in alamogordo, new mexico, on july 16, 1945

we waited until the blast had passed, walked out of the shelter and then it was extremely solemn... if the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky that would be like the splendor of the mighty one... the optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds and the pessimist knows it. -j. robert oppenheimer we were lying there, very tense, in the early dawn, and there were just a few streaks of gold in the east; you could see your neighbor very dimly. those ten seconds were the