Source: BBC
Security & Justice
State Action Signals Change in Tackling Longstanding Illegal Land Grabs in Jbeil District
For years, the serene villages of Jbeil's highlands have been far from peaceful. Ghabat, a Maronite village nestled between the predominantly Shiite towns of Afqa and Lassa, has become a focal point of growing tensions due to territorial disputes.
Friday, December 20, 2024
Mawlawi Ensures Strict Monitoring for Wanted Syrian Regime Figures at Beirut Airport
Caretaker Minister of Interior, Bassam Mawlawi, conducted an inspection tour of Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut to review the security arrangements and measures implemented by the Airport Security Apparatus ahead of the holiday season.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Opinion
Lebanon After the Assads
The United States has important equities in Lebanon, including a desire for a generally friendly government’s economic and political stability; security cooperation; long-standing relations with the large Christian community in Lebanon and Lebanese diaspora in the United States; and ultimately peace between Israel and Lebanon within a broader regional settlement. Achieving these objectives will require navigating a tumultuous period in the country’s history following a war between Hezbollah and Israel that has devastated a large part of the country, exacerbating Lebanon’s already challenging economic conditions. But perhaps the most important dynamic will be how a likely Sunni-dominated state of uncertain composition in Syria will differ in its intentions toward Lebanon from the previous Alawite-led minoritarian Assad regime.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Europe’s Syrian Dilemma
The news of the sudden and unexpected demise of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has met a mixed response in Europe. The jubilation that a murderous dictator and close ally of Russia and Iran has fallen is not just good for the Syrian people but serves as a morale booster for Eastern Europeans wondering whether Russia can be defeated
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Sports
Cristiano Ronaldo Unveils New Private Jet Worth $73 Million
Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the richest global athletes, has unveiled his upgraded private jet reportedly worth $73 million. With its top-notch design, exceptional speed and range of 7500 nautical miles, the Gulfstream G650 is among the fastest jets in the world.
Monday, December 16, 2024
Guardiola Accepts Man City May Need to Sign More Players to Cope with Schedule
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes he will need a bigger squad to handle soccer’s ever-expanding fixture schedule.
Saturday, December 14, 2024
Wednesday 7 August 2024 13:35:26
'It Was the One Great Mistake in My life': The Letter from Einstein that Ushered in the Age of the Atomic Bomb
On 2 August 1939, Albert Einstein wrote to the US President Franklin D Roosevelt. His letter would result in the Manhattan Project, and one of history's most significant – and destructive – inventions.
The dramatic account of the lethal harnessing of atomic power told in the 2023 blockbuster film Oppenheimer might have been nothing more than science fiction had a two-page letter, dated 2 August 1939, never been written.
"Recent work in nuclear physics made it probable that uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy," reads a typed letter to US President Franklin D Roosevelt signed by hand by the esteemed physicist Albert Einstein. This energy, he continues, could be used "for the construction of extremely powerful bombs".
Expressing suspicion at Germany's decision to halt uranium sales in occupied Czechoslovakia, the letter was the impetus for a $2 billion top-secret research programme, the "Manhattan Project": a race to beat Germany in the development of atomic weapons. The three-year project, led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer, would propel the US into the nuclear age and lead to one of history's most significant – and destructive – inventions: the atomic bomb.
On 10 September 2024, Einstein's consequential and carefully worded letter will be auctioned at Christie's New York, and is expected to fetch in excess of $4m. Two versions of the letter were drafted: a shorter version, being auctioned by Christie's, and a more detailed version, delivered to the White House by hand, and now in the permanent collection of the Franklin D Roosevelt Library in New York.
"In so many ways, this letter marks a key inflection point in the history of science, technology and humanity," Peter Klarnet, senior specialist for Americana, books and manuscripts at Christie's, tells the BBC. "This is really the first time that the United States government becomes directly financially involved in major scientific research," he adds. "The letter set the ball rolling to allow the United States to take full advantage of the technological transformations that were taking place."
Dr Bryn Willcock, the programme director for the Department of Politics, Philosophy, and International Relations at Swansea University and a lecturer and researcher in American and Nuclear History, agrees. "Most historical accounts of the origins of the bomb begin with a discussion of the letter," he tells the BBC. "The letter's contents were key to getting direct action from President Roosevelt," he says, emphasising that "the Atomic Heritage Foundation goes as far as to describe the letter… as 'vital' in pushing Roosevelt into undertaking atomic research."
The award-winning film Oppenheimer, which is based on the story of the Manhattan Project and references the letter in a scene between Oppenheimer and physicist Ernest Lawrence, is expected to fuel additional interest in the auction. "This [letter] is something that has been part of the popular culture from 1945 onwards, so it already has a firm place, but I think the Oppenheimer movie brought it now to a new generation," says Klarnet.
Klarnet describes Einstein as "a mythical character" in popular culture. He certainly has that quality in Oppenheimer, lurking at the film's periphery, like a cameo role we eagerly await, his identity only revealed when his hat flies off and exposes that famous shock of white hair.
Though Einstein's equation E = mc2 explained the energy released in a nuclear reaction and paved the way for its sinister application, his role in the forging of an atomic bomb is perhaps overstated in the film. The poignant exchange between Oppenheimer and Einstein in the closing scene (Oppenheimer: "When I came to you with those calculations, we thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world...") is "nonsense", says Klarnet.
Einstein, whose left-leaning views and German heritage surrounded him with suspicion, "did not have the security clearance for that", he says. In fact, the avowed pacifist distanced himself from the project and always insisted that his part in the release of atomic energy was "quite indirect".
If anyone was the instigator it was Leo Szilard, a former student of Einstein's. The letter, with Szilard's pencilled note "Original not sent!", would remain in Szilard's possession until his death in 1964. Both the German-born Einstein and the Hungarian-born Szilard were Jews who had fled to the US following the rise of Nazism and understood, better than anybody, the threat that Germany posed.
The letter was Szilard's idea but he was dogged in his pursuit of Einstein to author and sign it. Einstein conferred considerable authority and, on winning the Nobel Prize in 1921, became "the personification of modern science", says Klarnet. "He has an influence that no one else does. Other people apparently did try to warn Roosevelt about what was going on in the months leading up to this, but all of a sudden, you're walking in the door with a letter from Albert Einstein saying that you should do this – that makes an impression."
On 16 July 1945, security-cleared spectators shielded their eyes with goggles as a prototype of the bomb, known as "the gadget", was successfully detonated in a New Mexico desert. The result was met with both triumph and trepidation. On this day, US President Harry S Truman wrote in his diary: "we have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world".
