h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

(Yes - that was just my little joke about giving away the big secret)

Focus on scientific research - newness - what squash players do off court in their spare time, 1942 - and censorship.

So, this Bush feller drew up papers on some supposedly highly secret something-or-other then someone relevant made a *slip-up* to draw attention to it... a bit like The man who Never Was sort of thing

?

Not really. Bush helped organise the censor (Recruiting him from the office across the hall - as it happens) what I'm still after is, what was it they were censoring? It wasn't peer-reviewed academic papers, which has been the closest guess so far, or stories/leaks in newspapers (of which more later in the explanation) but neither of these is correct.

The first atomic pile was in (the same, I assume) squash courts or thereabouts. The magnets used for the centrifuges for enriching uranium ended up using something like 30% of all the silver in the US. Was it something to do with disguising the use of all that silver?

I'll give that a DGI+1 for "raw materials"

I've been having a google, so I'm out, but is it either the March report, or the response?

I've googled further, and No, it's not.

I'm now snooping through what I believe (hope) it really is.

Scientists who were working on the Bomb caught a 'flu, and the French tried to steal their used handkerchiefs in the wild hope of finding traces of uranium in the boogers. The US government censored sneezing, cats, dust and flowers.

Deadangel - disqualified.

No googling or wikipedia allowed.

Nope.

I suggest a careful re-read of all the posts so far while I do the same, and construct a helpful summary of all salient points.

Was I on the right lines with chemical analysis Clive?

I'm struggling desperately to remember the basics of making a nuke and I think that enriching uranium takes certain chemicals (something tetrafluoride?) that would dissolve in alcohol (as many, many compounds do).

The squash players, being students/university staff, liked to drink a lot after work/study and the alcohol consumed either interfered with the enrichment process or would cause traces to be found where spies might get a look.

What was "The French Problem" and what did the US Government successfully censor because of it?

-----------------


DGI +1 for espionage.
The sharing of nuclear secrets is correct +3
but what did the Americans do about it (and it's very specific)

There is a clue in the title.

"QI - Penning an open letter"

There's also a slightly tenuous (as in I don't want this to confuse you) link to something that appears regularly in TV shows like CSI.

[Did the censor] scientific Research? Not all of it, I just mean that each piece must be given an OK stamp before it is released? DGI +1

Did he stop all scientific papers deriving from the Manhattan project being published/sent for peer review?
Along the right lines but that's not it.

There was someone - a type of person - who Vandeveer Bush lived in mortal fear of, and who became the focus of the secret project that is the basis of this QI - and it wasn't spies, at least not initially.


[This QI is set] in 1942, remember. It's important to recognise that by 1942 no bomb had been constructed or tested, it was until December of that year that Enrico Fermi performed the 1st man-made (the at least 17th terrestrial-bound) nuclear fission chain reaction (see "QI - 'Culture and Infamy') Oppenheimer is doing his work on chain reactions around this time. It's all building towards the climax we are terribly familiar with.

And it's in this febrile and creative period that Bush acts. But what did he do?

Nope Vandeevar Bush was intensely relaxed about squash players sporting activities, but if you like, he was professionally concerned about what they [or anyone for that matter - Clive.] might get up to in their spare time off the court.

a public paper became secret. (i.e was censored) - what you've to figure ut is what kind of public paper.

On the matter of 'having a bomb that wouldn't work.' you are so tantalisingly close.

There *is* a significant link to Edward Teller, but it's got nothing to do with surnames.

Clue: The novelty of the new.

Hint: Focus on scientific research - newness - what squash players do off court in their spare time, 1942 - and censorship.

Not really. Bush helped organise the censor (Recruiting him from the office across the hall - as it happens) what I'm still after is, what was it they were censoring? It wasn't peer-reviewed academic papers, which has been the closest guess so far, or stories/leaks in newspapers (of which more later in the explanation) but neither of these is correct.

DGI+1 for "raw materials"

Hi Iago.

Re: chemical analyses, if anything that plays more towards the CSI clue from earlier.

>>I'm struggling desperately to remember the basics of making a nuke<<
Don't worry it's not that kind of question. Nothing technical like that.

Re: The squash players - I leapt on that reference (and why not?) not because there's anything significant to their playing squash or their day jobs but specifically for their totem as ordinary joes who might be doing somethign else in the evenings, perhaps in the garden shed, while the wife makes tea, a slightly eccentric pastime that they might *also* be doing *other than* playing squash.

Deadangel asked off-thread if this has anything to do with the Atomic Energy Act 1946?

I felt this worth sharing.

The answer is no.

But it has everything to do with what immediately preceded it.

Radio Hams?

Science fiction stories?

Good guesses.

Not radio hams or Sci-fi writers.

I'm off having my dinner but I'll leave you with one further (hopefully clarifying) post

The French problem relates to the sharing of nuclear secrets - the question is how might they be shared.

the censorship was of a type of document normally public (in function the raison detre of public documents) which is why it's censorship was so unusual.


A couple of guess have orbited close. "Raw materials" got a DGI also I've been stressing in 1942, the bomb wasn't built yet, and I was very positive about "having a bomb that wouldn't work" if you can think of a state of affairs than can satisfy the sharing of nuclear secrets, public documents, an un-constructed bomb, you'll have it.

...and I'm back.

Is it the first time mail was censored?

Ah, an intelligent idea!

No it was not the mail. - I can see how you would have got there though.

It's something less personal and more official.