WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.720 I want you to picture something for me. Okay. 00:00:01.820 --> 00:00:06.139 The year is 1954, and you're trying to visit 00:00:06.139 --> 00:00:08.960 a highly classified museum. Good luck with that. 00:00:09.099 --> 00:00:12.179 Right. First off, you're in Los Alamos, New Mexico. 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:16.379 So just getting past the town's security perimeter 00:00:16.379 --> 00:00:19.160 is a massive hurdle all on its own. Yeah, it 00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:21.079 was basically a fortress town back then. Exactly. 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:24.160 Let's say you actually manage that because, you 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:25.620 know, you're an official government visitor with 00:00:25.620 --> 00:00:28.320 the highest possible security clearances. You 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:30.660 walk up to this museum and you're probably expecting, 00:00:30.820 --> 00:00:34.020 I don't know, some sleek concrete government 00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:37.299 bunker. But it's not. It looks like a repurposed 00:00:37.299 --> 00:00:39.960 kind of rustic old ice house sitting right next 00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:42.780 to a duck pond. A literal ice house. A literal. 00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:45.250 ice house. But blocking your way into this ice 00:00:45.250 --> 00:00:48.570 house is a heavy, impenetrable steel vault door. 00:00:48.789 --> 00:00:51.170 Which is such a bizarre visual. It really is. 00:00:51.270 --> 00:00:54.109 So you get cleared, that massive vault door swings 00:00:54.109 --> 00:00:56.109 open, and you step inside what is essentially 00:00:56.109 --> 00:00:58.869 a shed to view top secret relics from the dawn 00:00:58.869 --> 00:01:01.549 of the atomic age. It's just, it's such a surreal 00:01:01.549 --> 00:01:03.549 image, isn't it? You have the most terrifying, 00:01:03.750 --> 00:01:07.170 cutting -edge science on the entire planet stuffed 00:01:07.170 --> 00:01:10.049 into a rustic shack meant for keeping blocks 00:01:10.049 --> 00:01:12.760 of ice cold. Yeah. But looking through the stack 00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:14.739 of historical notes and source materials we have 00:01:14.739 --> 00:01:17.519 for today, that absurdity is completely real. 00:01:17.739 --> 00:01:20.079 And that is our mission for today's deep dive. 00:01:20.280 --> 00:01:23.819 We are tracing the bizarre and just... really 00:01:23.819 --> 00:01:26.359 fascinating evolution of the Bradbury Science 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:29.359 Museum. Yeah. We're going to explore how a literal 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:32.939 vault of atomic secrets, completely locked away 00:01:32.939 --> 00:01:35.540 from the public eye, transformed over the decades 00:01:35.540 --> 00:01:38.540 into a free, open hub of scientific discovery. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:40.980 What's fascinating here is the evolution of transparency. 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:43.400 Oh, absolutely. You dig into these sources, you 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:46.579 see this massive contrast between two very distinct 00:01:46.579 --> 00:01:49.840 eras. On one side, there's the intense, almost 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:52.159 caranoid secrecy of the early Manhattan Project, 00:01:52.340 --> 00:01:54.939 and the... post -World War II weapons programs. 00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:57.319 Right. And then on the flip side, you have the 00:01:57.319 --> 00:02:00.659 museum's modern, totally open -door policy. It's 00:02:00.659 --> 00:02:03.659 really a physical timeline showing how society's 00:02:03.659 --> 00:02:05.620 relationship with classified science has completely 00:02:05.620 --> 00:02:07.920 shifted. Okay, let's unpack this and go back 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:10.099 to that origin story. Let's do it. So we're in 00:02:10.099 --> 00:02:14.150 1953. There's a guy named Robert Crone. He was 00:02:14.150 --> 00:02:16.849 overseeing early nuclear testing at what was 00:02:16.849 --> 00:02:19.650 then called the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. 00:02:19.990 --> 00:02:23.090 Right. The lab. Right. And right in the middle 00:02:23.090 --> 00:02:25.949 of all this world altering weapons research, 00:02:26.210 --> 00:02:29.669 he has this realization they are generating physical 00:02:29.669 --> 00:02:32.069 relics of this history right then and there. 