Science: Birthday

The Atomic Age was going on four years old. Last week Major General Leslie R. Groves, military matrix of The Bomb, announced that the Atomic Age began officially on Dec. 2, 1942, when the first uranium pile started working under the west stands of the University of Chicago’s football stadium. The Army’s Manhattan Project, said the General, would observe Dec. 2 as “a milestone in the advancement of science.” He did not guess how the rest of mankind would feel about the day.