About 45 years ago I picked up a copy of a book titled The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, 1977, edited by Samuel Glasstone and Philip J. Dolan and prepared by the US Department of Defense. As a plus the book came with a plastic circular slide rule that calculates weapons effects as a function of explosive yield and altitude. Being interested in nuclear energy and being a slide rule collector, this was a thrilling moment. I found it at the local Goodwill store. Still have it.

The book goes into all of the phenomenology of a nuclear detonation as well as the effects on the surrounding environment. It describes the blast effects, thermal radiation effects, crater dimensions, nuclear radiation and fallout, electromagnetic pulse and biological effects. Apparently, there was a lot of curve fitting of data over the years of weapons research that produced mathematical approximations allowing a calculating device to be made.

To be blunt, being overenthusiastic about weaponry has never struck me as, well, healthy. But I have always been fascinated by scientific extrema. Biggest, fastest, smallest, heaviest, hottest … you get the picture. What happens near the boundaries? Nuclear explosives and explosions certainly produce extreme effects.

I lived during the cold war up to the point where I finished my postdoc the same time as when Gorbachev dissolved the Soviet Union. The international dynamics of Soviet Cold War politics was interesting to follow at the time. Having some familiarity with nuclear weapons effects helped to accrue a bit of perspective on the nuclear threat element of the whole unfortunate time.