00:02:32.330 --> 00:02:35.449 And he decides they need a dedicated place to 00:02:35.449 --> 00:02:37.710 preserve them. Which, I mean, is an incredibly 00:02:37.710 --> 00:02:40.930 rare mindset to have in 1953. Yeah. You'd think 00:02:40.930 --> 00:02:42.750 they'd just be focused on the next big test. 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:45.300 Exactly. When you're in the thick of a massive 00:02:45.300 --> 00:02:47.960 ongoing military effort, you're usually focused 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:50.569 entirely on the next breakthrough. Preservation 00:02:50.569 --> 00:02:52.270 is an afterthought, if it's a thought at all. 00:02:52.430 --> 00:02:54.669 Right. But Krohn recognized that the physical 00:02:54.669 --> 00:02:57.229 artifacts of the atomic age needed to be saved 00:02:57.229 --> 00:03:00.090 before they were just dismantled or tossed in 00:03:00.090 --> 00:03:02.789 a landfill somewhere. So he pitches this preservation 00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:06.310 idea to Norris E. Bradbury. The director? Yeah, 00:03:06.330 --> 00:03:08.150 Bradbury was the laboratory's second director. 00:03:08.409 --> 00:03:11.069 He took over right after the war in 1945 and 00:03:11.069 --> 00:03:14.009 ended up serving until 1970. That's a long tenure. 00:03:14.430 --> 00:03:17.830 Very long. So Bradbury hears Crone out and says, 00:03:18.009 --> 00:03:20.490 sure, this is a great idea to preserve the history, 00:03:20.669 --> 00:03:23.750 but he's very specific about who gets to see 00:03:23.750 --> 00:03:25.729 it. It's going to be a great place for official 00:03:25.729 --> 00:03:27.810 visitors. Right. There's a huge caveat there. 00:03:27.909 --> 00:03:29.750 This wasn't a tourist attraction for you and 00:03:29.750 --> 00:03:31.389 your family. Yeah. If you didn't have the right 00:03:31.389 --> 00:03:33.849 badge, you didn't even know it existed. And that 00:03:33.849 --> 00:03:36.069 brings us to the location they picked. I would 00:03:36.069 --> 00:03:38.969 have assumed they'd construct some highly secure 00:03:38.969 --> 00:03:41.530 climate -controlled facility for these historical 00:03:41.530 --> 00:03:44.310 artifacts. You would think so. But no, they found 00:03:44.310 --> 00:03:47.849 an old ice house on the bank of Ashley Pond right 00:03:47.849 --> 00:03:51.610 across from Fuller Lodge. Like, why an ice house? 00:03:51.990 --> 00:03:55.330 Well, early Los Alamos was notorious for its 00:03:55.330 --> 00:03:58.310 sort of... duct tape and wire approach to infrastructure. 00:03:58.610 --> 00:04:00.789 Oh, really? Yeah, they were constantly repurposing 00:04:00.789 --> 00:04:03.210 existing town structures because the lab had 00:04:03.210 --> 00:04:05.210 grown so fast during the war, they just used 00:04:05.210 --> 00:04:07.189 whatever was available. Yeah. But the ice house 00:04:07.189 --> 00:04:09.669 wasn't just chosen for convenience. It had one 00:04:09.669 --> 00:04:13.530 very specific, crucial feature. The vault door. 00:04:13.750 --> 00:04:16.230 The source material specifically points out that 00:04:16.230 --> 00:04:18.889 the ice house already had a heavy vault door 00:04:18.889 --> 00:04:21.779 fitted onto it. Because of that one feature, 00:04:21.939 --> 00:04:24.720 this rustic little building somehow satisfied 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:27.379 the strict security standards required for housing 00:04:27.379 --> 00:04:30.779 highly classified exhibits. It's crazy. It really 00:04:30.779 --> 00:04:34.319 is. So they load it up, and in 1954, the Ice 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:37.480 House Museum officially opens to cleared personnel. 00:04:37.779 --> 00:04:40.120 It is the perfect metaphor for the psychology 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:42.879 of that era. How so? Just think about it. Having 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:45.279 your most important knowledge literally locked 00:04:45.279 --> 00:04:48.170 in a shed behind a heavy sealed door. perfectly 00:04:48.170 --> 00:04:50.170 captures the post -World War II environment. 00:04:50.709 --> 00:04:53.470 The Cold War was ramping up, and the science 00:04:53.470 --> 00:04:55.589 they were preserving was considered the ultimate 00:04:55.589 --> 00:04:58.029 national security asset. Yeah, that makes sense. 