It's generally forgotten that Japan was also developing a nuclear bomb. They were a long ways from making a viable one, though. It was abandoned after the surrender.
fusslo 6 minutes ago [-]
I cant remember which, but a documentary about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki said that after the first bomb, Japanese scientists were deployed to confirm or deny the US's claim of an atomic weapon.
If I remember right, the Japanese scientists confirmed signs of an atomic explosion, but the leaders were dubious. Or, maybe the scientists said they found evidence, but could not conclude an atomic weapon?
Maybe someone better educated can correct me if I didn't get that history quite right
expedition32 11 hours ago [-]
This was already known. The British put the German scientists into a big country house after the war and bugged all the rooms. After the US dropped the atomic bombs the German scientists spent weeks discussing with eachother how the Americans could have done it. They never got it right.
Amazing. Kind of reminds of the modern day discourse on potential dangers of AGI and humans misuse of it.
Robotbeat 20 minutes ago [-]
Yup. The race-to-AGI-because-China in particular. I’m basically a China Hawk and generally in favor of AI development, but I can recognize the same pattern.
NDlurker 33 minutes ago [-]
That was incredibly interesting. Thank you for sharing.
fierycatnet 15 minutes ago [-]
Nice gem
smallmancontrov 57 minutes ago [-]
Heisenberg used a bad approximation that led him to incorrectly believe he would need tons of U235 to produce a bomb. His model for bomb viability was essentially "a random neutron walk should not leave the core until producing enough generations to explode." In reality, you don't need that much U235 because earlier generations have exponentially more descendants and they are closer to the core -- the later generations can leak neutrons out of the core like a sieve and the exponential party deep in the core won't even notice, effortlessly replacing them by cooking a tiny fraction of a generation longer.
It was Peierls and Frisch, two Jewish German scientists, who figured out those dynamics, modeled them with the Neutron Diffusion equation, and repeatedly prodded UK intelligence until they were taken seriously. Then the project got sent across the Atlantic for safety and scale-up and the rest is history.
Germany could have had the Atom Bomb in WWII, but Nazi Germany could not have because Jewish Science gave a decisive advantage.
ianburrell 30 minutes ago [-]
Another problem is that Germans went for heavy water reactors and didn't even get as far as prototypes. Americans built graphite moderated reactors and quickly built plutonium production reactors at Hanford. Also, Allies were able to prevent Germans getting heavy water from Norway.
antonvs 8 minutes ago [-]
> Jewish Science gave a decisive advantage.
It's interesting, and concerning, to see the exact same thinking in the US today.
The claim was that theoretical, mathematical models of physics, like special relativity, were a product of "Jewish thinking," designed to deliberately confuse the world.
There's a recent video in which Tucker Carlson interviews Jess Elofson and they mutually agree that algebra is nonsense, with Elofson calling it "fake math". They didn't go so far as to relate it to some ethnic source (from the part I watched), but "designed to deliberately confuse the world" is the big selling point. The people they hate are people smarter than them.
On the plus side, this is why these anti-intellectual movements always fail, because in the end they just can't get much useful done, other than attacking and destroying which doesn't require finesse or understanding.
sandworm101 53 minutes ago [-]
>> Jewish Science
Jewish Scientists.
smallmancontrov 46 minutes ago [-]
I was mocking the Nazi attacks on the work of Jewish scientists which branded that work as "Jewish Science" and declared it inferior, because this whole story is a Reverse Uno card on that narrative.
ahartmetz 36 minutes ago [-]
Some part of the German physics community even did "German physics" which did not include quantum physics and relativity.
gloryjulio 26 minutes ago [-]
Agree with that. There were also 'Soviet Science'.
eli_gottlieb 22 minutes ago [-]
Yes, but it would have been a better world if the Nazis had never invented the idea of Judenphysik in the first place. It stopped Gentile German physicists from working on whole areas of research!
atq2119 12 minutes ago [-]
I'm okay with that if it helped prevent Nazi Germany from building an atom bomb...
darubedarob 48 minutes ago [-]
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darubedarob 50 minutes ago [-]
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gib444 14 minutes ago [-]
I'm trying to reconcile such wildly clever people not wondering if they were being surveiled? Or didn't they care?
LightBug1 1 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
bigyabai 1 hours ago [-]
Today's analysts would be quick to point out that Nazi Germany's progress was about 3 weeks away from getting the bomb.
