I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds – Bhagavad Gita
By GG Collins Copyright 2023
“The beginning of the atomic age began with a pinprick of light so bright it lit up the desert with the power of several midday suns … ” – Atomic Medium
When I began writing Atomic Medium I thought the world had forgotten this era. But thanks to a movie called Oppenheimer a new generation is learning about the men and women who developed the bomb. Not with computers and smart phones but with a little thing called a slide rule and human calculators.
By Jack W. Aeby, July 16, 1945, Civilian worker at Los Alamos laboratory, working under the aegis of the Manhattan Project. – This image comes from the Google-hosted LIFE Photo Archive where it is available under the filename 96ad5a9a5c94664e.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See the copyright section in the template documentation for more information., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=140895
I was lucky to have access to photos from the Atomic City of Los Alamos including pictures of the houses where the scientists lived and the mess hall where they ate. I poured over maps of the compound and read books describing the times. Many of my sources are listed below and a full list can be obtained in the bibliography at the end of Atomic Medium.
My characters, reporter Rachel Blackstone and her friend Chloe Valdez, went back in time to 1945 New Mexico. It was here they experienced the first treacherous step into a future of unimaginable weapons.
“They dropped to the ground and held each other. They trembled with terror. Rachel wondered if their hair would burn off or if they were on the verge of incineration.” – Atomic Medium
“Calling it a weapon of mass destruction sounded like an understatement; a news bite, trivial. This was obliteration; one second you were there and the next you were vapor being inhaled by hell’s meteor.” – Atomic Medium
We talk about nuclear weapons today like they have always been here. Each year scientists move the Doomsday Clock a bit closer to midnight. In January 2023 it was moved to 90 seconds before midnight. That’s how close we are to apocalypse.
Four world-class museums to discover the Native American Southwest and all it has to offer: arts, culture and history. Lunch at the Museum Hill Cafe. Listen to music as it floats around the huge plaza, compete with its on contemporary labyrinth.
Enjoy the sculpture garden at Museum Hill.
Museum Hill Mountain Spirit Dancer
Labyrinth Courtesy Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM
And don’t forget the Santa Fe Botanical Garden just across the street. The Art Walk has changing exhibits.
Santa Fe Botanical Garden, Art Walk in Background
Have a great day exploring Santa Fe’s Museum Hill!
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Attorney Finds Her New Job a Prickly Fit By GG Collins Copyright 2023 Helen Tudor-Fisk joins a Melbourne suburban law firm specializing in wills and probate. She’s just moved after parting ways with her eccentric husband and Sydney law career. She lands, non too softly, at Gruber and Gruber. Australian comedian Kitty Flanagan (along with […]
Stop Filming Scenes Twice for Americans. Please. by GG Collins Copyright 2023 Attn: ITV, BBC, BritBox, Acorn, Masterpiece, Seven Network, South Pacific Pictures, Greenstone TV, Canal+, CBC, etc. Show Stopper Refilming a scene for Americans by using the 12-hour clock or adding imperial measurements is a real action stopper. I enjoy TV and movies from countries […]
Inhumanity by G G Collins (Copyright 2022) On 9/11 I had an early interview. When I left, the streets were strangely quiet. Upon entering my office, the phone was ringing. It was my husband telling me to turn on the TV. Something was happening. It didn’t take long to find out. My editor asked for […]
Birth of the Atomic Bomb
Jul 27
Posted by G G Collins
I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds – Bhagavad Gita
By GG Collins Copyright 2023
“The beginning of the atomic age began with a pinprick of light so bright it lit up the desert with the power of several midday suns … ” – Atomic Medium
https://tinyurl.com/5n74s59r
When I began writing Atomic Medium I thought the world had forgotten this era. But thanks to a movie called Oppenheimer a new generation is learning about the men and women who developed the bomb. Not with computers and smart phones but with a little thing called a slide rule and human calculators.
By Jack W. Aeby, July 16, 1945, Civilian worker at Los Alamos laboratory, working under the aegis of the Manhattan Project. – This image comes from the Google-hosted LIFE Photo Archive where it is available under the filename 96ad5a9a5c94664e.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See the copyright section in the template documentation for more information., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=140895
I was lucky to have access to photos from the Atomic City of Los Alamos including pictures of the houses where the scientists lived and the mess hall where they ate. I poured over maps of the compound and read books describing the times. Many of my sources are listed below and a full list can be obtained in the bibliography at the end of Atomic Medium.
My characters, reporter Rachel Blackstone and her friend Chloe Valdez, went back in time to 1945 New Mexico. It was here they experienced the first treacherous step into a future of unimaginable weapons.
“They dropped to the ground and held each other. They trembled with terror. Rachel wondered if their hair would burn off or if they were on the verge of incineration.” – Atomic Medium
“Calling it a weapon of mass destruction sounded like an understatement; a news bite, trivial. This was obliteration; one second you were there and the next you were vapor being inhaled by hell’s meteor.” – Atomic Medium
By Trinity_crater.jpg: Federal government of the United Statesderivative work: Bomazi (talk) – Trinity_crater.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12817993
We talk about nuclear weapons today like they have always been here. Each year scientists move the Doomsday Clock a bit closer to midnight. In January 2023 it was moved to 90 seconds before midnight. That’s how close we are to apocalypse.
* * *
Atomic Medium will be priced at .99 cents on July 30, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/5n74s59r
For additional blog posts on this subject: Atomic Bomb Test Successful but Deadly https://tinyurl.com/mu6mdz3v and The Building That Changed the World https://tinyurl.com/22bpr67t
For more reading: Bibliography of Atomic Medium
109 East Palace by Jennet Conant, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2005.
The Manhattan Project, edited by Cynthia C. Kelly, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 2007.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1986 by Rhodes & Rhodes.
A Few Good Women by Evelyn M. Monahan & Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee, Alfred A Knopf, 2010.
The Streets of Santa Fe by Josh Gonze, 2012.
A Spy’s Guide to Santa Fe and Albuquerque by E. B. Held, University of New Mexico Press, 2011.
Manhattan Project Suitcase, Manhattan Days Script, Los Alamos Historical Society, http://www.losalamoshistory.org
Los Alamos National Laboratory/Science Photo Library at www.sciencephoto.com/media
Atomic Heritage Foundation, Profiles at www.atomicheritage.org/bios
Los Alamos National Laboratory, LANL History in Images at www.lanl.gov
Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association, Inc., The Otowi Bridge at http://www.mphpa.org
“Manhattan Project spies who met in Santa Fe changed the balance of the world” by Tom Sharpe, The Santa Fe New Mexican, September 27, 2000.
“The Difficulties of Nuclear Containment” by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, September 29, 2014.
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