Nuclear Weapons Nerds

https://gizmodo.com/meet-the-nuclear-weapons-nerds-1826964319

by smogcutter • 8 years ago

132 42 8 years ago

jackpirate• 8 years ago

If you're interested in the latest nuclear weapons developments, I highly recommend reading the blog https://armscontrolwonk.com . There's lots of detailed political and technical analysis of the world's nuclear weapons systems there with an effort to track and limit their proliferation. If you've never investigated this type of thing before, you might be surprised at just how much knowledge there is to be had in unclassified "open source" material like this.

irq• 8 years ago

Your link is broken - I think it's because their TLS configuration doesn't support the non-www hostname. This link works though:

https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/

toufka• 8 years ago

I second their recommendation and add that their podcast is really good and nerdy.

They also put to pragmatic social and geopolitical use a lot of tech in a low-budget way: imaging from Planet Labs, machine learning in inage analysis, etc. And they go through how they pit them to use in detail.

3pt14159• 8 years ago

I also recommend the podcast by the same name[0]. Especially the episodes with Jeffery Lewis. There is also a guy named Scott LaFoy who has some pretty interesting things to say, but usually on other Podcasts and across a wider array of topics than just nuclear weapons, including cyberwarfare. He's @wslafoy on Twitter.

[0] I sponsor it on Patreon, and the sponsors only slack is fucking great.

jpindar• 8 years ago

The founder of that site, Jeffrey Lewis, recently published "The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel". Well worth reading IMO.

https://www.amazon.com/Commission-Report-Nuclear-Attacks-Aga...

brandmeyer4• 8 years ago

No story about nuclear weapons nerds is complete without at least one reference to

http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/

especially the physics lessons in http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq0.html

nyolfen2• 8 years ago

don't forget nuclear secrecy or the bulletin of atomic scientists:

http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/

https://thebulletin.org/

ericzawo• 8 years ago

Also fun(?) to see how destructive nuclear arms are based on data from Google Maps.

http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/classic/

bigiain2• 8 years ago

I quite like reading this guy's point of view - and Anthropology PhD candidate studying atomic weapons:

https://deusexatomica.wordpress.com/

(Sadly gone quiet. I hope he got his degree and is doing something fun...)

nasredin• 8 years ago

"The Cold War was over and according to a 2016 survey of American fears by Chapman University, more people feared The Affordable Care Act than the threat of nuclear war."

Every single day my belief that people are amazingly stupid is reinforced.

---

Somewhat related:

The Russians are looking for their nuclear-propelled cruise missile that they reportedly recently lost.

IIRC that is the same one Putin mentioned in his "state of the union" speech, shortly before his "re-election".

brandmeyer4• 8 years ago

> ...more people feared The Affordable Care Act than the threat of nuclear war.
Every single day my belief that people are amazingly stupid is reinforced.

Really?

ACA: Has definite impact on daily lives. Every US resident has had to make at least one decision about their health care in the years since it took effect that was directly affected by the ACA.

Nuclear war: No impact on daily life. US-developed ICBM defenses are critically upsetting the balance of Mutually Assured Destruction, but almost nobody is aware of that. Individual decisions are completely unaffected by nuclear weapons or defenses against them.

Given that reality, it seems perfectly expected and rational that more people will feel threatened by the ACA than nuclear war.

wowDude2• 8 years ago

Okay, this right here is pretty absurd.

The perspective is so wrong it begs disbelief on some level. An attempt to open doors, to provide access to medicine is not some thing made of fear. You can drive on roads, you can mail a letter, you can see a doctor.

Instantaneous annihilation, or worse, getting irradiated at lethal doses, only to collapse into a heap of boils and sores, wretching and dry heaving until you cough up your ulcerated intestines, actually is something to fear.

But yeah, you know, guns or butter. Nuclear deterents make war generally unrealistic, once you arm yourself with enough bombs. Nevermind the liklihood that that more bombs you have, the closer we all are to one of them going off accidentally.

