That the arts have been a considerable help that i had from the archives in writing this book. The destructive flash, which seared here she meant to history, was really the culmination of 50 years of scientific creativity and of more than 50 years of political and military turmoil. Generations of scientists had contributed to that moment in physics. Yet when they first began to tease out the secrets of matter, not even future nobel Prize Winners i think couldve predicted how their pioneering insights would combine with exterior of vents to produce such a defining military history. For the time this of many nations this journey of discovery began way back in the 1890s. Researchers like mary carey, which we will see in this for slide here, researchers like mary kerry working alone or in small teams with rudimentary equipment. They started to identify the minute Building Blocks forming the world around them. Blinding discoveries were often matched by blind alleys. People rushed to publish the results not for profit or for National Prestige or often not even for personal glory, but rather for all the pure joy of knowledge. And for a long time, no one realized that their work could unlock Immense Energy to furnish a devastating new weapon or indeed, if probably harness, to fire city. In the early 20th century, we have radioactivity being seen as only producing benefits to health through the use of xrays for diagnosis and of Radioactive Materials to treat diseases including cancer. Physics after all was a new subject. The world perhaps 1000 physicists worldwide of whom may be just 10 were engaged in the study of radioactivity. Consequently, all of those involved knew each other. At a time of Intense National rivalries and of competition for empire, trade and natural resources, scientific results were proved internationally as further pieces in a sort of communal jigsaw puzzle for which no one had the master picture or pictures. Scientists, they studied at each others into this. North americans visited germany. Germans came to britain. Britains went to north america. Colleagues, they skied, they hiked, they made Music Together and allegiances and rivalries really stemmed from where and with whom people had studied rather than from nationality or race. All of them, they met a conferences where results were shared, contexts maintained and gossips exchanged. Albert einstein, who we have standing in the slide with mary carey, sorry Albert Einstein in the previous slide. Albert einstein, he called them, which is and i think few conferences were marked by gossip as that in brussels in 1911 when mary carey was forced to withdraw as a result of an alleged affair with paul, a close colleague and also a married man. However, personalities were strong and debate often heated particularly when those involved were, as one of them are called, undertaking to quote, wholly new processes of thought beyond all the previous notions in physics. Today, im going to be talking about the decade when what had fall nearly 40 years in a open quest for knowledge trying to muted into a race between belligerent nations, working in secret with large teams for high stakes. That key decade begins early in 1932 with the discovery of the neutron and ends in december 1941 with pearl harbor and with the establishment of the u. S. Atomic bomb project. The neutron was identified by the gentlemen we see in this next slide here. James chadwick, over on the right. Chadwick, a thin englishman whose gesture has been ruined by internment in germany during the first world war. Chadwick worked at the world famous Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University in england. And the head of this laboratory was the socalled father of Experimental Nuclear physics. This was the new zealand or, earnest rutherford, we see in this next slide as a young man. Young earnest rutherford. He had probably fully identified alpha beta gamma radiation. He had fund for proton and with the dales needles bore, which weve seen this side, sitting to the right with rutherford next to him. The two of them had worked out a model of atomic structure, which we have in the next slide. A model of atomic structure where tiny negative recharged electrons orbited a positively charged nucleus. And a contemporary famously compare this vision of the nucleus within the adam to that of a fly within a cathedral. Now rutherford, who in his career with train 12 nobel laureates, he had long suspected the existence of the neutron but he had delegated the work to chadwick. And prompted by some results published by the french has been a wife team, we see it in this fight here. The daughter of mary carey. Prompted by some of those. Chadwick tackle the problem with increased figure in 1932 and applying the classic sealing wax and string principles of the cavendish to make his equipment the simplest and the cheapest fit for the purpose, we know that chadwick violated rutherfords rule but all work in the laboratory should seize by 6 pm. This was partly through enthusiasm but also so that his sensitive equipment would not be affected by others work. And after three weeks, he had shown that radiation from bombarded burrow liam was powerful enough to knock particles out of hydrogen, helium, lithium, brilliant, carbon. The particles expelled from hydrogen were clearly protons and the others were whole nuclei of a target substance. And his measurements of their penetrating power of velocity proved that gamma rays, as easily cure ease were claiming, could never cause huge action of particles