Preludio alla bomba

The discovery and the theoretical explanation of the fission of uranium were published at the beginning of 1939: the same year that saw the start of World War 2. Many physicists who had emigrated to the US to escape the horrors of nazism felt the duty to participate in the construction of the first nuclear weapon. When the first atom bombs were used in Japan the devil that they had helped to free was definitely out of their control: it was too late for doubts and repent.