Who was that guy who stopped a nuclear blast by bare hands?

[rc5]

I remember that's a Canadian Nuclear Scientist

Anyone happens to know his name?

 

[Czar]

Sto Pe Dblast probably

 

[Pastfinder]

R.I. Peace?

 

[Carbo]

Superman!

 

[MrBond]

He'd have almost surly had to disarm the thing. It's not like you can throw yourself over the bomb and abosorb all the radiation. It'd carbonize you in an instant

 

[snakesnfrogs]

LMAO @ Czar

 

[virtuamike]

All those poor little soldiers, fried before their time

 

[Viper Frag]

Duke Nukem




Viper-Frag

 

[Locutus of Board]

Vaporized?

 

[Kntx]

It's true, some guy did it. I remember something like that from history class oh so long ago.

 

[Killbat]

Uh, wasn't it a neutron bomb? Doesn't mean he was OK, but it wasn't a nuclear explosion like we usually think of it.

 

[etech]

Louis Alexander Slotin

Selfless Hero of the Manhattan Project
While he was demonstrating the perilous techniques of the assembly to his successor, an accident occurred. Instantly a blue glow, stronger than the spring sunshine, filled the laboratory. There was a wave of unbearable heat. Some present experienced a dry, prickly sensation on their tongues ? a sign of excessive radiation. Immediately Slotin threw himself forward, separating the two hemispheres with his bare hands. The chain reaction ended; the blue glow was gone; the unbearable heat subsided. It was 3:23 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, May 21, 1946. And Louis Slotin had begun to die traumatically.

Please read the whole story of this brave man.

 

[Czar]

http://www.nuclearfiles.org/bios/p_t/slotkinlouis.html

More about it.

Louis Slotkin

Louis Slotkin was a scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project. In 1946, he performed a risky experiment, called "tickling the dragon's tail," in which two globes of plutonium are brought together until separated only by a screwdriver. In this instance, the globes touched and set off a nuclear chain reaction filling the room with harmful radiation. Slotkin pushed the globes apart with his bare hands to stop the reaction. In doing so, he saved seven other co-workers in the room. By separating the globes, Slotkin subjected himself to a lethal dose of the radiation. Within a week he died an excruciating death.

 

[ChrichtonsGirl]

Wow. I keep trying to think of something to say about someone who'd conduct a dangerous experiment like that and then something about someone who was so amazingly selfless to essentially give his life to save his co-workers, but nothing intelligent comes to mind. I just keep thinking, "wow."


It's amazing how far nuclear technology has come in 55 years.

 

[Monel Funkawitz]

beryllium sphere - Check
screwdriver - Check
meter thingy - Check
clicking thingy - Check
firework fuse - Check


Anyone have any plutonium?

 

[raven82]

and all that for just trying to have some fireworks for the 4th.

 

[Jamestl]

Wasn't he the dude that was portrayed in that movie "fat boy little man" or something?

 

[Russ]

<< someone who was so amazingly selfless to essentially give his life to save his co-workers >>



ChrichtonsGirl,

He was going to die anyway if the chain reaction was allowed to continue; unless he also possessed Warp Drive capabilities in order to get his ass far enough away from the explosion.

Russ, NCNE

 

[flood]

dont listen to me, im stupid.

 

[RedFox1]

I remember seeing a dramatized documentary about this on TV; it was a few years ago but it was very interesting. As someone wrote earlier, I think it was called &quot;Fat Man, Little Boy&quot;.

-RedFox1

 

[adams]

That's very intense... He stopped a nuclear chain reaction with his bare hands. Pretty frightening situation...

 

[GL]

LOL @ Russ. Didn't think of it that way. But hey, he saved the lives of the others by choosing a much more excruciating way to die than simply letting the nuclear reaction continue and kill him instantly.

 

[Amused]

<< Wasn't he the dude that was portrayed in that movie &quot;fat boy little man&quot; or something? >>



Well, kinda. The actual accident happened after WWII. In the movie, the incident was portrayed as happening before the first trinity test and before the end of the war. Also, the chractor played by John Cusack (Michael Merriman) was fictional in nature and used as a narrative.

BTW, if anyone thinks Fat Man and Little Boy is an objective documetary, they've been hoodwinked.

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

why didn't anyone euthanize him? the least they could do for him saving their asses.