Atomic Bomb
The mushroom-shaped cloud associated with the above-ground detonation of an atomic bomb is one of the most defining images and represents one of the most challenging moral imperatives to arise from the mid-twentieth century. The scientific, technological, political, sociological, psychological, religious, and ethical ramifications of humankind's ability to harness and release in a fraction of a second fundamental forces of nature make the atomic bomb one of the preeminent issues of modern society and human existence.
Bomb Engineering
An atomic bomb is a weapon that derives its energy from a nuclear reaction in which a heavy nucleus of an atom such as uranium or plutonium splits into two parts and subsequently releases two or three neutrons along with a vast quantity of energy. These nuclear reactions, if they can be induced rapidly and in quick succession across a critical mass of material, produce a cataclysmic release of energy of prodigious dimensions from a very small quantity of initial material.
Advances in the design of these weapons have focused on efficiency and effectiveness, including ways to produce purer initial materials, induce and sustain more rapid reactions, and produce similar effects with smaller amounts of material. As a result, nuclear devices now available to the armed forces can yield effects from a small warhead on a missile that compare favorably to those generated in the 1950s by weapons so large that bombers had to be specially adapted to haul and drop them.
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