That was the moment when human beings first unleashed the power of the nucleus in an immense, blinding ball of fire above a ...

At 5:30 a.m. mountain war time on July 16, 1945, the world’s first nuclear weapon detonated over a flat, arid stretch of New Mexico desert. The Trinity test, as it was code-named, confirmed that an ...

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) maintains one of the richest and most diverse histories in the federal government. Although the department itself has only existed since 1977, its lineage traces ...

In the 20th century, humanity acquired the power to destroy itself--and reshape civilizations. From quantum physics to Hiroshima, this lecture traces the scientific breakthroughs, political urgency, ...