Ice cold disasters that shook the planet
The remnants of nuclear testing are not just long-lasting, but also encompassing of so many different elements. From the environmental to the ecological, and to the human impact of nuclear testing, the effects continue to ripple long after testing takes place. Between contamination (radioactive and otherwise), health issues, pollution of food and water, structural damage, and more, the consequences of nuclear testing can affect generations.
Yet, scientists have also found a way to exploit some of the consequences of nuclear testing to advance science. Curious to know more? Click through the gallery to understand the true impact.
On July 16, 1945, a ball of TNT compressed its plutonium center, resulting in a massive, nuclear explosion. This has become known as the Trinity nuclear bomb test.
The nuclear test, the first ever nuclear bomb detonation, took place in New Mexico, US. The test, overseen by J. Robert Oppenheimer, changed the course of history forever.
It is this test that set the stage for the destructive nuclear bombings that fell on Japan, ending the Second World War and creating scenes of horror in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It was following the United States' devastating attack on Japan that the world's nuclear arms race began and nuclear testing became a common task among the world's most powerful nations.
Beginning in the 1950s, the British government began conducting its own tests. In Southern Australia, primarily in Maralinga, they tested nine nuclear bombs.
One of the remnants left behind from these tests that you can view in museums or, often, by visiting the site of the explosions even today, is atomic glass (pictured is someone holding Trinitite).
Many of the testing sites are in sandy locations—if not desert, then sandy conditions within the proximity of the nuclear testing site.
When the nuclear bomb explodes, it reaches extremely high temperatures—millions of degrees Celsius, which is far higher than any industrial production of glass.
These high-temperature explosions produce atomic glass. We can think of atomic glass as a souvenir of these controversial experiments; a “material link” to history.
But glass isn't the only thing that these nuclear tests left behind. Even thousands of miles away, radioactive particles exploding into the atmosphere exposed people around the world to dangerous levels of radiation.
Primarily led by the United States and the Soviet Union, there were over 500 nuclear tests that occurred within a decade alone. These tests spread harmful radioactive material that impacted people far and wide. (Pictured is Chernobyl.)
Just in the Marshall Islands, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests (pictured is a test at Bikini Atoll). These tests were key to the development of the hydrogen bomb.
Using lithium deuteride as fuel, the first hydrogen bomb test was more powerful than scientists imagined. Appearing as “ashy snowflakes,” traces of radioactive material from this explosion were found in Japan, India, Australia, Europe, and the United States.
Human and animal life, as well as their environments and natural resources, were deeply affected. The testing completely altered entire regions, making some uninhabitable.
In fact, the remnants of nuclear testing can still be found in our cells. Scientists refer to this as the “bomb pulse” or the “bomb spike,” pointing to the chemical transformation that these tests inflicted on the atmosphere.
According to the BBC, the frequency of nuclear bomb explosions in the 1950s transformed the “carbon composition of life on Earth.” Pictured is artist Karipek Kuyukov, who suffered the effects of Soviet nuclear testing paints.
Bombs interacted with natural nitrogen and produced new isotopes, such as carbon-14. By the 1960s, the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere was nearly double that before nuclear testing began.
Carbon-14's impact on the atmosphere reached the inhabitants of deep ocean organisms, in addition to surface life, such as water and vegetation.
By 1963, three of the world's global superpowers and nuclear leaders, namely the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union, agreed to end nuclear testing due to the contamination it created by signing the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Oddly, the “mushroom cloud’s silver lining,” or rather, the fallout of the bomb spike, also provided some surprising utility for scientists.
Forensic insights, such as determining when a person was either born or died, the age of sharks, and the age of the neurons in our brains (pictured), among other factors, are all due to the bomb spike.
Since the 1950s, scientists have been using carbon-14 to understand the age of ancient remains. For example, when a Neanderthal died, the quantity of carbon-14 in their bones would begin to decrease.
By measuring the levels of carbon-14, scientists were about to determine the rate of decay, and therefore, the Neanderthal’s period of death.
This method hasn’t only been used to understand history, but also in contemporary investigations. For example, in 2004, hair samples collected from a mass grave in Ukraine allowed researchers to uncover a Nazi war crime.
In 2010, investigators used it to identify a body that was found in an Italian lake. They were able to determine that the body had been in the lake for about a year.
The bomb spike has also been used to determine our cells’ age (which have been with us since birth and which have been replaced) just by conducting a DNA analysis of carbon-14.
Some researchers are even using this to tackle the obesity epidemic. As fat cells die, they are continuously being replaced. Essentially, the number of fat cells is stable throughout adulthood.
Perhaps “manipulating the birth or death rate of fat cells,” in addition to lifestyle changes, there may be a therapeutic intervention that can diminish fat cells.
Although the effects of nuclear bombing have been absolutely devastating, scientists still have ways to exploit the remnants of its existence. From brain health to identifying the potential of a new geological era to emerge, the bomb spike has certainly impacted scientific discoveries.
Sources: (Museums Victoria) (BBC) (CNN) (Atomic Heritage Foundation)
The legacy and impact of nuclear testing
From long-lasting damage to scientific breakthroughs
LIFESTYLE War
The remnants of nuclear testing are not just long-lasting, but also encompassing of so many different elements. From the environmental to the ecological, and to the human impact of nuclear testing, the effects continue to ripple long after testing takes place. Between contamination (radioactive and otherwise), health issues, pollution of food and water, structural damage, and more, the consequences of nuclear testing can affect generations.
Yet, scientists have also found a way to exploit some of the consequences of nuclear testing to advance science. Curious to know more? Click through the gallery to understand the true impact.