All Comments on 'How Uri Got His Nobel Prize Pt. 01'

Just for the record, Einstein had nothing technical to do with the bomb. He contributed zip to the technical design, construction, or testing.

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Several people realized the atomic bomb potential and efforts in Germany. They felt the greatest problem was convincing the allies of the danger and getting Roosevelt to act. They concluded that Einstein's reputation was the best path to Roosevelt's attention.

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They prevailed on Einstein to write the famous letter that gave the idea of it being possible it's greatest credibility. In short, Einstein's only direct contribution was backing the idea of danger with his reputation as the great scientist of the day.

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He got Roosevelt to check out the idea with a blue ribbon committee, which persuaded the President action was required. All the ideas and all the work were by other people.

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Control of Einstein by the Russians would have made no difference (beyond his stopping his missive).

Thank you for the comment. which I agree.

Einstein was left leaning and (arguably) supportive of the USSR in principle. He was barred from the Manhattan project because of his left leaning views and Manhattan people were forbidden to talk to him.

It is feasible that Einstein would have encouraged Stalin to build a bomb in a Europe v USA war. After all the USA might bomb his (fictitiously Stalin controlled) country.

In 1938, three chemists working in a laboratory in Berlin made a discovery that would alter the course of history: they split the uranium atom. The energy released when this splitting, or fission, occurs is tremendous--enough to power a bomb.

But before such a weapon could be built, numerous technical problems had to be overcome.

When Einstein learned that the Germans might succeed in solving these problems, he wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt with his concerns. Einstein's 1939 letter helped initiate the U.S. effort to build an atomic bomb, but work proceeded slowly at first.

Two other findings in 1940 and 1941 demonstrated conclusively that the bomb was feasible and made building the bomb a top priority for the United States: the determination of the "critical mass" of uranium needed and the confirmation that plutonium could undergo fission and be used in a bomb. In December 1941, the government launched the Manhattan Project, the scientific and military undertaking to develop the bomb.