In a darkened grade-school auditorium in Miamisburg, Ohio, parents and pupils sat on the edge of their seats. On the stage, a white ping-pong ball, shot from a gun, struck a cluster of red and green balls. Lights flashed and the cluster split in two. At the drop of another ball, scores of other fluorescent ping-pong balls started dancing and popping around in a cage. In this entertaining way, the Monsanto Chemical Co., which ran atomic research at the Clinton Laboratories at Oak Ridge until early this year, demonstrated the principles of atomic fission and a chain reaction to...
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