of such energy. The only viable conclusion was that the radiation flowing soul possibly from the really im consisted of particles of mass one and charged zero. In other words, neutrons. Now chadwicks discovery, for which we will see in this next slide he received a nobel prize. We have chadwick over there to the right. This discovery provided the all important coup to any resolve problems. For example, the neutron added to the understanding of isotopes. Until then, no one had known what it was exactly that differentiated isotopes from their sister element. The suspicion was a difference late in the nucleus. Chadwicks findings prove that suspicion correct. What may isotopes different was the number of neutrons in their nuclei. But most exciting of all was a realization that since the neutron carry no electrical charge, it would not be deflected by the positive charge of the nucleus. It was the ideal missile with which to bombard and to probe elements as it could hurdle on until the penetrated the nucleus of the item. But what nobody yet knew was that the neutron was also the catalyst for achieving an explosive Nuclear Chain reaction. Curiously though, the very year, 1932, we have the british writer nicholson publishing a novel novel called public faces. And in it he described a catastrophic new weapon made from a powerful new material. The substance could transmuted self with such violence that it could cause an explosion that to quote, would destroy all matter within a considerable range and send out waves that would exterminate all life over an indefinite area. The experts, nicholson wrote, had begun to whisper the words atomic bomb they claim that it could destroy new york. Now neutrons were not the only reason but 1932 was a spectacular year for science. In january, just a few weeks before chadwicks coup, we have the american chemist harold yuri making another discovery that rutherford had long predicted. Working at columbia, a university, yuri found natural uranium consisted of 99. 9 eight 5 ordinary hydrogen but also of 1 of heavy hydrogen. When isotopes given the name to cheerio, which also existed naturally in combination with oxygen in water. This socalled heavy water, to the naked eye really identical to ordinary water, it boiled and froze a different temperatures. It was 10 heavier. Of course, a decade later it would become a substance much sought after by the nazis and people would die to deny it to them. In this next slide here, we can see the heavy water plant in norway which was attacked by allied commanders during the war. But back in 1932, he thought of it as a delightful plaything for physicists. They could use it in bombarding other more complex adams so they could better understand nuclear structure. In april 1932, a few weeks after the neutron discovery, we have rutherford reporting a neither triumph. He wrote exuberantly, it never rains, but it pours. These two gentlemen we see in the next slide, they had just become the first scientists to split the atom using a manmade machine. A socalled accelerator. In this next slide, we have an image of what the accelerator looked like. This was a device that rutherford had asked them to develop sometime earlier. They had created it to lovingly and creatively. Using plasticine, an Innovative New material, which relates to the ceiling wax they previously used for the purpose. They smooth that over the joints to create a vacuum. Varying that rivals might overtake them, rutherford had urged them to stop perfecting it and to do what he told him to do months ago, in other words start experimenting. His bullying paid off. They bombarded lithium with accelerated protons and succeeded in disintegrating the lithium nucleus into two helium nuclei. According to one of his colleagues, normally about as much given to this much emotional display as the duke wellington, he went running through cambridge yelling we split the atom. We split the atom. An additional excitement was that the energies of the particles measured by them provided the first experimental confirmation of einsteins proposal. But rutherford had been right to fear competition. That cavendish may easily have been upstaged by the american, earnest lawrence working at berkeley. And this next slide, lawrence and berkeley. He had been developing the cyclotron. He had the original thought that if he could confine particles with electromagnets within a circular track rather than pushing them along a straight line, that he could accelerate them indefinitely, causing them to whiz faster after each burst of voltage. It would, in his words, be a proton merrygoround. He told his friends confidently and accurately as it turned out, im going to bombard and break up adams. Im going to be famous. Lawrence is first machine did not look anything like that. It was a four inch pillbox spreading arms like an octopus. When he demonstrated it to the u. S. National academy of sciences, he secured it to a kitchen chair with a clothes hanger. But despite its absurd appearance, its potential caused a sensation. Newspapers hailed the invention of a device to break up adams, and they were right. So good with his progress that by the end of the 19, lawrence would build a cyclotron with a magnet weighing 220 tons. Inspired by the desire to explore one of the tiniest things in existence, the nucleus of the adam. Big scientists coming. Lawrence had been joined at berkeley in the autumn of 1929 by a young theoretical physicist who shared his ambition to help the United States take the lead in all the world. Im sure