LOS ALAMOS HISTORY
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Learn / Research >
      • Information For Teachers
      • Teachers and Caregivers
      • Adult Resources >
        • National History Day
        • Homestead Driving Tour
        • History at Home
        • Pioneering Women in Los Alamos
        • Development of the Atomic Bomb
        • Links and Resources
      • Archive >
        • About the Archive
        • Research Appointments
        • Inside the Archives
        • Share Your Stories
        • COVID-19 Collecting
    • Careers/Jobs
    • Who We Are
    • Contact
  • Plan Your Visit
    • Museum Campus
    • Museum >
      • Exhibits >
        • Online and Temporary Exhibits
      • Victory Garden
      • Explore Los Alamos
    • Tours
    • Oppenheimer House
  • Programs
    • Upcoming Events
    • Lecture Series
    • Spring 2023 Tour to Trinity
    • History Award
    • Los Alamos / Japan Project
    • Volunteer Training
  • Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate to Projects
    • Legacy Society
    • Collections Donations
    • Donate Your Time- Volunteer
  • History Blog
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Children's Books & Gifts
    • Apparel
    • Gifts

​History Blog

A Journalist At Trinity And Over Nagasaki

9/25/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
New York Times journalist William Laurence. Courtesy image
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society

Journalist William Laurence already had a keen interest in science when he attended the Harvard Tercentenary Conference of Arts and Sciences in 1936. Four years later he attended a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to hear a young scientist named Robert Oppenheimer. At that time, Laurence could never have imagined where his interests in science would take him.

Laurence was born in Lithuania but eventually made his way to the United States where he left his birth name behind and became William Leonard Laurence, a naturalized U.S. citizen. He studied at Harvard until joining the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War I.

​After returning from the war, Laurence earned a law degree at Boston University School of Law but chose to pursue a job as a newspaper reporter. In 1930, he began writing on scientific topics for The New York Times. Seven years later he won the first of two Pulitzer Prizes for reporting. He was advancing through an amazing career, but it was about to speed up.
Laurence was familiar with the work of Enrico Fermi and Niels Bohr and the discoveries being made in atomic research. On May 5, 1940, he wrote a front-page exclusive in The New York Times on successful attempts in isolating uranium-235, which had been reported in the Physical Review. He wrote of a possible future for nuclear power but was concerned that Nazi Germany was also developing atomic energy. The headline read “Vast Power Source in Atomic Energy Opened by Science.” Four months later another Laurence headline read “The Atom Gives Up,” and the article foresaw the potential for harnessing atomic energy.

Not surprisingly, Laurence attracted the attention of Manhattan Project officials, and when Gen. Leslie Groves foresaw the need for a good reporter in the spring of 1945, he thought of William Laurence. He went to the managing editor of The New York Times and asked to borrow his science reporter. Mysteriously, Laurence disappeared from the newsroom. It was a good arrangement. Groves got his knowledgeable reporter, and the Times got the scoop of the century.

On July 16, 1945, William Laurence witnessed the Trinity Test. According to the Atomic Heritage Foundation’s record of the event, Laurence was 20 miles from Ground Zero and “drafted his own obituary—just in case.” He took copious notes in those early morning hours, and among them “he described Edward Teller applying sunscreen to prepare for the blast.” Three weeks later, on Tinian Island, Laurence witnessed the departure and return of the Enola Gay. He arranged for the co-pilot, Robert Lewis, to keep a log of the flight for Laurence’s use.

Then, three days later, at the last minute, Laurence was allowed to board The Great Artiste, the instrument plane that accompanied Bockscar on the Nagasaki Mission. William Laurence won his second Pulitzer Prize in 1946 for his coverage of the Manhattan Project.
In 1965, Laurence reviewed Day of Trinity by Lansing Lamont for The Times Book Review. His words were powerful and are still significant today:
​

“In the predawn darkness of Monday, July 16, 1945, a small group of men, including this writer, stood in the primeval desert near Alamogordo, N.M., and watched the birth of a new age. On that morning, when the first atomic bomb sent up a mountain of cosmic fire…the world we lived in came to an end, though few of us realize it even now. The new world that was born is still in the making, and no one yet knows what kind of world it will finally be.”
William Laurence continued to research and write of the potential of atomic energy until his death in 1977 at age 89.
1 Comment
Dua Frey link
2/27/2021 08:28:59 pm

Good readingg this post

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    About

    These articles are written by the Los Alamos Historical Society Staff. Many of these articles were originally published by the
    ​Los Alamos Daily Post.  

    Categories

    All
    Ancestral Pueblo
    Archives
    Ashley Pond Jr.
    Atomic Energy Commission
    Bathtub Row
    Bathtub Row Press
    Bohr
    Camp May
    Cold War
    Community
    Dog
    Fallout Shelter
    Fuller Lodge
    Gardening
    Hans Bethe
    Helene Suydam
    Homer Pickens
    Homesteading
    Interns
    Jennet Conant
    John Saw Meem
    Katherine Stinson
    Los Alamos Ranch School
    Manhattan Project
    Martini
    Movie
    Museum
    Oppenheimer
    Pajarito Club
    Peggy Pond Church
    Pierottis' Clowns
    Raemer Schrieber
    Rose Garden
    Rover Project
    Severo Gonzales
    Sig Hecker
    Stan Ulam
    Trinity
    Walking Tour
    Women's Army Corp (WAC)
    World War II

    Archives

    March 2023
    November 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

Home
About
Contact
Plan Your Visit
Shop
​Events
The Los Alamos Historical Society preserves, promotes, and communicates the remarkable history and inspiring stories of Los Alamos and its people for our community, for the global audience, and for future generations. 
Become a Member!
Los Alamos History Museum Logo
Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Learn / Research >
      • Information For Teachers
      • Teachers and Caregivers
      • Adult Resources >
        • National History Day
        • Homestead Driving Tour
        • History at Home
        • Pioneering Women in Los Alamos
        • Development of the Atomic Bomb
        • Links and Resources
      • Archive >
        • About the Archive
        • Research Appointments
        • Inside the Archives
        • Share Your Stories
        • COVID-19 Collecting
    • Careers/Jobs
    • Who We Are
    • Contact
  • Plan Your Visit
    • Museum Campus
    • Museum >
      • Exhibits >
        • Online and Temporary Exhibits
      • Victory Garden
      • Explore Los Alamos
    • Tours
    • Oppenheimer House
  • Programs
    • Upcoming Events
    • Lecture Series
    • Spring 2023 Tour to Trinity
    • History Award
    • Los Alamos / Japan Project
    • Volunteer Training
  • Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate to Projects
    • Legacy Society
    • Collections Donations
    • Donate Your Time- Volunteer
  • History Blog
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Children's Books & Gifts
    • Apparel
    • Gifts