00:04:58.250 --> 00:05:00.629 Of course, the museum had to be a fortress. The 00:05:00.629 --> 00:05:02.350 knowledge itself was weaponized. But secrets 00:05:02.350 --> 00:05:04.529 have a shelf life, right? Let's jump ahead to 00:05:04.529 --> 00:05:08.290 the 1960s. We hit 1963, and there's a major vibe 00:05:08.290 --> 00:05:11.149 shift. A huge one. We meet Robert Porton, who 00:05:11.149 --> 00:05:13.410 is the director of community relations at the 00:05:13.410 --> 00:05:16.009 laboratory. And Porton pushes for something that... 00:05:16.220 --> 00:05:18.699 probably sounded completely radical at the time. 00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:22.399 Unclassified exhibits. Yes. He wants to add unclassified 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:24.639 exhibits so the general public can finally walk 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:26.500 in and see what's actually happening up there. 00:05:26.699 --> 00:05:29.459 Porton's role is really key here. As the community 00:05:29.459 --> 00:05:32.740 relations director, his entire job is managing 00:05:32.740 --> 00:05:35.339 the interface between this hyper -secretive lab 00:05:35.339 --> 00:05:38.180 and the outside world. Right. He clearly realized 00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:40.939 that you can't keep a facility that's impacting 00:05:40.939 --> 00:05:43.879 global geopolitics completely opaque forever. 00:05:44.329 --> 00:05:46.870 The town of Los Alamos was slowly becoming less 00:05:46.870 --> 00:05:49.769 of a closed military base, and the lab needed 00:05:49.769 --> 00:05:52.350 to adjust to that new reality. So Porton takes 00:05:52.350 --> 00:05:54.550 this pitch to Bradbury, who's still running the 00:05:54.550 --> 00:05:56.569 show, and surprisingly, Bradbury greenlights 00:05:56.569 --> 00:05:59.660 it. He does. He approves an area for unclassified 00:05:59.660 --> 00:06:02.060 exhibits that anyone can just walk into. So for 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:04.480 the first time ever, average citizens can view 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:07.600 World War II era documents. They're looking at 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:09.240 photographs, tracking the development of the 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:12.139 town and the lab. They've got scientific memorabilia 00:06:12.139 --> 00:06:15.420 out and even working models of unclassified research 00:06:15.420 --> 00:06:18.240 projects. Imagine being a local or really anyone 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:19.980 in America at that time. I can't even imagine. 00:06:20.519 --> 00:06:22.879 For almost two decades, Los Alamos had been this 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:26.339 mythical, restricted city on a hill. Everyone 00:06:26.339 --> 00:06:28.439 knew world -changing physics was happening up 00:06:28.439 --> 00:06:31.300 there, but it was a total black box. The moment 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:33.480 that curtain is pulled back, even just an inch, 00:06:33.579 --> 00:06:36.019 people got to flock to it. And flock they did. 00:06:36.180 --> 00:06:40.180 The numbers here are just wild. In its very first 00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:42.500 year of being open to the public, the museum 00:06:42.500 --> 00:06:45.899 saw 14 ,000 visitors. And these weren't just 00:06:45.899 --> 00:06:47.899 folks driving up from Santa Fe for the afternoon. 00:06:48.829 --> 00:06:52.300 These 14 ,000 people came from 50 different states 00:06:52.300 --> 00:06:55.319 and 40 different countries. In 1963. In 1963. 00:06:56.519 --> 00:06:58.680 Traveling to a remote mountain town in New Mexico 00:06:58.680 --> 00:07:01.160 wasn't exactly a smooth interstate highway trip 00:07:01.160 --> 00:07:04.139 back then. That statistic is so telling. It highlights 00:07:04.139 --> 00:07:06.639 this universal human trait. When you tell people 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:09.079 a secret is happening behind closed doors, they 00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:11.000 become desperate to understand it. Absolutely. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.139 Those 14 ,000 visitors prove that the public 00:07:14.139 --> 00:07:16.100 didn't just want to read headlines about atomic 00:07:16.100 --> 00:07:19.060 energy. They wanted a tangible connection to 00:07:19.060 --> 00:07:21.680 the science that was active. shaping their world. 00:07:22.199 --> 00:07:24.959 They had a deep, deep hunger to comprehend it. 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:27.480 And that hunger meant they outgrew the space 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:31.120 almost instantly. By 1965, which is just two 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:33.540 years after the public opening, they had to move 00:07:33.540 --> 00:07:36.040 the museum to larger quarters. They have no choice. 