you will have recognized the gentleman standing to the left of lawrence there. Robert open high moore. In the time he came to join lawrence, he was 25 years old. In the next slide we see oppenheimer as a young man. Slender lee built with intensely blue eyes, friends thought him, to quote, both subtly wise and terribly innocent. He was also sensitive, conceited, often neurotic, but charismatic lee engaging. And though passionate about physics, he was a renaissance man with obsessions ranging from indoor philosophy to dantes inferno. Oppenheimer he did off at once with laureates who is just three years a senior. Admiring his unbelievable vitality and love of life. A socialized and womanist together. Drinking oppenheimers famous frozen martinis with glasses rimmed with lunges and honey. And eating his speciality, a spicy indonesian dish. They also point writing. As we see from this next shot here, photographs of the time show lawrence top, sturdy, smiling. Oppenheimer over on the left here with frizz of dark hair, his slighter frame clad in healed mexican boots and wearing jeans. And with a quizzical yet dreamy expression. I think he resembles a young bob dylan. Lawrence and oppenheimer attended weekly seminars where oppenheimer, the future scientific eight of the u. S. Atomic bomb project, amazed everybody with his ability to simulate new ideas. His extraordinary memory and the fact that, to go to contemporary, he knew more experimental physics than even the experimental physicists did. In 1932, he wrote to his brother that, to quote, we are busy studying nuclei and neutrons and disintegrations. Trying to make some peace between the inadequate berry and the absurd revolutionary experiments. Just as oppenheim or had hoped, atomic physics was by now no longer europes exclusive preserve. On a visit to prickly in 1933, he was pretty startled to find it was more run like a factory than a laboratory. In his words, the experiment ares were divided into shifts. Maintenance shifts and experiment ares. When a leak or fault developed in the cyclotron, the Maintenance Crew rushed forward to plug the leaks and fix the fault, at which point the operating shifts russian again. It was far removed from small scale expense conscious world at the cavendish. It was a warning that the cavendish might soon be outclassed. But of course at this time, the outside world was changing and such concerns would soon become irrelevant. In 1933, hitler came to power. Many jewish physicists were expelled from their posts but hitlers aryan degrees. These included some of the very best physicists of their generation and many made their way to britain and the usa. They understood the danger of hitler and the nazis only too well. Among them were several who would help make the atomic bomb a reality. Albert einstein, germanys most famous scientists, crossed the channel to england with his wife elsa, protected by a British Naval commander who had the singular experience of having once been invited to kill rescue can. The autumn of 1933, finding england two formal and preferring a life with, as einstein said, no butlers, no evening dress, he accepted a post at princeton. And one french physicist remarked, i think only half in jest, that its as important and event as would be the transfer of the vatican from rome to the new world. The pope a physics has moved and the United States will now become the center of the natural sciences. Also in 1933, we had frederick and elaine, who we see in this next slide here. We have then discovered socalled artificial radioactivity until then physicists have known that by bombarding it with a particle of sufficient energy, a nucleus could be integrated and a new stable one formed. But no one had realized that certain circumstances and unstable element in the process of Nuclear Decay could be created. In other words, man could force the elements to release their energy in the form of radio active decay. Over the next few years, as International Tensions grow in europe as a result of hitlers territorial ambitions, and as tensions grew in the far east because of those in japan, scientists strove further to elucidate the secrets of the adam. And in rome we have this gentleman in the next slide here. Photograph taken of him on his wedding day. Following the discovery of artificial radioactivity. And it was while he was in the process of radiating elements with neutrons that he made what he regarded as his most important finding. That the more slowly and neutron travel, the more likely they were to penetrate the target nucleus. And like many of the great discoveries, it really came about through intuition. He just decided on impulse just to see what would happen if you filter the neutrons he was firing at his target through a barrier of paraffin. To his surprise, this increased a level of radioactivity that was produced by about 100 fold. Suspecting that the large amount of hydrogen in the paraffin might be a factor, he experimented with another substance also containing large amounts of hydrogen. This was water. His assistance carried it up in buckets from the fountain in the garden behind his laboratory, which we will see in the next slide. His laboratory at the institute of physics in rome. And the effect was a same as with the paraffin. The level of artificial radioactivity was enormously enhanced. Firmly deduced that the cause might be the protons in the Hydrogen Photo they had a similar mass to the neutrons and colliding with them made the neutrons elastically backandforth, absorbing some of the momentum. By