Veritasium - 2020-09-16
Kodak detected the first atomic bomb before anyone else figured it out. Then they made a deal not to tell anyone. Thanks to HBO Max, and their new show raised by Wolves for sponsoring this video! https://rb.gy/alghwn Thanks to Uranium: Twisting the Dragon's Tail for the opening clip: https://www.pbs.org/show/uranium-twisting-dragons-tail/ References: Albuquerque Tribune Bulletin, July 16, 1945 – https://www.marshallfoundation.org/library/documents/albuquerque-tribune-bulletin-16-july-1945/ Webb, J. H. (1949). The fogging of photographic film by radioactive contaminants in cardboard packaging materials. Physical Review, 76(3), 375. Julian Webb at Oak Ridge – Snavely, B. B. (1989). Julian H. Webb. PhT, 42(7), 87.https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/1.2811100 Radium in watch dials – https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radioactivity-antiques A 1958 video about how Kodak film is made, noting the careful monitoring of radioactive contaminants – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qjBJOFImaU&t=597s&ab_channel=OwenMorgan Radioactive fallout in 1951 - https://www.nytimes.com/1951/02/03/archives/increased-radiation-found-in-east-laid-to-atom-tests-held-harmless.html?searchResultPosition=20 1998 senate hearing – https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-105shrg44045/html/CHRG-105shrg44045.htm Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 1999. Exposure of the American People to Iodine-131 from Nevada Nuclear-Bomb Tests: Review of the National Cancer Institute Report and Public Health Implications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/6283. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/i131-report-and-appendix Baby Teeth Survey – Reiss, L. Z. (1961). Strontium-90 absorption by deciduous teeth. Science, 134(3491), 1669-1673. Strontium 90 and Cancer rates – Gould, J. M., Sternglass, E. J., Sherman, J. D., Brown, J., McDonnell, W., & Mangano, J. J. (2000). Strontium-90 in deciduous teeth as a factor in early childhood cancer. International Journal of Health Services, 30(3), 515-539. Wine forensics – Hubert, P., Perrot, F., Gaye, J., Médina, B., & Pravikoff, M. S. (2009). Radioactivity measurements applied to the dating and authentication of old wines. Comptes Rendus Physique, 10(7), 622–629. doi:10.1016/j.crhy.2009.08.007 Strontium 90 in forensics – Maclaughlin-Black, S. M., Herd, R. J., Willson, K., Myers, M., & West, I. E. (1992). Strontium-90 as an indicator of time since death: a pilot investigation. Forensic science international, 57(1), 51-56. Research and Writing by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, and Jonny Hyman Filmed and edited by Derek Muller Animations by Iván Tello and Jonny Hyman Music by Jonny Hyman Additional Music from: Epidemic Sound https://epidemicsound.com "Seaweed" Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.com "Lightless dawn" Craig Conrad https://www.craigconard.com/royaltyfree "ASTRAL"
Oh I get it...How Kodak "exposed" the atomic bomb. Clever.
When I first saw the title, I was thinking it was about how they were able to take film and pictures of the test blasts, but nope. Still a good video
@0minis who tf is kodak blacu 😂
@Zer0 Bankoe lmaooooooooo I thought I was the only one
@CopaPianist I actually knot Kodak BLACK was exposing a conspiracy on the Atomic Bomb 😂
wrrrr
I’m a thyroid cancer survivor who was born in 1954 on a dairy farm and drank raw milk ever day. The Ozarks region is in the area of highest exposure. I’ve wondered what caused it and I believe this video has the answer. I lost half my voice box to the cancer surgery.
That sucks man glad you got the other half tho
Sue !?
I'm surprised no one has used this as a premise for a sci-fi time travel story. Device that detects fellow time travelers by their strontium-90 level.
@Jackspedicy well anywhere that there was nuclear tests so Russia to
That's why only Americans and American steel has traces of raditation right?
"Time Travel was never possible, that is, until massive amounts of Stronium-90 were seeded all over the continental united states in the time around 1950-1960, but thanks to thousands of tests by the then-United states of America, we can freely hope to and fro without much effort, although I'm to too sure about causality, it's never been safer, while jumping to past eras is like jumping off a cliff blindfolded, you might land in many of the pools, or you might hit solid ground"
You could have the explanation that they're detecting Strontium-90 through time and that's how they get the 4th Dimensional coordinates that also likely use the quantum entanglement features of those isotopes, it found in this sci-fi future that quantum entaglement works across time as well as space.
this is genius, tell hawkins about it
You could probably use lead and mercury too.
