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Richard Rhodes: 2 ideas worth knowing

2 ideas from Richard Rhodes, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• The first nuclear reactor was built under a university football stadium

  In December 1942, Enrico Fermi's team stacked graphite blocks and uranium into a squash court beneath the stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Chicago Pile-1 achieve…

  — Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb

• Smoke over one city sent the second atomic bomb to Nagasaki instead

  On 9 August 1945 the primary target for America's second atomic bomb was the arsenal city of Kokura. Haze and smoke — some drifting up from a firebombing raid on a nearby city the …

  — Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb

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