the time that the neutrons moved on to the target, the speed, which was ordinarily tens of thousands of kilometers a second, had been sufficiently slowed or to use the terminology moderated for them to slide more easily into the target nuclei. And unknown to him, the process would prove critical to the development of the atomic bomb. Now germany had of course long been the International Center of physics. Not only for the pioneering, theoretical work of highs amber, who we see in this next side here. Eisenberg sitting in the middle there. He was doing important work so was not born, and others. They were working on quantum and wave mechanics but also on experimental marks. And on the experimental side, the leaders were the chemists auto hahn and an austrian born physicist a jewish ancestry, lisa. We see her in the next slide. An issue ali, progress was blocked by her gender rather than by her race. But in 1938, hitlers annexation of austria meant that she had to free germany and she escaped with literally just hours to spare. Otto hahn, gave her his engagement to finance her journey. But they continue to correspond in secret but silent and to meet a neutral countries. And one of the key topics was an experiment on uranium that harm hahn had been carrying out with another colleague. Now they had created what they firmly believed to be isotopes of radium. However, when they had attempted to use a burial as a carrier to help extract the radium, and the use of carrier chemicals to separate substances produced by neutral bombardment had then become extended technique. They found that they just could not separate the from beryllium the radium. Might not listen very carefully and then she advised auto hahn, exactly what experiments she could conduct to cross check his findings. Christmas, 1938 lisa wasnt sweetened with her nephew otto fresh who we have in the next slide. Also a physicist. There are many distractions they were deeply worried about his parents who were still trapped in austria and they were glad to look at some further information sent to them by otto hahn by as a distraction. As they walked in skied in the snow, they began to realize that what otto hahn had achieved was actually the splitting of their uranium nucleus. Meitner wrote to hahn. Wonderful findings, a really beautiful result. When frisch returned to copenhagen where he was working with bohr, they invited him to write a paper. In so doing, frisch found a name for the new phenomenon. He asked an american colleague, the biologist william arnold, what he called the process by which single cells divide into two. Arnold replied, they shun. Frisch conducted some experiments to confirm that their conclusions were right and this became the first person to provide experimental proof of the fission of uranium atom when hit by and neutron. Finally achieving the results that he wanted, he went to bed at 3 am on the 13th of january, 1939, only in his words to be knocked out of that four hours later by the postman bringing a telegram to say that his parents had been granted these us to emigrate to sweden. So his happiness was complete. But meanwhile back in berlin, hahn and its strassman publishing their own experimental work. I just mentioned as a sideline at this stage because i think it highlights many of the ambiguities in the story. Strassman, who was supposed to work on the german bomb, was concealing a jewish woman in his apartment in berlin. This was something that he would later be commemorated for in jerusalem. Back at this stage, strassman and hahn were working on their own experiments and they published the results. Their publication made no mention of the contribution made by lise meitner and otto frisch. It could not be done, of course, because of the Political Climate in germany. Soon after it was bohr on a visit to the United States who announced the discovery of fission there. We know that before he had even finished speaking, scientists went rushing out of the room to try it for themselves. Bohr himself, he began working on it at princeton. In early february, while he was puzzling over why the rate of uranium patient he was observing was some hundred times less than he wouldve expected, he had one of those bursts of inspiration that characterizes this story. Perhaps, he resigned, the two isotopes present in uranium, perhaps they were behaving differently when bombarded with neutrons. If only u235, constituting less than a 0. 7 of uranium that were splitting and not the u238, of which natural uranium was completely composed. This would explain the low rate of patient. It was hard for bombarding neutrons to find a suitable target. As bohr began writing row after row on his blackboard a formula, he made his calculations and his underlying hope was that if he was right, and the rare isotopes u235 was the key to nuclear fission, then this would make an atomic bomb and viable. A massive industrial effort would be required to separate out sufficient quantities of the isotopes from natural uranium. At length, convinced that u235 was essential, bohr told a group who had gathered expectantly in his office at princeton, that, to quote, you would need to turn the entire country into a factory. However, some scientists, including the somewhat eccentric hungarian born refugee physicist leo is a lard, who we see in this next image here, they were worried. He began to Campaign Among his colleagues to keep work on fission secret. To hinder any attempt by the worlds dictatorships to use it as a weapon szilard had long believed that a nuclear