On August 6, 1945, the sky above the Japanese city of Hiroshima opened. A blinding flash, then a deafening sonic boom. An entire city pulverized in seconds. Thus began the nuclear age. Today, 80 years ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...

Stenger, an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Hawaii, argues in this quick philosophical treatise and history of atomic theory that the existence of the atom proves that God doesn’t ...

THE experimental study of atomic spectra has a long and distinguished history. Even the descriptive analysis of spectra in terms of series and term values the systematic botany of spectra has a ...

Werner Heisenberg, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century, played a central role in Germany’s atomic bomb program during WWII. But a scientific mistake he made effectively derailed Germany ...

When the first atomic weapon exploded with unearthly force in the scrub desert of New Mexico on July 16, 1945, the Army was immediately faced with an unusual problem: How do you keep the biggest ...

The movie “Oppenheimer,” telling the story of Julius Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who helped develop the process of controlled nuclear fission and later was put on trial for treason as a ...

The 1945 Trinity test produced heat 10,000 times greater than the surface of the sun and spread fallout across the country. Tina Cordova and her mother, Rosalie, relax at Bonito Lake, New Mexico, in ...