April 10
Are You Sure ... (April 10)
• ... that the Nth Country Experiment was an experiment conducted from 1964 to 1967 by three young physicists with no prior weapons experience to develop a working nuclear weapon design using only unclassified information with basic computational and technical support; and that, according to a heavily redacted declassified version of the summary, it was apparently judged by lab weapons experts that the team had come up with a credible design for the technically more challenging implosion style nuclear weapon; and that it is likely that the team would have been able to design a simpler gun combination weapon even more quickly, though in such a case the limiting factor in developing such a weapon is not usually design difficulty but rather the procurement of enriched uranium?
• ... that physicist and academic Giovanni Aldini (10 April 1762 – 17 January 1834) contributed to galvanism, anatomy and its medical applications, the construction and illumination of lighthouses, and the mitigation of the destructive effects of fire?
... that renowned actor Max von Sydow developed laser-beam eyes while films The Seventh Seal?
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On This Day in History and Fiction
1762: Physicist and academic Giovanni Aldini born. Aldini will contribute to galvanism, anatomy and its medical applications, the construction and illumination of lighthouses, and the mitigation of the destructive effects of fire.
1813: Mathematician and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange dies. He made significant contributions to the fields of analysis, number theory, and both classical and celestial mechanics.
1818: Lecturer John Cleves Symmes, Jr. publishes Circular No. 1, a variant of the Hollow Earth Theory, with openings to the inner world at the poles.
1928: The Pineapple Primary in Illinois, the culmination of a political campaign which was marked by numerous acts of violence, mostly in Chicago and elsewhere in Cook County. In the six months prior to the primary election, 62 bombings took place in the city, and at least two politicians were killed.
1967: End of the Nth Country Experiment, in which three recent young physicists who had just received their PhDs, though had no prior weapons experience, to develop a working nuclear weapon design using only unclassified information, and with basic computational and technical support.