One of the crazier stories to have emerged out of the history of atomic weapons research is that of the fate of Louis Slotin, one of the physicists behind the Manhattan Project. Slotin engaged in what was known as “tickling the dragon’s tail”, which referred to ‘tickling’ the exposed, 14-pound plutonium core of an atomic bomb with beryllium reflector half-spheres positioned around the core. The half-spheres were to be kept apart at all costs, because if they fully enclosed the plutonium, it would trigger the nuclear chain reaction. This insane experiment was performed to take measurements of criticality of the core relative to the position of the beryllium. Slotin himself used only a flat-head screwdriver to hold the two half-spheres apart, meaning that the screwdriver was all that stood in the way of the plutonium melting down. On May 21st, 1946, Slotin’s screwdriver slipped, and, so the story goes, blue light flooded the room, which also contained seven other observers. Slotin had the presence of mind to push the half-sphere off, halting the meltdown. But he had been hit with a fatal dose of neutron radiation, and died nine days later. This now-defunct practice is one of the strangest episodes in history, but also fascinating, if for nothing else than an example of the consequences of the vaunting arrogance that can infect scientific minds.
I bring this up because for the past three months our leaders have been tickling the dragon’s tail of a civilizational collapse, only the screw slipped long ago. The situation has reached critical mass. Over 40 million unemployed, over 100,000 small businesses permanently closed, inflation on the horizon followed by over a decade of economic and societal pain. And yet those that caused this man-made catastrophe aren’t the ones that will feel the pain. The pain always falls to the most vulnerable in society, everyone living at the margins and who are now underwater. The protests and riots are a consequence of the destruction wrought by locking down a complex and interwoven economy. George Floyd’s death just happened to be the spark that ignited the saw dust that has been accumulating for months. The leaders that forced lock-downs on us didn’t heed the warnings of the inevitable, irreversible consequences. And now millions of the poor, and of course minorities, will suffer disproportionately. Was it worth it?