My grandmother was a secretary for a general in the 1940’s. She witnessed Trinity in person as well as a test in the Pacific a year later. She gave birth to my mother just over a month prior to Trinity. My grandmother died from cancer at the age 41. My mother developed cancer in her early 40s as well.
Cancer is so cancerous
@The Evil Glitch Right. It didn't fund the Wuhanstitute of Flying Mammals. It never spreadsdisinformation!
@Matthew Elvey I was being sarcastic. I don't trust America at all. lol
You’re next then get ready gl
@Ascalonic Studio that is a cruel thing to say. would you like to die from cancer at 41? or your kid?
I love how the map just stops at the Canadian border. As someone who grew up in Saskatchewan I'm very glad that the fallout respected the border 😬
@deedash I'm sure I've seen a South Park episode about this lol
@Staggeredgore99 I don't think the amount of radio active fallout poses much of a health risk these days as the half lives of the radioactive isotopes that were created in the blasts have been and gone, but it is still detectable and higher than the naturally occurring radiation. I'm not an expert though so I may be wrong
bruh, they prolly just didn’t collect data in canada
Lmao
wrg,idts
“I can’t come into work today”
Boss: “why?”
“My strontium levels are too high today”
It's ok, come 29 years later
"Did you take your aluminum pill today?"
@JonatasAdoM More like, did you sniff your coke today? We'll find your replacement in a week so just make sure you live until then
As a child in Calgary I noted an article in Time or News Week that gave a map of the radio active fallout plumes from Soviet tests in the Arctic island of Nova Zemla. It also left out any data for Canada. It interestingly showed high levels in Alaska (no surprise) and about 1/2 the level in Montana. Note this pattern flowed into the Yukon and Northwest Territories then turned south along the East front of the Rocky Mountains toward Montana while spreading out Eastwards. My conclusion as an 8 year old was infuriation that the Canadian Goverment in Ottawa was lying to us in Alberta and the milk I was drinking was contaminated. In 1960 at age 10 I moved to Brisbane Queensland so I was only further contaminated in a much much lesser way by a very few French tests in the South Pacific which had to travel around 5/6ths of the
planet to reach our Queensland coastal pastures. The map from this video shows that I was also exposed to flow North along the Rocky Mountain Front of contamination from U.S. tests in the 50s
Well fingers crossed -- so far -- cancer free in my 72nd winter.
Let's hope you keep it up and get to your 73rd, and many winters after that!
Keeping radioactive nuclear fallout a secret from the public in order to protect the interests of large corporations has to be the most American thing I've ever heard.
EDIT: Since I've gotten a few replies about it, I do want to point out that yes, I'm aware that this doesn't really represent the situation accurately. I just thought it was funny, that's all.
@Max Robley nice word "national interest"? Is this interest about dying of cancer?
Behaviour not quite different from USSR where noone cares about people, but only about stupid competiton with USA
@Ilya Karuseichyk I’m not saying I agree with it. I’m simply stating that it was not kept a secret to protect the interests of private companies, but rather the interests of the US.
@Max Robley That's sound more true. "National interest" sound like interest of the people
@Ilya Karuseichyk National interest is the interests of a nation. I think you're just confused about the interest of the public/people. Ngl I would be too.
@Neil gelinas It's not just about the gov as a whole, this is more about parts of the government that have been assigned secrecy through a massive lie, so no one can check them and make sure they don't do anything illegal, which will definitely mean that they are going to take illegal actions. The NSA is an exact example of that in modern times. The gov in terms of courts and the supreme court who's meant to keep them in check probably knows about it since they haven't conducted a proper investigation even though they have already been under trial.
Thank you very much for your very much appreciated work and for having the courage to bring these important things to the attention of the general public
I also want to mention the low-background steel. As modern steel is processed using atmospheric air, any steel produced after the testing has significant amount of contamination from radionuclides. However, steel made before Trinity doesn't and therefore has got an application in radiation sensitive equipments such as Geiger counters. This type of steel is usually salvaged from ships that sunk before 1945. There is a Wikipedia article about this with some references at the bottom, and you can probably find more info on the internet.
@Eric The Epic lol
More oil naturally seeps through cracks in the ocean floor bed in a day than 10,000 sunken ships
Get over it
@Ethereal Rose This comment is pretty confusing, because you talk like you disagree with me, but you actually agree with me. Also doubly confusing is that I was in a reply thread like a week or two ago that was also about sunken ships, fuel oil, and desecrating graves, and... wow. Exact same conversation. Genuinely thought this was from that thread.
