Last year Manhattan newspapers suddenly sprouted sensational stories about a gigantic explosion which, it seemed, had not happened simply because of good luck. Had it happened, every building in New York City and every ship at its docksnot to mention its peoplewould have vanished without a trace. A crater would have been blown in the earth 100 miles across, and the sea would have poured into this vast pit from southern Connecticut halfway to Philadelphia. Cause of this might-have-been catastrophe: some well-intentioned physicists at Columbia University who were cracking uranium atoms with neutrons as contentedly as small boys crack nuts.
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