bomb might be feasible. In 1934, he had patented such an idea while in britain and had assigned that patent to the british admiralty. Now in the u. S. In 1939, he persuaded several colleagues not to publish their work. However, he was less successful with a french team under frederick curie, who despite szilards urgings, in march 1939, published results suggesting that a self sustaining Chain Reaction in uranium might be possible. Szilard, he felt so strongly about the dangers that in the autumn of 1939, he persuaded einstein to write to president roosevelt alerting him to the dangers of atomic weapons. In this next slide here, we have the first page of what has become a famous letter. However, at this stage, little action was taken since most american scientists believed, like niels bohr, that the engineering problems inherent in producing the very large amounts of u235, which they thought was required, we are just insurmountable. Even if all the other problems could be overcome. They would need to be convinced by scientists in britain. Britain and france had gone to war with germany in september 1939. British scientists were concentrating hard on war work. In particular on the development of radar. However, many of the refugee scientists settled in britain could not as aliens work on such classified projects. Among them was otto frisch, who had joined another refugee, the gentlemen we see in this next slide. It was a very cold winter and frisch only had a small gas fire in his bedroom. Hunched over it for warm, he began to ponder exactly how much pure u235 would really be needed to make a bomb. He and peierls began to calculate using a formula developed peierls to find the Critical Mass, the this is syria motivator ill required to release enough neutrons to start a selfsustaining Chain Reaction. The result amazed them. Others who tried to calculate the Critical Mass had, according to frisch, tended to come out with tons. The curie teen estimated it at around 40 times. But frischs and peierls estimate was, to quote, about a pound. Which as, frisch observed, was not was that much. Frisch calculated but by using a method of isotopes separation, he could produce a pound reasonably pure u235 in just a matter of weeks. The two men also calculated whether the Chain Reaction would last long enough to cause a catastrophic explosion. Scribbling literally on the back of an envelope, they worked out that a substantial amount of the uranium would fischer, releasing Energy Equivalent to thousands of tons of ordinary explosive. As peierls later recalled, we were quite staggered by these results. An atomic bomb was possible, at least in principle. As a weapon, it would be so devastating. But from a Military Point of view, it would be worth setting up a plant to separate the isotopes. In a classic understatement we say to ourselves, even if this plant cost as much as a battleship, it would be worth having. With further understatement, frisch said thoughtfully to peierls, look, shunned somebody know about this . Together they composed the famous frisch peierls memorandum. The compelling three page document that dealt with scientific, strategic, but also ethical issues. It suggested that one might think of about one kilogram of uranium as a suitable size for the bomb. They also described how to explode a bomb with a mechanism that would force to pieces of uranium, constituting the Critical Mass, together at tremendous speed. But the memorandum also addressed the human consequences. Not only of the blast, which would probably destroy the center of a big city, but of the consequent subsequent effect of radiation. It would be fatal to living beings even a long time after the explosion. Most of it, the note predicted, will probably be blown into the air and carried away by a wind. This cloud of Radioactive Material will kill everybody within a strip estimated to be several miles long. Piles peierls and frisch suggested the very high likely number of civilian casualties may make it unsuitable as a weapon for use by britain. But they pointed out that the germans might be working on a bomb. As there was no effective defense other than the threat of retaliation with the same weapon, it would be worth developing as a deterrent they said, even if it is not intended to use the bomb as a means of attack. The british governments scientific advisers took the documents seriously when it reached them. They created a High Powered Committee to review it. It was difficult times. Over the summer of 1940 as france fell, the committee worked quickly, aware of britains perilous position. As they labored, they became ever more convinced that a bomb was feasible and they managed to bring back from france just before the country surrender, most of europes supply of heavy water. Chadwick, but we see in this next slide, James Chadwick on the right with general Leslie Groves on the left. He was later the head of the u. S. Manhattan project. Chadwick had discovered at the neutron, he was now central to the british project and he was out monitoring bomb craters during the blitz with his guyger counter. He was checking that the germans were not using dirty bombs and dispersing Nuclear Material by conventional explosives. The news of the discovery in 1941 of plutonium in one of ernest lawrences cyclotrons, made him another british scientists think that this two might be another possible bomb fuel. The british scientists produced their final report in the summer of 1941. Recommending that britain proceed with an atomic bomb project. Churchill