@Brian McCall as i understand it, there is no positive Karma. All Karma is negative. Certain deeds cam absolve Karma, but are not Karma in a strict sense. Karma is not consequence, as is commonly understood.
@Ethereal Rose sooo...I could build some houses...maybe on your families' graves? The trenching should break them up too badly. I got news for you. I care. Those people could have been someone's grandfather but they died, so you wouldn't have to...ya know what, forget it. Or watch Man in the High Castle to see what our lives might have been.
Leaned about this last year. Aliens are gonna laugh at us. Like, you idiots, didn't you realize what you were doing to the planet and yourselves.
This is great! The animation, voice-overs, and information are all spot on.
The chemistry and physics knowledge that Kodak had acquired over the years is phenomenal. When digital cameras arrived, I always though that the Kodak built sensors produced the best color.
Great video, and I have tried to make them so realize just how hard it is. Content is king and this one really moved me, thank you for doing this and all of your work is terrific!
Fantastic video. The information is densely packed and flows very well. I wish all such informational videos were this efficient. Thanks !
"The government protected rolls of film, but not the lives of our kids. There's something wrong with this picture."
I see what he did there.
More money in film than children
@Bill we used to have a good laugh about
Nuke drills in elementary school..crouch under your desk with your head between your legs and cover your head..why cover your head? Because you can survive without arms and legs but not the head.we joked about tucking in and kissing your add good bye...😠🙏
@Madiba Brock I think you missed the picture.
Look at this Graph .. Stares Intensely
@bissett tom the true evil owns the US and every other government. Think bigger
The information/content is absolutely awesome. Thank you Veritasium and team. A real learning curve on dangerous right there...
Thanks for the history lesson here. (I hail from “Kodak country” in Rochester, NY, USA 🙂.) Also, thank you so much for pointing out the recklessness of the government in not protecting its population from the tests. I do think you give the US government too much credit in not understanding the danger.
The Trinity test sight in my homestate, NM, is periodically open to tourists. It is said to be near Alamogordo(over a hour away) despite the NM town, Carrizozo being right next to it. Locals alive at the time described the atomic detonation as a rising sun.
I just love the resourcefulness of humans.
Goes to war -> creates tons of new technologies.
Nukes self -> Figures out how to use the radiation for detecting forgeries, murders etc. That's just amazing!
“The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.” ― Carl Sagan
@0Clewi0 That was a soviet submariner and its a true story
@Sil Marillian ESPECIALLY insane. AND, yah, ESPECIALLY stupid.
This comment has aged well
wrrrr
@Vivi Joe Indeed it has hello from Australia
Thank you for the exposure, no pun intended. Always very appreciative of your content. Keep up the great work.
Extremely fascinating. An uncle on my wife's side of the family was a chemist at Los Alamos during the war. He witnessed the trinity blast. After the war, he went on to work at Kodak for thirty plus years. Too bad he is no longer living, would love to have shared this with him.
I know this is an old video but I'm still relevant damnit! Back in 2011 a month or two after the Fukushima Nuclear disaster my Health Physics advisor and myself gathered rain water samples and ran them through our school's HPGE detector in Pennsylvania. We found significantly greater levels of I-131 in the rain water( I cannot remember the exact values). This was a direct result of the powerplant disaster. Our data was verified when a Berkeley, CA study was conducted and found even greater levels in their rain water. This was due to them being closer to Japan. Plume dispersion of radioactive fallout travels the globe.
7:00 The US government, agreeing to provide Kodak, with advance warning of upcoming nuclear tests, answers a question that has circulated within our family for decades. My paternal grandfather worked at Kodak, in Toronto, Ontario, for over 40 years, retiring in 1967. Although the tests were officially secret, Kodak Canada somehow received notice of impending blasts. The workers were instructed to place large sheets of lead over the sheets of photographic X-ray film. The film was protected, by this means. If the lead sheets were not placed, the radiation would get trapped in the morning dew, on the roof of the Kodak factory, and then pass through six concrete floors and damage the film. If this process was not followed, the film had to be discarded.
My dad grew up in southern New Mexico, and was up doing chores that morning. He thought the sun was coming up early since the whole eastern skyline lit up. Later he learned that it was an ammunition dump explosion... Later learned that it was the Atomic bomb.
@sauercrowder I was in the crater, I went there on one of the the open house days, there are still radiation signs around.
@Edgars Godjuks did you just say that? Since you embrace that concept, you will get your fair share when you get the v@ccine. Secrecy baby, and no need for people like you to have unwarranted panic. LOL
@Temporal Paradox sometimes YouTube will glitch and post your replies twice. It’s happened to me a few times, and I’ve seen it a lot.
