And they say fanfic isn't educational

[sholio]

I'm doing a little research on the Manhattan Project for a fic I'm currently working on ... actually, all I really wanted to know was how to spell Harry Daghlian's name (I'm revisiting that scene from Trinity where Rodney visits Sheppard at his quarters late at night and mentions Daghlian) but as usual when I Google for some specific minor detail, I'm kind of getting sucked into reading all the websites on it. Even if the details on what happens to people dying of radiation sickness are ... sort of horrible.

In case anyone else is curious about the guy that Rodney talked about in "Trinity" (complete with the gory details of his demise):
http://members.tripod.com/~Arnold_Dion/Daghlian/bio.html

I'm actually a little surprised that they didn't use Louis Slotin instead of Daghlian in the episode -- Slotin was a Canadian researcher on the Manhattan Project and friend of Daghlian's who died a year later in a similar way. He died a hero, stopping a supercritical experiment before it could kill others in the room. I'm sure Rodney would have thought of him.
http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/FH/LA/Louis_Slotin_1.htm

Comments

[dr-dredd.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's also perfect for Daniel Jackson. Essentially that's what he did on Kelowna.

I did a little background reading on Trinity, too. I like the story of Sir Joseph Rotblat (also spelled Rothblat). He was kicked off the Manhattan Project because of ethical concerns, but later won the Nobel Peace Prize.

[leenys.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that too, about Daniel. So maybe they didn't use it because it was already done?

Kam :)

[sholio]

The sad thing is, that's pretty much exactly what I was thinking when reading the article -- about Daniel, that is. We are all such gigantic geeks. ;)

[sholio]

Interesting ... I'll have to look that one up.

I used to read quite a lot of 1930s/40s SF and the treatment of radiation in those stories is interesting -- because they didn't know how it worked, really, or what it could do. It was essentially this magic substance that could do whatever the writer wanted it to do ... kind of like other theoretical scientific ideas are used today (like parallel universes or time travel -- maybe our pop-culture conceptions of these will seem equally ludicrous to readers of classic SF in 2106). But reading about the actual radiation accidents, and especially considering that DNA was still largely a mystery, it's easy to see why radiation was such a giant question mark. Its effects would be so weird and unpredictable if you didn't really understand it.

[not-sally.livejournal.com]

So, basically, Rodney totally lied to get John to do what he wanted?

[sholio]

Maybe he was just ... exaggerating things a trifle. ;)

[shrewreader.livejournal.com]

Possibly -- and I still haven't seen the ep -- it's a 4th wall thing. The Slotin story was used in Fat Man & Little Boy (http://imdb.com/title/tt0097336/) for the Merriman character (as noted in the site you linked to, but a couple clicks away. :) (http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/FH/LA/Michael_Merriman.htm) In an industry that's paranoid about taking other people's ideas, and the size of Joffre's stick, I expect, is much bigger than Gero et al's.

But -really- good links. TYK!!!

[sholio]

That's ... actually, not entirely unlikely. Since Slotin's story seems like a better fit than Daghlian's for the episode, there would almost have to be a reason why they used that one instead ... and this makes sense.