THE DEVELOPMENT of the hydrogen bomb was swift. In November 1952 in the South Pacific's Eniwetok Atoll, the US discharged a prototype thermonuclear device that was hundreds of times more powerful than the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Then 10 months later, the Soviets exploded a bomb that was as powerful and more sophisticated than the US bomb. Subsequently, on 1 March 1954, the Americans detonated a hydrogen bomb more than double the power of their first one. When the dust cleared, a crater 2000m in diameter replaced two South Pacific islands and part of a third. US President Dwight Eisenhower would soon observe, "Humanity has now achieved, for the first time in its history, the power to end its history."
To read the full version of this article - and the rest of the April issue of Physics World - please subscribe to our print edition.