But you’re right, because of nuclear secrecy, and the government classification of military secrets, we’re not allowed to know how close we are to having our lives immediately and directly affected, not by “Nuclear War” but by accidents in pursuit of possessing a deterent.

Therefore, since we cannot be permitted to know such things, our lives must not be affected by those things, and it’s irrational to fear them.

Instead, we should fear the government trying to buy us all dog food, because it would be ridiculously inefficient to allocate funds to supply such things, when so many people don’t own dogs. It’s clearly a vector to corruption and dog poisoning. Perfectly expected and rational.

mmirate2• 8 years ago

US-developed ICBM defenses

Uhh, if this is correct and complete, then why does it matter if the balance is upset in our own favor?

senectus1• 8 years ago

Its all about how the story is told.

Fox n co tell a very compelling story to their specific audience.

chasd00• 8 years ago

everyone says whatever it takes to get clicks in order to keep the price of ads up. Whether it's Fox, CNN, NYT, or anywhere else. It's all the same.

mathw• 8 years ago

It wasn't so much that which got me - I'm probably more afraid of the effects of Brexit right now than nuclear war, because I know Brexit's happening in March, and nuclear war doesn't seem enormously likely right now - but the comment just before it about Americans not thinking the US even had any nuclear weapons anymore.

Just... what.

modells• 8 years ago

If you want to play with nukes, work at Pantex.

mirimir• 8 years ago

I own some beautiful Mexican pottery with uranium glaze.

nyolfen2• 8 years ago

the book mentioned early on -- The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes -- is one of my favorite pieces of nonfiction. i can't recommend it highly enough, it's totally engrossing.

also, really fantastic photos in this! the copy could use a little work though.

ridgeguy• 8 years ago

Second this. A great read.

Rhodes' layout of the early 20th century physics discoveries that lead to the atomic bomb is engaging all by itself. Who knew it would matter whether your lab benches were made of wood or granite?

ggm3• 8 years ago

I recommend https://www.amazon.com/Work-Fields-Bomb-Robert-Tredici/dp/00...

I have a copy, I treasure it. Extremely well curated collection of historical images, interviews.

Finnucane2• 8 years ago

Also good along those lines, American Ground Zero, How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb, and the classic, 100 Suns.

ggm3• 8 years ago

is 100 suns "brighter than 100 suns" by Robert Jungk?

Richard Rhodes is my go-to for the back story, huge books. Not enough photographs.

Merad• 8 years ago

If you’re interested in the topic, I highly recommend picking up a copy of John Coster-Mullen’s book (discussed in TFA) on Amazon while you can. It’s already somewhat hard to find and not commonly carried by libraries. The author is in his 70s and won’t be able to continue self publishing forever.

3eto• 8 years ago

Here's a good article on how Coster-Mullen did and probably still does his research.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/12/15/atomic-john

“The secret of the atomic bomb is how easy they are to make.” John Coster-Mullen

ChuckMcM• 8 years ago

I can recommend Coster-Mullen's book if you're interested in this stuff. Big and bound with a spiral binding it is a remarkable collection of bits of information that do pretty much tell you everything you might want to know about those first two bombs.

krtkush2• 8 years ago

I'm currently reading "Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes (Mentioned in the post). It's a thick book and dense with information. I have only read the first two chapters but the book is very engrossing - it seems to be covering all the important people who were part of the making of the Bomb, both directly and indirectly.

Next is "Red Sun: Making of the Hydrogen Bomb" by the same author.

arethuza• 8 years ago

Nitpick - I think you probably mean "Dark Sun":

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16889.Dark_Sun

It's very good - although as a lot of it is about the Soviet bomb project it "Red Sun" is oddly appropriate!

krtkush2• 8 years ago

Yes, thank you. I meant Dark Sun.

I usually correlate Red with USSR (and a Super Man graphic novel, named "Red Son", about USSR does not help either) hence the confusion.

S-E-P• 8 years ago

I've played enough DEFCON to know how this will end :P

JoeDaDude• 8 years ago

Until recently, this fellow, David Hahn, was a famous nuclear nerd, aka The Radioactive Boy Scout:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

Nuclear Weapons Nerds

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