he was "much worried about Professor Bohr. How
did he come into this business?".
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:16:29 MST