“In 1933, Lord Ernest Rutherford said that no one could ever expect to derive power from splitting the atom: «Anyone who looked for a source of power in the transformation of atoms was talking moonshine.» At that time laborious hours and weeks were required to fission a handful of nuclei”
Optional extra (for ML researchers):
“Flash forward to 1942, in a squash court beneath Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Physicists are building a shape like a giant doorknob out of alternate layers of graphite and uranium, intended to start the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction. In charge of the project is Enrico Fermi. The key number for the pile is k, the effective neutron multiplication factor: the average number of neutrons from a fission reaction that cause another fission reaction. At k less than one, the pile is subcritical. At k >= 1, the pile should sustain a critical reaction. Fermi calculates that the pile will reach k = 1 between layers 56 and 57.”
“In 1933, Lord Ernest Rutherford said that no one could ever expect to derive power from splitting the atom: «Anyone who looked for a source of power in the transformation of atoms was talking moonshine.» At that time laborious hours and weeks were required to fission a handful of nuclei”
Optional extra (for ML researchers):
“Flash forward to 1942, in a squash court beneath Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Physicists are building a shape like a giant doorknob out of alternate layers of graphite and uranium, intended to start the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction. In charge of the project is Enrico Fermi. The key number for the pile is k, the effective neutron multiplication factor: the average number of neutrons from a fission reaction that cause another fission reaction. At k less than one, the pile is subcritical. At k >= 1, the pile should sustain a critical reaction. Fermi calculates that the pile will reach k = 1 between layers 56 and 57.”
EY, AI as a pos neg factor, 2006ish