| we waited until the blast had passed, walked out of the shelter and then it was extremely solemn... if the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky that would be like the splendor of the mighty one... the optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds and the pessimist knows it. -j. robert oppenheimer we were lying there, very tense, in the early dawn, and there were just a few streaks of gold in the east; you could see your neighbor very dimly. those ten seconds were the longest ten seconds that i ever experienced. suddenly, there was an enormous flash of light , the brightest light i have ever seen or that i think anyone has ever seen. it blasted; it pounced; it bored its way right through you. it was a vision which was seen with more than the eye. it was seen to last forever. you would wish it to stop; altogether it lasted about two seconds. finally it was over, diminishing, and we looked toward the place where the bomb had been; there was an enormous ball of fire which grew and grew and it rolled as it grew; it went up into the air, in yellow flashes and into scarlet and green. it looked menacing. it seemed to come toward one. a new thing had just been born... -isidor rabi at the instant of the explosion i was looking directly at it, with no eye protection of any kind...the grandeur and magnitude of the phenomenon were completely breath-taking. -robert serber we wore welder's glasses. the thing that got me was not the flash but the ... |
