Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Do you know what I learned today? Napoleon Bonaparte was not even French.

On the first of the year, I decided that as a military history nut, I know far too little about Napoleon than is decent. I have some books waiting on the bookshelf, but for now, I’ve started a PBS Napoleon video.

Man, the guy was from Corsica, which the French took over just four months before his birth. Napoleon grew up hating the French and always feeling like the outsider.

He tried to help his native country gain its independence back, but that didn’t work out (<–extra shortened version). Now spurned, he turned towards his surrogate homeland.

Isn’t that interesting?

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What I learned today: What happens during the first seconds of a nuclear bomb explosion.

I’ve just finished listening to the audio version of E=mc2: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis. It is a fascinating and surprisingly accessible book. But that’s for another post.

I learned so many things, but when he describes the first man-made application of this famous equation, it’s hard not to be moved.

First, the bomb over Hiroshima actually exploded above ground. Did you know that? If it had exploded like a conventional bomb, detonating as it hit the ground, it would have created a !gigantic! crater and caused so much more extensive (and perhaps unwanted) damage.

One-third of the bomb’s total energy would have been released in the initial flash. This could melt and peel skin.

The ensuing force of the explosion would push the air around it outwards at speeds exceeding the speed of sound. So if you were far enough away to survive the first detonation, wind would whip by you faster than the most powerful of hurricanes and tornadoes.

And eerily, it would be silent. Because the sound of this moving wall of air has been left behind.

If you managed to survive this, you’d be exposed to a vacuum. There is no air left behind. Like in space, a vacuum can make people explode. If you scream, there would be no sound, because there’s no air to carry it.

But the vacuum wouldn’t last, because once the force of the nuclear blast wanes, nature rushes to fill that vacuum.

All the air comes flooding back in another huge gush.

And that’s just a part of what happens in the first few seconds.

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What I learned today: We didn’t evolve from Neanderthals.

Somewhere between school and now, I lost track of what the academics think about how we, humans, got here. I didn’t even know that I didn’t know until this article from the latest Smithsonian Magazine.

It says that all humans came out of Africa. That I knew. But it also says that as humans migrated out of Africa, those moving into Europe ran into the indigenous peoples already there—the Neanderthals. Then the two groups competed for resources and supremacy. That’s fascinating.

And when humans moved into unpopulated areas, where they automatically became the top life form, innovation would not be that important. For example, the aboriginal peoples in places like Australia would not have had to invent and develop new ways of doing things because they didn’t face overpopulation and scarcity of resources.

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