Gavin Edwards
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Gavin Edwards
@gavindedwards.bsky.social
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Chemistry professor, Eastern Michigan University.
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gavindedwards.bsky.social
It's that time of year again.
December 21, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
Today in 1959, “Time Enough At Last” (Season 1, Episode 8) of “The Twilight Zone” was broadcast for the first time on CBS. A catastrophic nuclear war finally allows obsessive bibliophile bank teller Henry Bemis (Burgess Meredith) to read as many books as he wants without interruption, until …
A black and white screenshot from the episode showing Henry Bemis, wearing a light-colored suit and thick eyeglasses, sitting on the floor of the bank vault leaning against the safe deposit boxes and reading a book while eating his lunch. A black and white screenshot from the episode showing (from Bemis's point of view) the front page of The Daily Chronicle newspaper with a two-deck banner headline, "H-BOMB CAPABLE OF TOTAL DESTRUCTION." Below this is a sub-headline, "Noted Atomic Scientist Reveals Possibilities of H-Bomb." A color production photograph from the episode showing Henry Bemis standing, startled, amidst the rubble of the city. He wears a light-colored suit and a red tie, a light-colored dress shirt, and thick eyeglasses. The sky is a mostly covered in ominous red clouds. A black and white screenshot from the episode showing Henry Bemis sitting on the steps of the public library, looking up at the sky and smiling, the sun glinting off his thick eyeglasses. He is wearing a light-colored suit, a light-colored dress shirt, and a loosened dark tie. Behind him on the steps are multiple neat stacks of hardcover books.
November 20, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
Tonight in 1983, more than 100 million Americans saw multiple thermonuclear weapons destroy Kansas City, Missouri, in “The Day After” on ABC. A.C. Nielsen Company reported that 62 percent of television sets that night were tuned to the film. I watched in my packed college dorm lounge. How about you?
The cover of the November 21, 1983, edition of Newsweek, with the text: "TV"s Nuclear Nightmare Public Service or Propaganda? How Will It Affect Children? Below this is a color photo of a scene from the movie (oversaturated in orange and yellow) of a large mushroom cloud rising over a road and farm fields, as a young man runs toward the camera while glancing back over his left shoulder at the cloud. The cover of the November 19-25 edition of TV Guide with the text: "America is Hit 'The Day After Brings Nuclear War Horror ... and Hot Controversy" The cover is a color photo montage of a nuclear fireball, in front of which are running (toward the camera) a young boy in a striped short-sleeve shirt and dark pants and, behind him, an older man (John Cullum) in a plaid long-sleeve shirt and blue jeans.
November 20, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
At this moment in 1952 (7:14:59 AM November 1, local time), the United States tested the first true (albeit undeliverable, weighing a massive 82 tons) hydrogen bomb at Enewetak Atoll. The 10.4-Megaton MIKE explosion vaporized Elugelab Island, leaving behind a crater 1.2 miles wide and 164 feet deep.
Ivy Mike Countdown and detonation
YouTube video by atomcentral
www.youtube.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
compoundchem.com
It's #NationalPumpkinDay! 🎃

Why are pumpkins orange, and what do pumpkins have to do with pumpkin spice? Here are the chemical answers in @cenmag.bsky.social: cen.acs.org/articles/93/...