@Edgars Godjuks What a dumb argument. This isn't an accident that couldn't have been prevented. This was done in top secret because they knew very well what they were doing would have been strongly opposed by the people. If people would have known the truth, they wouldn't have let it go on.
@Dan lol the gov has poisoned and killed more people directly and on purpose and they did not receive a dime. Now go do as your told.
Pick up that can, citizen.
Didn’t Kodak operate a facility in downtown Rochester that used radioactive elements for improving optical glass? I remember something about that coming out a few years ago. I wonder how much they polluted with chemicals and other things over the decades
Dam never knew Kodak black was such an entrepreneur in the advancements of technology
This was kodak white
i thought it was talking about kodak black at first
If Cerium 141 could only be made in a nuclear fission reaction, then how was it well characterised enough that the person at Kodak could identify it? It had to have been a well known isotope
They probably knew such an element could be created in the process, and with a good model, they could have figured out roughly what it's properties were. Mandeleiev predicted multiple elements and their properties that way before they were even discovered.
Well done! And very maddening. I was born in 1960 in the midwest. At the peak of nuclear testing... and downwind. Many in my generation are getting cancer. I wonder why....
All the 2 headed rabbits Iv'e seen living in Nevada make so much sense now.
Meanwhile, 0 headed deers in Chernobyl: pathetic
@dirty pure they could've cared more about safetey. When they do not know much about it, just treat it as if it's dangerous and be careful from the start and act according to what was advised, ie testing in the East coast, but they chose convenience over proposed safetey. It's really naïve to treat something with unknown properties with such carelessness.
I've seen some abnormal large ones but not two headed lol
somewhere in Nevada...
Or cows if u trapped yourself in the universe of fallout 76
I find your channel very interesting and easy to share. one thing I have debated with some friends over the years, was their belief the atomic bomb was just tnt and it always has been. on TV and any test video footage etc, just more tnt... they argue that the physics and manipulation of matter could potentially be done in a stable environment but would always fail because mans ability to contain and control 100% of the result, and then, dropping it from a plane just silly...and they believe that was TNT too.
what would you say to them that is empirical proof? invisible fire not enough?
i am really into understanding quantum,time,dimensional awareness and science we can debate.
Isn’t it strange how the map representing the radioactive fallout, shows that it abruptly stops at the northern border with Canada… how smart that fallout is to know that it was from the US and shouldn’t impact other countries…
I thought this was going to be about how the Kodak company developed film capable of high density light exposure from blasts. Joke's on me, instead found out I've got the remnants of nuclear tests from decades ago.😂
Yah, the title is misleading for the sake of a pun. I’m so conflicted.
Oh, my wife's first cousin who graduated high school in ~ 1968 did his senior science project on Kodak film. He found a "mistake" in their film and development process. Kodak sent him to Harvard on full scholarship. Harvard Med School was next and he became a cardiologist - but not JUST a cardiologist. He founded a company producing next generation blood thinners and sold it for $200 Million. He rolled that into founding another company and sold it two years later for $350 million. He's now the chief of cardiology in a large west coast hospital. And, yep, he still has his southern drawl and an "aw shucks" laid back personality.
I like how the US government was just like “yeah, we understand the whole ‘safety,’ ‘health,’ and ‘death’ thing, but if we put it here we can make weapon advancements faster. And that’s more important”
@J C Is that the best you can do? You think you can be taken seriously with replies like that? It only shows you have no education on the subject. I'd love to know your credentials.
@ThunderAppeal u good bro?
@ruff xm japan hasnt given half of their own population cancer, so maybe i would. youre also ignoring the fact that they blatantly disregarded safety advice from their own nuclear commission that led to the fallout being as bad as it was. but yeah, keep supporting america because america told you that america is good and had freedom(despite many amricans not having rights or freedom at that period in time, but of course that doesnt matter because america good)
@AtlasNL What's the matter big mouth? Can't answer? Moved on to a new topic - maybe roblox or something?
no such thin gas importanx or etc or not
Alpha (a Helium Nucleus) emmiters have to be virtually on top of their targets to register. Beta have a greater range (electrons.) The Cesium fallout is interesting because you'd think there'd be more contamination from Gamma. - Ex Army Chemical Corps
This was a very educational video. Thank you for making it
I am so intrigued by the detailed explanation Derek. Thanks!
