Chapter 6

Summary:
          This chapter of the book, The Disappearing Spoon, Kean continues to talk about the search of the elements. He continues to explain that a scientist, Mosley, figured out that wavelengths are connected to the protons of elements in a mathematical way. Mosley was able to find four elements, but in this era he was not believed to made such huge accomplishments. Kean goes on to tell us that when World War I started that Mosley enlisted; although he was warned, he died in the battlefield. This death caused the other scientists to go further in finding the elements that Mosley was searching for. By 1940, only one element was undiscovered and in 1942 it was discovered, but the group of scientist who found it did not bring it up until 7 years after the discovery.
          He goes on explaining that nuclear bombs used to be just a dream, but they were made a reality. Manhattan Project scientists were told to figure out how much plutonium and uranium was needed for a bomb. Both elements were hard to figure out, so wives were brought in to do the math for the scientists. Countless tests brought the scientists the answers they were looking for and thus, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were made. The uranium ore was needed in Tennessee because that was going to be nuclear facility. Speaking of bombs, Kean brought up the fact that cobalt bombs were worse than uranium bombs because cobalt bombs render the soil useless for a century.

Reflection:
          This chapter had a lot of information and I liked that it explained how women were the brains in the operation of the Manhattan Project without even knowing it. I disliked that the chapter got redundant after a while; it was constantly about bombs. On a date with bae I would bring up the fact that Cobalt bombs are way stronger than uranium bombs just so I could scare her into not dumping me for knowing about bombs.