The glow of his campfire framed a simple tableau of pioneer life. Across this ‘untenanted land’, Edwin Brady mused, ‘little companies’, such as his own, sat by their ‘solitary fires’. ‘They smoked pipes and talked, or watched the coals reflectively’. Around them, the ‘shadowy outlines’ of the bush merged into the dark northern night, and [...]
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Posted 01 March 2005
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articles and book chapters § atomic age
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Also tagged: Alfred Deakin, atomic bomb, atomic tests, Australia Unlimited, Cold War, crossroads, defence, Edwin James Brady, frontiers, Littleton Groom, progress, progressivism, race, science, uranium, White Australia
The development and use of the atomic bomb was a turning point in history. It seems so obvious—the world was changed, a new age dawned. But this was not the first turning point, nor the last. History is littered with critical moments, crossroads, watersheds and points of decision. Each brings a new sense of urgency, [...]
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Posted 31 July 2003
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atomic age § history of australian science § theses
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Also tagged: atomic bomb, atomic energy, Australia, David Rivett, Edwin James Brady, Geoffrey Duffield, history of science, HV McKay, Littleton Groom, Mark Oliphant, Mount Stromlo, progress, science, spies, weather
It’s rare for a book relating to the history of Australian science to draw the attention of the national media. But Australia’s Bid for the Atomic Bomb made the front page with its claims that the origins of major institutions such as the Snowy Scheme and the ANU could be found in the government’s frustrated [...]
Secrets are seductive. They offer knowledge, power, belonging – initiation into a world neatly divided into the knowing and the unknowing, us and them. The atomic bomb was revealed to an unsuspecting public as evidence of humankind’s increasing knowledge of the ‘secrets of nature’, but such secrets were not for sharing, they were a ‘sacred [...]
The clouds of radioactive fallout are descending and humanity is doomed to extinction. In Nevil Shute’s book, On the Beach, the inhabitants of Melbourne await their end – the final victims of a 37 day nuclear war that has destroyed the northern hemisphere. John Osborne, played by Fred Astaire in the film version, decides to [...]
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Posted 01 July 1996
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atomic age § conference presentations
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Also tagged: AAEC, ANU, ASIO, atomic bomb, atomic energy, Bikini Atoll, Cold War, crossroads, CSIRO, David Rivett, Emu Field, George Briggs, Les Martin, Lucas Heights, Maralinga, Mark Oliphant, Monte Bello Islands, progress, uranium, Woomera
Then there was a great flash that reached the far horizon. Even Dr Penney, who had witnessed the first historic cataclysm in the desert at Almagordo and later seen a bomb burst over Japan, described the scene as ‘terrifying’ as he turned around to find the frigate Plym had vanished and to see a great [...]
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Posted 01 December 1985
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articles and book chapters § atomic age
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Also tagged: atomic bomb, atomic tests, Emu Field, Ernest Titterton, Les Martin, Maralinga, Mark Oliphant, Monte Bello Islands, RG Menzies, WAS Butement, William Penney
