My Pet Resources

"The Gadget"

Plutonium was discovered by two physicists at U. C. Berkley in 1940.  It is a byproduct of spent Uranium and occurs infrequently in nature.  Plutonium, not Uranium, was the fuel used in the world’s first nuclear detonation, code named “Trinity”.  Scientists had no doubt that a Uranium weapon would work but they weren’t so sure about Plutonium so they tested a device called “The Gadget” in the desert near Alamogordo, N. M. on July 16, 1945.  Plutonium has been used to fuel the space probe Cassini and Galileo as they venture long distances from the sun.  It is also used in some nuclear reactors.  

Paper-Makers at Work

Paper seems to have been invented around 100 BC in China.  About 200 years later, the first paper-making industry was begun there under direction of the Han Dynasty.  Paper-making spread to India by 400 AD and to the Arab world about 750 AD.  The process eventually spread to Europe and in 1453, Gutenberg produced the first printed Bible.  By that time, the Aztecs had independently learned how to produce paper and were making books of their own.
      The role of paper in the development of the world we know today can’t be over-stated.  It facilitated the development of education without which, today’s technologies could not exist.  These days, paper is everywhere.  Paper products serve us in innumerable ways and impact every walk of life.