#ChemSky 🧪
Infographic on the chemistry of pumpkins. The colour of pumpkins is due to carotenoid compounds such as beta-carotene, the same compound that gives carrots their orange colour. The vegetal aroma of pumpkins is mainly due to cis-3-hexen-1-ol, along with other six-carbon alcohols and aldehydes. Canned pumpkin is often not the same type of pumpkin as those used for carving, and consequently, the aroma compounds differ, including burnt-smelling 2-methylbutanal, coffee furanone, and furfural. Pumpkin spice flavour has little to do with pumpkin and more to do with the spices added, including cinnamon, nutmeg and clove.
October 26, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
thedansimonson.bsky.social
Well, I can see how that ended up on clearance.
A large, white headboard that reads “the future is bright” in rainbow text in a font emulating a child’s handwriting. It is in an unfinished warehouse next to an emergency exit.
October 25, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
Tonight in 1962, as the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated toward direct confrontation, a sentry on patrol at Duluth Air Force Base in Minnesota thought he saw someone climbing the perimeter fence. He shot at the intruder and activated the base sabotage alarm, which by design automatically triggered ...
October 25, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
65 years ago today, the newly operational USAF Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar at Thule, Greenland, mistook the rising Moon for a huge Soviet nuclear attack—triggering a false alarm while Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was in New York City attending the UN General Assembly.
A black and white photograph showing the original BMEWS mechanical radar at Thule Air Base (now known as Pituffik Space Base) in the background while in the foreground stands a warmly dressed Inuit man on the ice and snow next to his qamutit or wooden sled, his sled dogs resting to the left.
October 5, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
fxmc1957.bsky.social
FACT OF THE DAY. 3 September 1939. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced on BBC radio at 11:15 AM that Germany had not responded to the British ultimatum to remove its troops from Poland and so “this country is at war with Germany”.
September 3, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
Today in 1983, a Soviet Su-15 interceptor shot down a Boeing 747 operating as Korean Air Lines Flight 007 en route from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage, killing 269 passengers and crew, after it accidentally strayed into restricted airspace over the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin Island.
The cover of the September 12, 1983, issue of TIME magazine, showing a brightly colored painting depicting KAL 007 exploding in the air (just the forward section of the 747 is visible) as three Soviet interceptors, one in the foreground and two in the background, fly by. The headline is, "SHOOTING TO KILL: The Soviets Destroy an Airliner." The cover of the September 12, 1983, edition of Newsweek featuring a color graphic showing a 747 in Korean Air Lines livery over a map showing Japan, North and South Korea, the eastern Soviet Union, and Alaska, with yellow targeting circles and crosshairs superimposed on the midpoint of the fuselage just above the left wing. The headline is "Special Report: Murder in the Air."
September 1, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
Today in 1962—for the second time in two months and the fourth and final time since October 1961—a US Air Force Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missile at Gioia del Colle Air Base in southeastern Italy was struck by lightning, partially activating its 1.4-Megaton W49 thermonuclear warhead.
A color map titled "Jupiter IRBM Emplacements—Gioia Del Colle Air Base, 1960-1963" adapted from a map in an official document showing the location of all the Jupiter missiles deployed at Gioia Del Colle Air Base in Italy from 1960-63 (numbered in the order in which they were activated), along with the date the missiles were activated and deactivated and the driving distance to each location from Gioia Del Colle. A low-resolution color screenshot from a declassified film (linked in the next post) showing a low-level aerial look at three Jupiter IRBMs deployed at Gioia Del Colle Air Base. A black and white photograph of a reentry vehicle containing a W49 thermonuclear warhead on a large wheeled transporter prior to being mated to a Thor missile, probably taken at a Royal Air Force base in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Three men in fatigues are working below the warhead platform, possibly raising it to the proper height to join the reentry vehicle, which resembles a smooth but slightly squashed thimble, to the missile.
August 31, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
At this instant 80 years ago (11:02 AM August 9, local time), “Fat Man”—a 21-kiloton implosion-type atomic bomb—exploded about 1,650 feet over Nagasaki, missing its intended aim point by 1.3 miles but still killing an estimated 70,000 men, women, and children and injuring some 60,000 more.
A black and white photograph of a Japanese man sitting with his back to the camera. From his neck to his waist, his back is a mass of thick keloid scars, where the intense heat from the "Fat Man" thermal pulse at the moment of detonation melted his skin. A black and white photograph by Japanese military photographer Yosuke Yamahata of an injured young woman in Nagasaki nursing her injured baby while sitting outside. The woman appears to be in shock and the baby appears to have burns on its left arm, head, and face. A black and white photograph of a horribly burned female corpse in Nagasaki lying on the ground. The skin and hair on the head is completely burned off and the mouth is wide open as if screaming or gasping. Both forearms are missing; the bones of the left forearm are visible. The skin on both legs has been burned down to the muscle and bone. A black and white photograph of the horribly charred corpse of a young child victim of the Nagasaki bombing lying on its back on the ground amidst debris from buildings, its arms clutched to its chest.
August 9, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
prchovanec.bsky.social
The astonishing thing about Watergate, in contrast to today, is how the President was actually shamed into leaving office.

Imagine that: shame.
August 8, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
iainmacgregor1.bsky.social
#OTD 6 August 1945 the world forever changed with the atomic destruction of #Hiroshima. Today there are over 12,500 nuclear warheads, with 9000+ operational. The threat is always there. Every second of the day. Remember that as we talk about what happened 80 years ago.
August 6, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
camelliakyoto.bsky.social
A watch frozen forever at 8:15am, the moment an atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima on Monday August 6th 1945.

#Hiroshima #August6th #HiroshimaPeaceMemorialMuseum #広島 #HiroshimaDay
A watch frozen forever at 8:15am, the moment an atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima in 1945.
August 6, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
Today in 1939, Albert Einstein dictated a letter to FDR (drafted by physicist Leo Szilard) alerting him to new developments in atomic energy: “A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory.”
A copy of Albert Einstein’s two-page typewritten letter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Full text available here: https://www.atomicarchive.com/resources/documents/beginnings/einstein.html
August 2, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
the crew jettisoned two of the bombs, roughly 75 and 50 miles off the coast (they planned to jettison all three but ran out of time).