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:38.879 And what I really love about this era is how 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:42.399 organic the exhibits were. The number of displays 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:44.939 was skyrocketing because the active scientists 00:07:44.939 --> 00:07:47.920 within the laboratory were personally building 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:51.660 and contributing hands -on models of their unclassified. 00:07:51.660 --> 00:07:54.379 That's a huge operational shift right there. 00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:57.579 It stops being just a dusty repository for historical 00:07:57.579 --> 00:08:00.199 oddities and becomes this dynamic educational 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:02.480 space. The scientists themselves were really 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:05.000 buying into the idea of public engagement. They 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:07.019 actually wanted to explain their work. Which 00:08:07.019 --> 00:08:10.220 perfectly sets the stage for the massive professionalization 00:08:10.220 --> 00:08:13.360 of the museum from the 1970s through the 1990s. 00:08:13.379 --> 00:08:16.579 In 1970, the facility gets formally named the 00:08:16.579 --> 00:08:19.139 Norris E. Bradbury Science Museum. Honoring the 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:21.220 director. Exactly. Honoring the director who 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:23.620 oversaw both the classified opening and the public 00:08:23.620 --> 00:08:25.920 expansion. And of course, we know it today simply 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:28.259 as the Bradbury Science Museum. It's a well -deserved 00:08:28.259 --> 00:08:30.459 nod. But the real transformation happens a bit 00:08:30.459 --> 00:08:33.799 later. Yeah, it does. In 1981, they undergo major 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:37.070 renovations. They shift away. from those informal 00:08:37.070 --> 00:08:39.690 scientists donated models to a highly professional 00:08:39.690 --> 00:08:42.850 museum atmosphere. They bring in what was absolutely 00:08:42.850 --> 00:08:45.750 cutting edge technology for the early 80s. Oh, 00:08:45.789 --> 00:08:48.370 yeah. Videotapes, interactive computer programs 00:08:48.370 --> 00:08:51.570 and video discs. Video discs. Nothing screams 00:08:51.570 --> 00:08:54.950 1981 quite like a video disc. Right. But jokes 00:08:54.950 --> 00:08:57.429 aside, that technology actually shows a real 00:08:57.429 --> 00:09:00.779 investment in pedagogy. They're trying to actively 00:09:00.779 --> 00:09:03.919 teach complice concepts, not just put cool -looking 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:06.600 metal casings behind glass. Speaking of metal 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:09.100 casings, though, the artifacts got a major upgrade 00:09:09.100 --> 00:09:11.820 during this time, too. The source material lists 00:09:11.820 --> 00:09:13.980 some specific additions from this era. They brought 00:09:13.980 --> 00:09:17.120 in a Mark 12A warhead. Okay. They added models 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:19.700 of the Vela and Navistar satellites. They even 00:09:19.700 --> 00:09:21.720 put an air -launched cruise missile right on 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:23.659 display. Let's pause on those artifacts for a 00:09:23.659 --> 00:09:25.620 second because they aren't just random military 00:09:25.620 --> 00:09:28.080 hardware. They tell the story of the Cold War's 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:29.899 progression. the Vela satellites, for instance. 00:09:30.059 --> 00:09:31.620 Yeah, the notes mentioned they were used for 00:09:31.620 --> 00:09:33.779 verification. What exactly does that mean in 00:09:33.779 --> 00:09:36.740 this context? Verification is essentially a polite 00:09:36.740 --> 00:09:39.120 Cold War term for making sure the other side 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:42.500 isn't secretly detonating nukes. Ah, okay. Yeah. 00:09:42.539 --> 00:09:44.679 After the partial nuclear test ban Freedy in 00:09:44.679 --> 00:09:47.440 the 60s, you couldn't test weapons in the atmosphere 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:50.850 or in space anymore. So Los Alamos helped develop 00:09:50.850 --> 00:09:53.570 the Vela satellite network to look for the specific 00:09:53.570 --> 00:09:56.830 bursts of gamma rays and X -rays that a nuclear 00:09:56.830 --> 00:09:59.610 explosion gives off. Oh, wow. So when you're 00:09:59.610 --> 00:10:01.669 looking at a Vela model in the museum, you're 00:10:01.669 --> 00:10:05.149 looking at the actual birth of modern space -based 00:10:05.149 --> 00:10:07.289 nuclear surveillance. That adds so much weight 00:10:07.289 --> 00:10:09.309 to what you're actually looking at. And Navistar. 