90th Anniversary Issue: 1940s
The Atomic Age, elementary finds and other highlights, 1940–49
Mushroom clouds usher in atomic age
Less than three years separated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942, and the production and use of the first nuclear bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki (above). In 1946, weapons tests at Bikini Atoll — some witnessed by embedded Science News Letter reporters (7/13/46, p.