It was a sphere of plutonium the size of a grapefruit, built to end a war that ended first. Twice, a careless half-second brought it to the edge of a chain reaction — and twice, the man standing over it paid with his life. This is the story of the Demon Core.
In 1902 a government chemist sat a dozen healthy young men down at a basement dining table in Washington and fed them poison on purpose. They ate borax, formaldehyde and acid with their dinners, kept eating until they got sick, and in doing so helped force America to finally make its food safe.
For thousands of years no one knew where birds went in winter. Serious scholars argued they hibernated in mud, turned into other species, or flew to the Moon. Then in 1822 a German stork came home with a three-foot African spear through its neck — and the answer could no longer be denied.