approved it with typical which. Riding that, although personally i am quite content with the existing explosives, i feel we must not stand in the way of improvement. Meanwhile, the germans were indeed working on and determine bomb. It later turned out that the japanese head to head in topic project. But what was going on in the United States . Even before british scientists had submitted their final report to their own government, they had sent copies to colleagues in the still neutral United States, to encourage america to advance its own program. The leadership of the u. S. Government scientific programs had changed to two dynamic men. When they saw the reports contents, they were determined to show it to president roosevelt, having gotten confirmation from scientists like ernest lawrence, that a bomb was indeed practicable. On saturday 6th of december 1941, they held a meeting in washington to allocate tasks within the new and expanded Atomic Program now sanctioned by president roosevelt. Also in washington that busy saturday, in the u. S. Navy cryptography department, a young woman translated a decoded secret japanese telegram sent four days previously from tokyo. It was asking the japanese counsel in hawaii to report on u. S. Birthing positions and shipment out of pearl harbor. Concerned, she took the message to her head of department who told her that he would get back to it on monday. Just over 24 hours later, in hiroshima harbor, the commander in chief of the japanese fleet was piped aboard his flagship to hear the first messages coming in about the success of the surprise attack on pearl harbor by his planes. This brings me to the end of my decade. The story of what happened over the next three and a half years. Although perhaps better known in outline, also contains many intriguing twists. But these i have to leave for another time or perhaps to now for questions. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. If anybody does have any questions, i will do my best to try and answer them. Yes, sir. inaudible i was very interested to find out what was going on in the access countries. The situation was that when war broke out, you really starting with a level playing field. The discovery and interpretation of station was out in public. The level of knowledge was the same nazi germany as it was in the ally countries. So that is why the allies were so worried. They knew there were many clever scientists in germany who could be making fairly swift progress towards a bomb. If you like, that was the catalyst for the allied program. What you find if you look at what was going on in germany, is that fairly early in the war, alerted by all of these reports of nuclear fission, the army brought together a group of scientists. They called it the uranium club. They identified a number of tasks and sent these groups away to look at them. But they were fairly small groups of scientists. They were not cohesive, there were rivalries amongst them. They did not all agree on the same approach is. They began to make technical mistakes. It was also a factor at work here that in the early stages of the war, it looked as if things were going pretty well for germany. Sweeping across europe. We have the surrender of france. Britain on its own looking as if it was going to be invaded at any moment. What knee did the germans have to invest a lot of money in this new technology . They were going to have won the war pretty quickly anyway. But you find as the russians come into the war and after pearl harbor and the whole situation changes, that the question of the polling and Nuclear Device begins to be taking more seriously. Effort is put into it. Levels of funding are debated and increased. You have the arm amidst minister being involved in this. What all of this boiled down to as the allies found when their Intelligence Team swept into europe on the heels of the invading forces. This was the socalled isis scientific mission. What they found when they arrested german scientists and physicists that they could find and when they had found their experiments, that had been in fact curated from berlin and taken southwest in germany and concealed in places like caves, but it was all very small scale stuff. They found an attempt to build what looked like a small reactor, but its sort of looked like a big dustbin. It was nothing with the massive u. S. Project that rivals the car industry. Political considerations during the war would made the pendulum swing back and forth in germany, some attempts to constructed least a uranium burning reactor, but no Real Progress towards anything that we wouldve recognized as an explosive device. Just very quickly, the gentlemans point about japan and what was going on there. I was interested in that as well. I mentioned that in the early years of all of this, people worked together. It was a sort of scientific brotherhood. A number of japanese physicists had started in studied in europe and america and prime amongst them was a very talented scientist from japan. He had studied particularly with rutherford. It was him who back in japan was given the task by both the Japanese Army and the navy, who are actually in competition with each other, because there was so few scientists who knew about this new science, he was in charge for both those arms of the Japanese Forces to try and find methods of separating out uranium. He was not very successful. Just as a sideline, to show the level of cooperation before the war, that a device that the japanese scientists did have at his disposable was