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:11.610 Navistar was essentially the precursor technology 00:10:11.610 --> 00:10:14.389 to the GPS network we all use on our phones today. 00:10:14.570 --> 00:10:17.330 No way. Yeah. And the cruise missile represents 00:10:17.330 --> 00:10:19.409 the shift toward precision delivery systems. 00:10:19.870 --> 00:10:22.590 As these technologies matured and eventually 00:10:22.590 --> 00:10:25.149 became declassified, they moved straight from 00:10:25.149 --> 00:10:27.429 the active defense grid right into the museum. 00:10:27.610 --> 00:10:29.590 Here's where it gets really interesting. Because 00:10:29.590 --> 00:10:31.769 of all these incredible artifacts and the updated 00:10:31.769 --> 00:10:35.289 tech, By 1987, the public's appetite for the 00:10:35.289 --> 00:10:38.250 museum completely exploded. Annual attendance 00:10:38.250 --> 00:10:42.389 hit 80 ,000 people. 80 ,000. 80 ,000. It got 00:10:42.389 --> 00:10:44.669 so chaotic that visitor parking was just non 00:10:44.669 --> 00:10:47.190 -existent. The town's infrastructure couldn't 00:10:47.190 --> 00:10:49.750 handle the volume of people trying to learn about 00:10:49.750 --> 00:10:52.529 the lab's work. 80 ,000 people flooding into 00:10:52.529 --> 00:10:54.950 Los Alamos is a logistical nightmare for a small 00:10:54.950 --> 00:10:57.980 town. But it's also a clear indicator that the 00:10:57.980 --> 00:11:00.940 museum was no longer just a side project. It 00:11:00.940 --> 00:11:03.320 had become a primary cultural and educational 00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:06.299 institution. So the lab officials realized they 00:11:06.299 --> 00:11:10.169 have to relocate entirely. In April 1993, the 00:11:10.169 --> 00:11:13.009 museum makes a massive move to its present location 00:11:13.009 --> 00:11:16.289 at 1350 Central Avenue. Right in town. Right 00:11:16.289 --> 00:11:19.049 in the heart of downtown Los Alamos. The building 00:11:19.049 --> 00:11:20.870 is specifically designed for them by William 00:11:20.870 --> 00:11:23.970 Agnew and associates. And interestingly, it's 00:11:23.970 --> 00:11:26.149 actually leased by the laboratory from a private 00:11:26.149 --> 00:11:29.129 owner. Taking the museum out of the direct footprint 00:11:29.129 --> 00:11:31.330 of the lab and dropping it squarely into the 00:11:31.330 --> 00:11:34.710 civilian downtown area is a really powerful symbolic 00:11:34.710 --> 00:11:37.269 gesture. It literally centers science in the 00:11:37.269 --> 00:11:39.610 public community. Which brings us to the museum 00:11:39.610 --> 00:11:42.889 as it stands today. If you, listening to this, 00:11:42.990 --> 00:11:45.309 were to walk through the doors of the Bradbury 00:11:45.309 --> 00:11:48.370 Science Museum right now, you'd find a facility 00:11:48.370 --> 00:11:51.769 run by director Linda Tidek. And the kicker, 00:11:51.809 --> 00:11:54.830 admission is completely free. You can just walk 00:11:54.830 --> 00:11:57.250 right in off the street. Removing the financial 00:11:57.250 --> 00:12:00.549 barrier entirely is the ultimate commitment to 00:12:00.549 --> 00:12:03.309 that transparency Porton was pushing for back 00:12:03.309 --> 00:12:05.769 in the 60s. They're open almost every single 00:12:05.769 --> 00:12:07.889 day of the year. only closing for Thanksgiving, 00:12:08.110 --> 00:12:10.230 Christmas, and New Year's. And when you walk 00:12:10.230 --> 00:12:13.029 inside, you're greeted by roughly 40 interactive 00:12:13.029 --> 00:12:16.110 exhibits. We are a long, long way from the ice 00:12:16.110 --> 00:12:18.929 house. It's a massive leap, and the scope of 00:12:18.929 --> 00:12:21.450 what those 40 exhibits cover is staggering. It 00:12:21.450 --> 00:12:23.309 really is. You've got the historical heavyweights, 00:12:23.309 --> 00:12:25.509 of course. The museum traces the history of the 00:12:25.509 --> 00:12:27.990 World War II Manhattan Project in deep detail. 