JumpCrisscross 15 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
moritzwarhier 7 hours ago [-]
the purpose of square-bracketed text in quotes is to mark editorializing
happytoexplain 55 minutes ago [-]
That's why it's notable. If it were part of the original quote, it wouldn't be.
stackghost 1 hours ago [-]
I think the point is that in an article about Nazi Germany, editorializing "Hitler" to add "Adolf" is probably not required because almost every adult in the English-speaking world knows who Hitler was.
SoftTalker 38 minutes ago [-]
The more I learn about that fella, the less I like him.
1-more 14 minutes ago [-]
You joke, but Destined to Witness is a really interesting memoir of German-Liberian Hans-Jurgen Massaquoi growing up in the rise of Nazi Germany as a young kid and then experiencing WWII as a civilian German teen. I ended up learning how the Nuremberg laws came down on kids at playgrounds, etc., something I'd never considered. Sure it pales in comparison to everything else, but it's always interesting to learn one more way the Nazis were just awful.
scun 14 hours ago [-]
Coincidentally TIL about a Namibian politician who decided to drop the "Hitler" from his name. I only mention it because his first name is also Adolf
21 minutes ago [-]
12 hours ago [-]
joshblack1982 47 minutes ago [-]
Not to be confused with Adolf Hitler's half-nephew Bill Hitler, who fought against Adolf Hitler.
ck2 48 minutes ago [-]
but imagine if they did, wow, history would absolutely be completely different and they'd still be in power
speaking of which, pretty sure he's turning Iran to sand after the elections, he'll have nothing left to lose and US is only country to ever use nuclear weapons on a million innocent civilians, twice, so why stop now?
we're out of other weapons except these which seems wildly illegal to use especially on civilians
Imagine if Putin was using those on Ukraine civilians but US uses them no problem?
antonvs 2 minutes ago [-]
> wildly illegal to use
There's no law with any teeth at that level. Who's going to enforce it?
Of course the ICC might issue arrest warrants for US leaders, just as they have for Netanyahu, but the practical implication of that is mostly that ICC members will be subject to attacks of all kinds.
> Imagine if Putin was using those on Ukraine civilians but US uses them no problem?
Since neither of those things are true, what do you think this unlikely thought experiment might tell us?
AnimalMuppet 24 minutes ago [-]
Why do you think that anyone here considers US use to be "no problem"?
If I remember right, the Japanese scientists confirmed signs of an atomic explosion, but the leaders were dubious. Or, maybe the scientists said they found evidence, but could not conclude an atomic weapon?
Maybe someone better educated can correct me if I didn't get that history quite right
It was Peierls and Frisch, two Jewish German scientists, who figured out those dynamics, modeled them with the Neutron Diffusion equation, and repeatedly prodded UK intelligence until they were taken seriously. Then the project got sent across the Atlantic for safety and scale-up and the rest is history.
Germany could have had the Atom Bomb in WWII, but Nazi Germany could not have because Jewish Science gave a decisive advantage.
It's interesting, and concerning, to see the exact same thinking in the US today.
The claim was that theoretical, mathematical models of physics, like special relativity, were a product of "Jewish thinking," designed to deliberately confuse the world.
There's a recent video in which Tucker Carlson interviews Jess Elofson and they mutually agree that algebra is nonsense, with Elofson calling it "fake math". They didn't go so far as to relate it to some ethnic source (from the part I watched), but "designed to deliberately confuse the world" is the big selling point. The people they hate are people smarter than them.
On the plus side, this is why these anti-intellectual movements always fail, because in the end they just can't get much useful done, other than attacking and destroying which doesn't require finesse or understanding.
Jewish Scientists.
speaking of which, pretty sure he's turning Iran to sand after the elections, he'll have nothing left to lose and US is only country to ever use nuclear weapons on a million innocent civilians, twice, so why stop now?
we're out of other weapons except these which seems wildly illegal to use especially on civilians
* https://apnews.com/article/iran-lamerd-us-prsm-lockheed-mart...
Imagine if Putin was using those on Ukraine civilians but US uses them no problem?
There's no law with any teeth at that level. Who's going to enforce it?
Of course the ICC might issue arrest warrants for US leaders, just as they have for Netanyahu, but the practical implication of that is mostly that ICC members will be subject to attacks of all kinds.
> Imagine if Putin was using those on Ukraine civilians but US uses them no problem?
Since neither of those things are true, what do you think this unlikely thought experiment might tell us?