a cyclotron. Why did he have a cyclotron . Because lawrence had given him the blueprints for. It nishina cyclotron was destroyed during the allied raids of japan. They were not very far down the path at all. Yes, sir. You mention the soviet efforts and the ongoing debate as to how much espionage accelerated. How soon are they got the bump as a result of espionage, specifically with britain and the states. Thats a very good point. I go into quite a lot of detail about this in the book. What you have our these momentous discoveries being made on the eve of war. All of a sudden there is a lot less appearing in the scientific literature. In russia, there are many talented scientists who studied in europe and america. This strange silence on the subject of matters is noted. In particular by a young russian scientist who alerted the authorities who alerted stalin. I think his words were that he was suspicious of the dogs who did not park in the night. What had happened to all the signs that had been going on . So you have a very flamboyant russian figure who adopted the russians tradition of not cutting your beard until accomplishing something. Their progress obviously depended, russia was finding a different war. They had invaded by the germans and had pulled many of the scientists back. By the end of the war, they were tremendously helped by very good information that was reaching them from the allied Manhattan Project. Close folks, the son of a lutheran past, or was providing much of the espionage. He was a dedicated anti nazi and bullied germany and came over to england. His soviet handlers there told him to complete his education and to lie low. He caught the attention of some of britains physicists including rudolf peierls. When the team that came over to the Manhattan Project from britain was being put together, what could be more natural that peierls would want to take him with them. General groves who took a fairly deep you about the arrival of the british contingent at loss alamo and worried about security, he wanted to put the whole british team through security clearance. The british said no, classic british, no, no, dear boy. We will put our own people through the necessary security checks and everybody will come to los almost will be fine. As events proved, this was not true. Close arrives at less almost after have been spent some time on calculations in new york. What does he do . He works for one of the most sensitive areas, the implosion calculations for the plutonium bomb. They were working on two types of bomb. Uranium and plutonium. Hes feeding information back to the soviets. Hes very popular. Hes always willing to babysit. He lands his car to his friends. Klaus fuchs is very quiet but hes everybodys friend. No one notices some of his absences. The soviet program significantly advanced by what fuchs was telling them. I think thats the reason they were able to explore their own device as early as they were. If i get the date right, i think it was 1949. The russians were able to explode their device. Of course, its also the reason perhaps forced talents rather calm and cool response at the conference where president truman wonders over to him, having to side with churchill that now is the moment to tell stolid there is a new weapon and stalling just knots. He says hes very glad to hear about all of this and hopes that the americans and the british will use it on japan. It does not ask any wet questions. He does not need to. A question . I will come to this gentleman first and then to, you sir. inaudible im sorry, i will take that question afterwards. Im wondering, is it also not true that the germans managed to shoot themselves because most of the physicists were jews and run out of the country. Absolutely. Some of the most talented minds. Weve talked about otto frisch, weve talked about rudolf peierls, einstein departing germany and many who proved key either to the building of the bomb or its interpretation. I beg your pardon . Youre exactly right. We have that slide up here of him on his wedding day. His wife laura with the daughter of an italian army officer who was jewish. Their chance to escape from mussolinis elite actually came about because he won the nobel prize for his work on neutrons. With the family finally did is they packed up and went off to stop home to receive their prize and they never went home. They went to america and on landing, you have an rico an ounceing that he had founded the u. S. Branch of the family. Youre absolutely right. Some of the most talented people pushed out of nazi germany and the other countries overrun by the nazis. Theres a book on the subject which has an ironic title. Indeed. Ive read that. That gives you very good in camps elation of the individual stories of many of these people. I think there weve come to the end of our time. I would like to thank you so much for coming along. After this event, if there are more questions people have, i would be delighted to do my best to answer them. Thank you so much. Thank you. Just take the elevator down to the ground floor. Look right out the shop. Diane it will be their signing. The u. S. Dropped atomic bombs on the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki 75 years ago last month. Japan surrendered shortly afterwards, and in world war ii. Up next on the presidency, education director marc adams shows items in the areas truman president ial library and Museum Collection to tell the story of president trumans decision to use the bo
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