Despite an extensive and secret three-month search, neither atomic bomb was ever located or recovered. The Air Force did not publicly disclose their loss until 1977.
A color photograph of a Mark-5 atomic bomb on display in an Air Force museum. The bomb, which has a flat nose and four tail fins, is painted army green and sits on a wheeled, shock-absorbing transporter. The official Department of Defense description of this accident: "Two weapons were jettisoned from a C-124 aircraft on July 28 off the east coast of the United States. There were three weapons and one nuclear capsule aboard the aircraft at the time. Nuclear components were not installed in the weapons. The C-124 aircraft was enroute from Dover AFB, Delaware when a loss of power from number one and two engines was experienced. Maximum power was applied to the remaining engines; however, level flight could not be maintained. At this point, the decision was made to jettison cargo in the interest of safety of the aircraft and crew. The first weapon was jettisoned at 4,500 feet altitude. The second weapon was jettisoned at approximately 2,500 feet altitude. No detonation occurred from either weapon. Both weapons are presumed to have been damaged from impact with the ocean surface. Both weapons are presume [sic] to have submerged almost instantly. The ocean varies in depth in the area of the jettisonings. The C-124 landed at an airfield in the vicinity of Atlantic City, New Jersey, with the remaining weapon and the nuclear capsule aboard. A search for the weapons or debris had negative results." A color photograph of a gray metal “birdcage” at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A birdcage was used to store and transport a single plutonium capsule or core for early atomic bombs (before sealed pit designs were perfected and widely deployed). The spherical capsule was kept in the pressurized and neutron-absorbing cylindrical reservoir in the center. The welded tubing surrounding the reservoir kept capsules far enough apart from each other to prevent a criticality accident (an accidental, short-lived chain reaction that, while not a full nuclear explosion, could release enough radiation to kill or seriously injure anyone nearby).
July 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
Today in 1957, a C-124A Globemaster II ferrying 3 unarmed Mark-5 atomic bombs and 1 plutonium capsule from Dover AFB, Delaware, to a base in Europe, lost power in both its port-side engines off Cape May, New Jersey, and began losing altitude. To make a safe emergency landing near Atlantic City …
A color aerial photograph of a C-124A Globemaster II US Air Force military transport aircraft in flight, as seen from its right side.
July 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
gavindedwards.bsky.social
🤘🤘🤘
July 22, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
80 years ago this morning—at 5:29 AM (Mountain War Time)—about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, the nuclear age began with a big bang. Contrary to widespread assumptions, the area surrounding the remote Trinity test site was not uninhabited, and the fallout did not drift away harmlessly.
A black and white, high-speed photograph of the Trinity explosion at 0.025 seconds, showing what looks like a very large, slightly irregular bubble with a curtain of dust all around its bottom edge against a pitch dark sky. A scale indicating “100 meters” shows that the fireball was already approximately three times that size. Another black and white photograph of the Trinity explosion a few milliseconds later, showing an almost ghostly mushroom cloud with glowing tendrils rising from the ground above the very bright fireball. Another black and white photograph of the Trinity explosion with the same 100-meter scale, this time at 60 seconds post-detonation, showing a very large and billowy mushroom cloud rising into the sky. Another black and white photograph of the Trinity explosion taken some minutes after the previous photograph and showing the ominous looking mushroom cloud at a distance, its top spreading out and merging with regular clouds.
July 16, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
normcharlatan.bsky.social
Indiana Jones will be played by a rotating cast of three adjuncts who answer to two different associate deans
July 2, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
fxmc1957.bsky.social
FACT OF THE DAY. 10 May 1941. Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, parachuted into Scotland on what he claimed was a peace mission which had not been sanctioned by Hitler. He’d flown solo for 1,000 miles from Bavaria in a Messerschmitt Bf 110. He was arrested shortly after landing and imprisoned.
May 10, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
fxmc1957.bsky.social
PERSON OF THE DAY. 10 May 1940. Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister. During the 1930s, he was widely seen as politically isolated. He took up the fight to stop Nazi Germany dominating Europe by force with determination and provided inspiration in his speeches.
May 10, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
OTD 65 yrs ago, the Soviet Union shot down a CIA U-2 reconnaissance plane over Sverdlovsk piloted by Francis Gary Powers. The Eisenhower administration initially lied to cover up the true purpose of the mission but was forced to admit the truth when the Soviets produced both Powers and the wreckage.
A color photograph of Francis Gary Powers in a pressurized flight suit and white helmet, standing next to a U-2 spy plane. A color map showing the planned route of Powers's May 1, 1960, overflight of the Soviet Union, starting in Peshawar, Pakistan, flying over Baikonur, Sverdlovsk, and Murmansk in the Soviet Union, before landing in Bodø, Norway. A red asterisk indicates the crash site near Sverdlovsk. A black and white photograph showing the captured wreckage of Powers's U-2 near Sverdlovsk. Five men in what appears to be civilian clothing are examining the cockpit area.
May 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Gavin Edwards
fxmc1957.bsky.social
FACT OF THE DAY. 2 May 1945. Soviet Red Army captured Berlin to complete a comprehensive victory in the German-Soviet War which began on 22 June 1941 with the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Capturing Berlin was, however, tainted by many rapes carried out by the Red Army.
May 2, 2025 at 8:39 AM