Nuclear bomb: an explosive weapon with high destructive power
Many of the scientists who engaged in research on nuclear fission and fusion, including Einstein and Lise Meitner, took refuge in other countries due to Nazi persecution, but even so, they continued their research. At that time, the necessary knowledge for the construction of the nuclear bomb was already available. In the year 1941, the United States of America enters the Second World War after the bombing of Peal Harbor carried out by the Japanese. Europe was in chaos and Hitler had already invaded several countries. Through this surprise attack, the US began a top-secret operation in a laboratory located in New Mexico, to build an atomic bomb. Several scientists were invited, including Lise Meitner, but she declined.
In July 1945, the first tests for the detonation of the atomic bomb were carried out. Many who witnessed the tests knew that from that moment on, humanity would not be the same. That same year the Nazis surrendered, but the Japanese did not. In this way, US planes bombed the city of Tokyo with firebombs, killing thousands of people. In a tragic decision, President Harry Truman authorized the use of the atomic bomb on the grounds that the land invasion would kill millions of American and Japanese lives. With the authorization for the attack, on August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb – nicknamed “Little Boy” – was dropped over the skies of Hiroshima, killing thousands of civilians and even then Japan did not surrender.
It was from this war and this event that science began to receive funds for research, many of them directly from the government. If, on the one hand, nuclear fission provided the development of the atomic bomb, on the other hand, it favored the development of controlled nuclear fission, which is used in nuclear reactors and in various applications in medicine.