00:12:28.250 --> 00:12:30.820 Right. Among these historical artifacts, they 00:12:30.820 --> 00:12:33.259 display full -size models of the Little Boy and 00:12:33.259 --> 00:12:36.360 Fat Man atomic bombs. They also have the original 00:12:36.360 --> 00:12:38.399 leaflets that were dropped on Hiroshima, which 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:40.340 warned the Japanese of further atomic attacks 00:12:40.340 --> 00:12:43.559 unless their government surrendered. Now, the 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:46.779 museum presents these strictly as factual historical 00:12:46.779 --> 00:12:50.059 artifacts of the era. They are preserved purely 00:12:50.059 --> 00:12:52.360 for the public to observe the physical reality 00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:54.639 of what was built there. And presuming that physical 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:57.220 reality is the core function of a historical 00:12:57.220 --> 00:13:00.679 archive. Providing unfiltered access to these 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:03.299 artifacts allows visitors to confront the sheer 00:13:03.299 --> 00:13:06.000 scale and reality of the Manhattan Project firsthand, 00:13:06.179 --> 00:13:08.799 without any abstraction. But the museum isn't 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:11.440 just a time capsule. It is heavily focused on 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:14.860 the present and the future. Alongside the WWIR 00:13:14.860 --> 00:13:17.639 history, they highlight the lab's current research. 00:13:17.940 --> 00:13:20.940 For example, they have an entire exhibit on nuclear 00:13:20.940 --> 00:13:23.419 weapons stockpile stewardship. Which I know sounds 00:13:23.419 --> 00:13:25.299 like dry bureaucratic jargon, but it's actually 00:13:25.299 --> 00:13:27.700 fascinating physics. Exactly, because since we 00:13:27.700 --> 00:13:30.059 don't do love underground nuclear testing anymore, 00:13:30.299 --> 00:13:32.419 how do we know the aging weapons in the stockpile 00:13:32.419 --> 00:13:34.279 still work, or even more importantly, are still 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:37.429 safe? Right. And the answer is supercomputers. 00:13:37.529 --> 00:13:40.730 Yes. Los Alamos uses some of the most powerful 00:13:40.730 --> 00:13:43.769 computers on Earth to run incredibly complex 00:13:43.769 --> 00:13:47.049 simulations of subatomic physics, modeling exactly 00:13:47.049 --> 00:13:50.210 how the materials inside a warhead age over decades. 00:13:50.549 --> 00:13:52.710 Which ties perfectly into their exhibit on the 00:13:52.710 --> 00:13:55.590 history of supercomputers. A field Los Alamos 00:13:55.590 --> 00:13:58.830 has been pioneering for decades. They also have 00:13:58.830 --> 00:14:01.649 an exhibit on the Los Alamos Neutron Science 00:14:01.649 --> 00:14:05.110 Center, or LANCE. LANCE is another great example. 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:07.840 of swords to plowshares, it's a massive particle 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:10.080 accelerator. Okay, we'll break that down for 00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:12.580 us. Sure. They accelerate protons to incredibly 00:14:12.580 --> 00:14:15.460 high speeds, smash them into a target to create 00:14:15.460 --> 00:14:18.220 a beam of neutrons, and then shoot those neutrons 00:14:18.220 --> 00:14:20.460 at various materials to study their atomic structure. 00:14:20.779 --> 00:14:22.600 It's used for everything from material science 00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:25.039 to creating medical isotopes. And the breadth 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:26.899 of the research on display just keeps going. 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:29.600 It goes way beyond defense. You can explore Los 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:31.899 Alamos' contributions to space exploration. Oh 00:14:31.899 --> 00:14:34.460 yeah, their space stuff is incredible. They specifically 00:14:34.460 --> 00:14:37.059 highlight their work on the Mars Science Laboratory, 00:14:37.379 --> 00:14:39.500 which you probably know as the Curiosity rover. 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:42.720 Los Alamos developed the ChemCam instrument for 00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:46.639 it, which literally fires lasers at Martian rocks 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:48.980 to analyze their chemical composition. Lasers 00:14:48.980 --> 00:14:51.019 on Mars. It really doesn't get much more sci 00:14:51.019 --> 00:14:52.600 -fi than that. It doesn't. And then you turn 00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:54.960 a corner and there are exhibits on nanotechnology. 