Word: atomization
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...gambler at Monte Carlo or Santa Anita ever calculates the odds more cold-bloodedly than insurance companies do. After its actuaries had finished figuring, Britain's Sun Life Assurance Society announced last week that its future life policies will not cover death if caused by atom bombs. Explained the Society: "If only one atom bomb were to fall on London we would have to pay out ?750,000 [$3,000,000] to policyholders...
From Washington to the Central Pacific, the atom clans were gathering: physicists, chemists, seismologists, meteorologists, biologists, physicians, oceanographers. The chiefs of all three armed services-General Eisenhower, General Spaatz and Admiral Nimitz-were coming to their party. Ships of all types were loading in U.S. ports, or were already headed for the Marshall Islands, where Bikini, the chosen atoll, awaited Crossroads...
Captain Lyon, responsible for safety of personnel, hopes that no one will look directly at the explosion. Everybody privileged to watch, will have goggles with glass so opaque that it turns the midday sun into a pallid ghost. But the atom bomb's light can strike through it at 20 miles away, causing temporary blindness. The Captain's advice: face the other way, shut your eyes, cover your face with your arms. Then, an instant later, you may see something...
...three hours. But the bomb's hot gases, rising rapidly, might whip up a genuine thunderstorm. Then the particles would all fall much sooner, in a deluge of deadly rain. Colonel Holzman hopes to pick a day when conditions are poor for an atom-brewed thunderstorm...
...minutes, if Admiral Blandy gives the order, two Mariner flying boats, equipped with Geiger counters to measure radioactivity, will roar across the lagoon, 40 feet above the water. If they report and if their report is favorable, a pair of helicopters will flutter down to take samples of the atom-stirred water. Then six small gunboats, also with Geiger counters, will approach the dread lagoon, sampling the water and reporting by radio. Next, a swarm of 20 launches, manned by raincoated scientists, will scoot like water bugs among the stricken ships. Finally, if all pioneers report that the coast...