If instead of arranging the atoms in some definite pattern, again and again repeated, on and on, or even forming little lumps of complexity like the odor of violets, we make an arrangement which is always different from place to place, with different kinds of atoms arranged in many ways, continually changing, not repeating, how much more marvellously is it possible that this thing might behave? Is it possible that that thing walking back and forth in front of you, talking to you, is a great glob of these atoms in a very complex arrangement, such that the sheer complexity of it staggers the imagination as to what it can do? When we say we are a pile of atoms, we do not mean we are merely a pile of atoms, because a pile of atoms which is not repeated from one to the other might well have the possibilities which you see before you in the mirror. Richard P Feynman, Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics By Its Most Brilliant Teacher
All things are made of atoms – little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence ... there is an enormous amount of information about the world. Richard P Feynman
The atom bomb was no ‘great decision’. It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness. Harry S Truman
Science has taught us, against all intuition, that apparently solid things like crystals and rocks are really almost entirely composed of empty space. And the familiar illustration is the nucleus of an atom is a fly in the middle of a sports stadium, and the next atom is in the next sports stadium. Richard Dawkins
Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire – in the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I be anxious about an atom? Lord Byron
The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun. George Orwell
No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent. Charles de Gaulle
There is in my opinion a great similarity between the problems provided by the mysterious behaviour of the atom and those provided by the present economic paradoxes confronting the world. Paul Dirac
When one studies the properties of atoms, one found that the reality is far stranger than anybody would have invented in the form of fiction. Particles really do have the possibility of, in some sense, being in more than one place at one time. Alan Guth
During the 20th century, we came to understand that the essence of all substances – their colour, texture, hardness and so forth – is set by their structure, on scales far smaller even than a microscope can see. Everything on Earth is made of atoms, which are, especially in living things, combined together in intricate molecular assemblages. Martin Rees
We are ‘nuclear waste’ from the fuel that makes stars shine; indeed, each of us contains atoms whose provenance can be traced back to thousands of different stars spread through our Milky Way. Martin Rees
As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter. Max Planck
Atoms are round balls of wood invented by Dr Dalton. Henry Enfield Roscoe, reported answer given by pupil to question on atomic theory
The present reeks of mediocrity and the atom bomb. Rene Magritte
We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections. Niels Bohr
One of the most strange and enigmatic of the particles is the Higgs-Boson (not yet found). And that’s what scientists here at Cern are trying to do. According to scientific theory, the Higgs particle ought to be there, somewhere in the sub-atomic soul of the atom. Without it, atoms would have no substance. The universe would have no substance ... One scientist has called Higgs, the God Particle. Professor Robert Winston, The Story of God
This Film is Restricted: ‘The government has decided that in the present state of international tension you should be told how best to protect yourselves from the dangerous effect of nuclear attack. (Atom & Nuclear) Storyville: Atomic, Living in Dread and Promises, serious rozzer addresses public, BBC 2015
‘Observers without goggles must face away from the blast.’ ibid. nuclear bomb detonation
More than 2000 nuclear warheads have been detonated. ibid. caption
There are now 15,700 warheads on Earth. $1 Trillion will be spent on them in the next decade. ibid. caption
In 1939 Germany was under the spell of a charismatic madman. His goal – world domination. German scientists were the first to split the atom. Putting them one step closer to a bomb that could win the war in one terrible explosion. Race for the World’s First Atomic Bomb, caption, BBC 2015
There are a number of different varieties of quarks: there are thought to be at least six ‘flavours’, which we call up, down, strange charmed, bottom and up. Each flavour comes in three ‘colours’, red, green and blue ... A proton or neutron is made up of three quarks, one of each colour. Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time p71
The 1920s and 30s were the golden age of nuclear research. The largest known nucleus at the time was that of the uranium atom: 238 protons and neutrons. Nova: Einstein’s Big Idea II, PBS 2005
What if we were to learn there exists a new form of clean energy in virtually unlimited supply? (Atom & Energy & Nuclear) Phenomenon: The Lost Archives: Heavy Watergate: The War Against Cold Fusion, 1999
University of Utah 23 March 1989: Two distinguished chemists, Dr Martin Fleischmann and Dr Stanley Pons announced to the amazement of the world that they had detected a nuclear-like reaction that could turn water into a powerful new fuel – their discovery became known as Cold Fusion. ibid.
One of the greatest tragedies in the history of science. ibid.
MIT bombshell knocks fusion ‘breakthrough’ cold. ibid. Boston Herald front page
Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century. ibid. John R Huizenga
Cold Fusion pioneers carried on. ibid.
A hidden worlds of classified nuclear facilities and secret cities built inside America. 400,000 people were part of this world. But only a handful really knew the truth. It took up half a million acres of land, saw the construction of the largest building in the world, and cost billions of dollars. All for one purpose: to bring an end to the Second World War by building the world’s first atomic bomb … The lost world of the Manhattan Project. Lost Worlds: Secret A Bomb Factories, History 2007
In 1941 Oak Ridge Tennessee was still a remote farming area. Within two years according to classified plans and maps it had been transformed into a secret city. It was going to be home to one of the biggest secrets in the Second World War. The US government pretended it didn’t exist. Because this was part of Project X: the Manhattan Project, the race to build the first atomic bomb. ibid.
These bizarre atoms are the universe’s Lego bricks … There’s an entire cosmos inside you. The Entire History of the Universe e22: Why is Everything Made of Atoms?
Where did the first atom come from? ibid.
The most energetic the light, the higher the likelihood that it will change to matter. ibid.
The inside of an atom is like a giant hall of mirrors. ibid.
Formation of the first atoms some 380,000 years after the Big Bang set light free. ibid.
I have been asked whether in the years to come it will be possible to kill forty million American people by the use of atomic bombs in a single night. I’m afraid the answer to that question is yes. To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb, Oppenheimer, Sky 2023
Robert Oppenheimer was the father of the atomic bomb. ibid. dude
This cultured non-violent man was responsible for birthing the most violent weapon in human history. ibid.
And they were led by this very enigmatic strange bright-blue-eyed young man who they all admired. ibid.
We did think about whether its destructiveness, its danger, could be vividly demonstrated over a barren and uninhabited target. And we were very doubtful of that. ibid. Oppenheimer
He becomes a rock star. He’s the oracle of American science. ibid. author
After the security trial Oppenheimer was never the same man again. He was a hollow man after that. ibid.