The remarkable life and astonishing times of Dwight Smith Young | Hacker News Reader

The remarkable life and astonishing times of Dwight Smith Young

historyonthefox.wordpress.com

54 pointsomega36 comments

The article contains Young’s surviving eyewitness account of the much-memed ‘demon core’[0] incident involving Louis Slotin.

Young expresses anger at the pressure put on Slotin to enact the experiment so dangerously in person.

“ Hospitalized for observation, Young was released, but forever after blamed Slotin’s death on Groves’ insistence on obtaining test results before proper equipment was available. “There was no need to kill Louis Slotin to show that making critical mass measures should be made by remote control,” he wrote in 1975, still angry.”

As the demon-core incident is often attributed to Slotin showing off and his careless youthful bravado, Young’s account is valuable as is testifies that pressure for results from the head of the project Gen. Leslie Groves was the cause that the experiment was not performed remotely.

Young further testified that Slotin’s quick reactions saved him and others from a fatal dose.

“ Slotin immediately knocked the two hemispheres of radioactive material apart with his hand, probably saving the other technicians and scientists in the room—including Young—from immediate death. “

So Slotin was not a fool but under deadline pressure for results and his actions saved others.

Young is a fascinating chap, no formal science education but worked his way up to scientist and made the world’s first working breeder reactor in his spare time.

[0] “ The meme-ification of the “Demon Core””

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42200699

Both can be simultaneously true. Slotin was already regarded as impatient and reckless before said accident - perhaps these types of missions tend to fall on those predisposed to take them.

I had a near miss in my 20s in a research context. In retrospect it was very close. It was really unimportant research. I think its important not to assume too much intent here on behalf of Slotin. He might have been angry or jubilant or hungover or disatracted.

That was a wonderful read. Makes you wonder how many stories like these are out there. A lot of fascinating life stories we'll never know.

Agreed. There's a lot of folks that get very little credit, because they don't have the credentials required by "gatekeepers," or are pretty bad at self-promotion (or both).

People who really enjoy their work, may not care about whether or not they get much credit, don't really care that much about money, and consider self-promotion to be a waste of time, and often, arrogant.

If you start at the bottom, and shoehorn your way in, you get used to keeping your head down, and not pissing off the gatekeepers. Often, helping them to look good, is how you get to play with The Fun Toys.

Amen. Often when out with coworkers for drinks I'll spill 1 or 2 of the amazing experiences I've been a part of and folks are incredulous. As long as I am making enough to live the kind of life I want to provide for my family who cares if I'm middle management or some executive. When I get bored I'll spend 6 months on some new adventure, then go back to my staid boring life in industry. Don't need the headaches that come with becoming an executive or running an independent business.

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