The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is a phrase typically used to delineate the period of history following the detonation of the first atomic bomb, Trinity, on July 16, 1945. Although nuclear science existed before this event, the following bombing of Hiroshima, Japan represented the first large-scale, use of nuclear technology and ushered in profound changes in socio-political thinking and the course of technology development. Atomic power was seen to be the epitome of progress and modernity.
However, the Atomic Age fell far short of what was promised because nuclear technology has produced a range of social problems, from the arms race, to the Chernobyl disaster and Three Mile Island accident, and the unresolved difficulties of bomb plant cleanup and civilian plant waste disposal and decommissioning.
Read more about Atomic Age: Early Years, Atomic Vs. Nuclear, World War II, 1950s, 1960s, 1970 To 2000, After 2000, The Atomic Age in Pop Culture
Famous quotes containing the words atomic age, atomic and/or age:
“When man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world. What we eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict.”
—Ted Sherdeman. Gordon Douglas. Dr. Medford (Edmund Gwenn)
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Not in vain is Ireland pouring itself all over the earth. Divine Providence has a mission for her children to fulfill; though a mission unrecognized by political economists. There is ever a moral balance preserved in the universe, like the vibrations of the pendulum. The Irish, with their glowing hearts and reverent credulity, are needed in this cold age of intellect and skepticism.”
—Lydia M. Child (1802–1880)