That last tidbit was quite possibly the most horrific thing I've heard. I get it won't hurt me, but nuclear weapons are able to change us for generations and people still think they are just big bombs .
As a biologist and just watching the video I think we should be jealous of the organism called Deinococcus radiodurans. This bacterium is able to completely repair its shattered chromosomes after being exposed to high levels of radiation (which cause DNA breaks). While humans experience neurological damages after being exposed to radiation of roughly 30 Gy, D. radiodurans can survive over 10000 Gy, since it is able to very effectively connected fragmented DNA (I'm just making a video about human DNA repair systems). Great video so far!
Is it the one that was nicknamed "Conan the bacteria"?
As your 400th liker I wish to learn more from you. Thanks.
Uncle Sam always does the best he can...Thank you Uncle Sam.
We can't even grow back extracted teeth
@Martin Huisman I mean somehow inserting Deinococcus radiodurans dna into our own
Sometime during the 1970's or '80's, Proctor & Gamble were attempting to build radiation detection chambers for their research labs in Cincinnati. Not matter what they did, they could not eliminate the background radiation inside the test vessels. The problem they found was that any steel used in the casings, no matter what year it was procured contained radioactive particles.
Finally, to secure a particle free source they searched the US for steel stocks originally produced before Trinity, and not re-manufactured since. They still had to acid-wash the rust off the outsides of the steel plates, as the rust was also found to be radioactive.
According to a top research chemist at P&G that I spoke with, finding this steel was VERY difficult.
So, you're telling me that the raw taconite mined and shipped for new steel is radioactive? Hard to believe...
Nearly forty years ago I had a lecture from "Cal V....", a Kodak engineer who had as a Kodak engineer previously supervised the surveillance of Cuba before the Cuban Missile Crisis. He told us that, since black and white photographic paper had an infinite "MTF," modulation transfer function, the simplest way to visualize the pictures were to magnify the whole roll until it was big enough. They built a special twenty-foot high room with two, two-story long rollers standing vertically in one corner, magnified the original picture rolls to two stories high, and fed the roll of film off one roller, around rollers in the other three corners, and then back on the second corner roller. Women (They used women because their abilities to see detail were better.) walked around the room, with a second group walking around a scaffold placed halfway up the roll of film, and looked for anything out of the ordinary. The rest is history.
Great video! Isn't the Trinity site still radioactive? I would assume the other radioactive elements produced with half lives in the thousands of years are still on site.
People aren't allowed to linger long near the original ground-zero to this day.
I am greatly appalled by the Truth reported here about the horrific effect of the atomic bomb tests on human beings, in particular and all of life, in general.
So much ignorance; so much arrogance; so much disregard of the welfare of beings for the sake of creating a weapon of mass destruction.
I am still processing what I’ve seen and heard. Still trying to make sense of it all.
excellent coverage of the issue.. that you considered the human consequences in your video is laudable.
I was expecting to see how Kodak set up its cameras to capture pictures of the explosions. This was even more interesting than that.
I appreciate all the information you bring under the light with this video. - However, it would seem you have mistitled the video, because as you clearly state, kodak did NOT expose it. They found out, but kept silent.
Its a pun .........it was the radiation that "exposed" and ruined their film, like an x-ray ,think about it .............................Erik
The scientists involved in the first nuclear test were not 100% sure if the bomb would ignite the atmosphere or not.
They decided that it was worth the gamle.... luckily it did not happen, but then again if it had there would not been anyone left around to blame them.
Scary but true.
Specialist: Advises the military where to safety conducts tests.
Military: Lets do the opposite.
its pretty ironic that the military is for the safety of the people
i bet the army was in charge of the placement
This is pretty much how government mishaps happen. Experts tell the government to do something, government doesnt listen.
Nothing surprising!
Maybe a neighbor they despised came from there or something, you know, they chose Hiroshima and Nagasaki for similarly dumb reasons.
Kai - 2020-09-16
Can we take a moment to appreciate the consistent quality in Veritasium videos?
Erik Cowan - 2021-08-04
Why are you telling people what to do on YouTube videos?
veverica c - 2021-08-04
@Erik Cowan what did i do????
Varun Bawa - 2021-08-10
@Veritasium double headed rabbit would be more appreciated
N K [Nate] Wood - 2021-12-26
+ Kai & Veritasium: YES , we most certainly can!
Further, Veritasium gets the highly prestigious additional award of 👍👍👍.
(Said award has been given to only one other YouTube video to date, 12/26/2021, for excellence in
overall presentation/content.)
Zes - 2022-03-06
wrr, say any nmw s perfx