Re-inhabiting planet earth
"I believe that for a moment I thought the explosion might set fire to the atmosphere and thus finish the Earth, even though I knew that this was not possible."
These words of Manhattan Project physicist Emilio Segre, quoted by Richard Rhodes in his book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," refer to the Trinity blast on July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first atomic explosion in history and, so it appears, a turning point for all life on this planet.
The atmosphere didn't catch fire at 5:30 that morning, but Segre's words remain relevant, sort of like radioactive fallout. They encapsulate
