[FPSPACE] Speaking of alternate histories...

[DwayneDay]

-----Original Message-----
From: LARRY KLAES <ljk4 at msn.com>
Sent: Jun 2, 2005 12:54 PM

Physics World, June 2005

http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/18/6/3/1

Controversial new historical evidence suggests that German physicists built 
and
tested a nuclear bomb during the Second World War. Rainer Karlsch and Mark
Walker outline the findings and present a previously unpublished diagram of 
a
German nuclear weapon

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the American nuclear attack on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bombs that were 
dropped on
Japan in August 1945 were the fruit of a herculean wartime effort by the

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There's some problems with these claims.  That's discussed here:

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/index.php?id=620

There's some question about the provenance of the reports that were "found."  One has to be careful about this stuff.  Does anybody remember Hitler's diaries?  And from what I see at the link, it appears as if these documents _might_ have been based upon the official American history of the Manhattan Project that was produced _after_ the war, meaning that the documents are not WWII.  What they are?  Dunno.

Also, the fact that the Germans were doodling about atomic bombs in early 1945 is not that surprising.  The basic concept was not all that secret.  As various histories of the atomic bomb project noted, there were a lot of careful calculations that had to be perfected.  The Germans could have sketched a bomb, but that doesn't mean that they were anywhere near developing one.



DDAY