The power to end civilization, held in human hands — this is how we got here.
On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb detonated in the New Mexico desert. In the flash of that explosion, humanity crossed a threshold it could never uncross: for the first time, a species possessed the power to destroy itself. The decades that followed were shaped by this terrible knowledge — the arms race, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, and the slow, fragile work of arms control. Chernobyl and Fukushima showed that even peaceful atoms could betray us. And in the 2020s, with nuclear threats resurfacing and a blockbuster film reminding a new generation of Oppenheimer's burden, the question remains: can we live with the bomb forever?
A curated dispatch of forgotten moments, pivotal turning points, and the stories behind the dates.