July 16, 2020 was the 75th anniversary of America’s (and the world’s) first Atomic Bomb. The story of how the Bomb was imagined, created, and used is fascinating and dramatic. An important part of the story is the rapid and amazing advance in understanding of the atom and its nucleus that occurred in just a few decades following the discovery of radioactivity in 1896.
A nine-hour course presents the history, the politics, the personalities, and the physics that led to the bomb’s creation and use. This course, taught by Dr. Charles H. Holbrow, Colgate University’s Charles A. Dana Professor of Physics, Emeritus, is an offering of the Lexington Community Education Program taught remotely by Zoom.
Materials for the course — homeworks, class projects, outlines — are stored here along with lightly edited video recordings of the 90-minute-long Zoom sessions.