Weapons

Nuclear material in drums in a storage area of Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center in 1991.

How Saddam and ISIS Killed Iraqi Science

Within decades the country’s scientific infrastructure went from world-class to shambles. What happened?

To illustrate this article, artist Victoria Villasana applied colorful yarn to a photograph of Fred Rogers wearing his signature zippered cardigan.

Mister Rogers Pioneered Speaking to Kids About Gun Violence

We need the children's television icon now more than ever

Busting dams

How a British Engineer Made a Bomb That Could Bounce On Water

Seventy-five years ago, Barnes Wallis masterminded a famous World War II attack that involved skipping a bomb into German dams

When the director of DARPA heard about the blasts and their purpose, he had an immediate reaction: “Holy shit. This is dangerous.”

How Soviet Bomb Tests Paved the Way For U.S. Climate Science

The untold story of a failed Russian geoengineering scheme, panic in the Pentagon, and a Nixon-era effort to study global cooling

A gun manufacturer in Birmingham in the 19th century.

How British Gun Manufacturers Changed the Industrial World Lock, Stock and Barrel

In ‘Empire of Guns,’ historian Priya Satia explores the microcosm of firearm manufacturing through an unlikely subject—a Quaker family

View of two farmers checking the corpses of dead sheep on a farm ranch near the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

How the Death of 6,000 Sheep Spurred the American Debate on Chemical Weapons

The Dugway sheep incident of March 1968 made visible the military’s covert attempts to test and stockpile millions of dollars worth of chemical weapons

American Farm Hand by Sandor Klein, 1937

How Portraiture Gave Rise to the Glamour of Guns

American portraiture with its visual allure and pictorial storytelling made gun ownership desirable

Dodge City in 1878

Gun Control Is as Old as the Old West

Contrary to the popular imagination, bearing arms on the frontier was a heavily regulated business

A photo of David Koresh rests beside a wooden cross as part of a monument erected in Waco, Texas, by supporters of the Branch Davidian leader and founder, Friday, April 30, 1993.

The True Story of ‘Waco’ Is Still One of Contention

A new mini-series hopes to humanize those in and outside the doomed compound

The USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence-gathering ship, was patrolling international waters in January 1968 when it was captured by North Korean vessels.

Fifty Years Ago, North Korea Captured an American Ship and Nearly Started a Nuclear War

The provocative incident involving the USS Pueblo was peacefully resolved, in part because of the ongoing Vietnam War

During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F Kennedy discusses results of surveillance missions in Cuba

How the Presidency Took Control of America's Nuclear Arsenal

From Truman onwards, the ability to order a nuclear strike has shaped the office

The original Thames beater (top) compared to the replica made by a carpenter (bottom).

Researchers Whack Fake Skulls to Learn About Neolithic Weapons

Was the ‘Thames Beater’ used to kill? Four crushed model skulls say yes

An artist's rendering of the CP-1 nuclear reactor.

How the First Man-Made Nuclear Reactor Reshaped Science and Society

In December 1942, Chicago Pile-1 ushered in an age of frightening possibility

Enrico Fermi, Italian-American physicist, received the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics for identifying new elements and discovering nuclear reactions by his method of nuclear irradiation and bombardment.

Was Enrico Fermi Really the “Father of the Nuclear Age”?

A new book takes a fresh look at the famed scientist

For the first time, human beings harnessed the power of atomic fission.

The Science Behind the First Nuclear Chain Reaction, Which Ushered in the Atomic Age 75 Years Ago

That fateful discovery helped give us nuclear power reactors and the atomic bomb

President Kennedy meets with Gen. Curtis LeMay and the pilots who discovered the Cuban missiles.

JFK Faked a Cold to Get Back to Washington During the Cuban Missile Crisis

The president was in Chicago when he got the news that he needed to make a decision

A bust of the legless "bicycle girl" zombie executed by Rick Grimes in the Walking Dead pilot.

America's Undead Are Immortalized at the Smithsonian

The cast of "The Walking Dead" donates a set of perfectly macabre Halloween gifts

Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), poses at the headquarters of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), in Geneva, Switzerland.

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Wins Nobel Peace Prize

The grassroots coalition spearheaded a U.N. treaty to outlaw nuclear arms and hopes to make them taboo, like chemical weapons

Photo of the world's first atomic explosion at the Trinity Site in New Mexico.

Trinity Site Offers a Rare Chance to Visit Ground Zero of the World’s First Atomic Bomb Explosion

The detonation site is only open to civilians twice a year

Stanislav Yevgrafovich in Petrov, Friazino, on October 30, 2011.

Man Who Saved the World From Nuclear Annihilation Dies at 77

In 1983, Soviet lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov kept his cool and reported a U.S. missile strike as a false alarm, preventing a massive counterstrike

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