00:14:55.320 --> 00:14:58.700 There's research showcasing algae biofuels. So 00:14:58.700 --> 00:15:01.220 you have high explosives on one side and cutting 00:15:01.220 --> 00:15:03.190 edge green energy solutions on the other. They're 00:15:03.190 --> 00:15:05.250 all under one roof. If we connect this to the 00:15:05.250 --> 00:15:07.629 bigger picture, the sheer breadth of what you 00:15:07.629 --> 00:15:11.149 just described creates this incredible dizzying 00:15:11.149 --> 00:15:13.590 juxtaposition. Oh, totally. Think about the physical 00:15:13.590 --> 00:15:15.909 space of that museum. Yeah. You can stand in 00:15:15.909 --> 00:15:18.149 one room and look at physical models of world 00:15:18.149 --> 00:15:21.730 -ending weaponry, the absolute extreme of destructive 00:15:21.730 --> 00:15:24.950 power. And then, in that very same building, 00:15:25.129 --> 00:15:27.450 just a few feet away, you're looking at algae 00:15:27.450 --> 00:15:29.769 biofuels that could power a sustainable green 00:15:29.769 --> 00:15:33.370 future. Or the laser technology driving the Curiosity 00:15:33.370 --> 00:15:36.590 rover across a whole different planet. It brilliantly 00:15:36.590 --> 00:15:38.929 captures the dual nature of scientific discovery. 00:15:39.129 --> 00:15:41.950 The same foundational physics has the capacity 00:15:41.950 --> 00:15:45.470 for both unimaginable destruction and boundless 00:15:45.470 --> 00:15:49.200 innovation. So, what does this all mean? We started 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:51.440 this deep dive standing in front of an old ice 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:54.919 house in 1954, staring at a heavy steel vault 00:15:54.919 --> 00:15:57.740 door where only a handful of cleared officials 00:15:57.740 --> 00:15:59.860 could look at the remnants of nuclear testing. 00:15:59.980 --> 00:16:02.960 Right. And we followed that thread through 1963 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:05.620 when the doors finally cracked open to an eager 00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:08.220 public through the video discs and satellite 00:16:08.220 --> 00:16:11.019 models of the 80s, all the way to a custom designed, 00:16:11.259 --> 00:16:13.580 completely free museum in the center of downtown. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:16.480 It's an incredible journey from a locked vault 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:18.769 to a world class institution. that lays bare 00:16:18.769 --> 00:16:21.269 both the heaviest moments of human history and 00:16:21.269 --> 00:16:23.350 the brightest possibilities of our future. This 00:16:23.350 --> 00:16:25.090 raises an important question, and it's something 00:16:25.090 --> 00:16:27.009 for you to mull over long after this deep dive 00:16:27.009 --> 00:16:29.509 is done. Let's hear it. We've traced how knowledge 00:16:29.509 --> 00:16:32.470 was initially locked away behind vault doors 00:16:32.470 --> 00:16:35.529 for the sake of strict security, and we saw how 00:16:35.529 --> 00:16:37.970 desperate the public was to understand it once 00:16:37.970 --> 00:16:40.710 those doors finally opened. When we lock away 00:16:40.710 --> 00:16:42.950 our most significant scientific breakthroughs, 00:16:42.950 --> 00:16:45.620 what happens to public understanding? That's 00:16:45.620 --> 00:16:48.019 a great point. As modern science advances into 00:16:48.019 --> 00:16:50.419 incredibly complex and potentially dangerous 00:16:50.419 --> 00:16:52.820 new frontiers today, whether we're talking about 00:16:52.820 --> 00:16:55.639 artificial intelligence, bioengineering, or new 00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:59.159 forms of energy, we always need that initial 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:03.259 icehouse phase of extreme secrecy. Or, having 00:17:03.259 --> 00:17:05.599 learned from the history of Los Alamos, can we 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:07.680 figure out how to build a public museum right 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:10.339 alongside the discovery, keeping the public informed 00:17:10.339 --> 00:17:13.170 every step of the way? That is a phenomenal thought 00:17:13.170 --> 00:17:14.910 to leave on. Thank you so much for joining us 00:17:14.910 --> 00:17:16.710 on this deep dive into the vault and the history 00:17:16.710 --> 00:17:18.750 of the Bradbury Science Museum. We hope you enjoyed 00:17:18.750 --> 00:17:20.630 the journey. And as always, we encourage you 00:17:20.630 --> 00:17:21.589 to keep exploring.