From There Will Come Soft Rains, by Ray Bradbury
The following images were created when atomic bombs were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in on August 6th and 9th, 1945. Above: Shadows of bridge posts. Right: Shadow of valve wheel. Above: Shadow of man on steps Left: Shadow of person and ladder How were these shadows made?
The bombs created a permanent reminder of some objects and people. These creations are often called nuclear shadows and exist to this day. How did it work? Imagine that youre at the beach hoping to get tan. The sun emits ultraviolet (UV) rays which causes tanning, but may also lead to sunburns. Most people can avoid sunburns by applying sunblock which blocks many UV rays. But if you leave part of your body uncovered by the sunblock and the UV rays get through, you may get sunburned. A nuclear bomb explosion works in a similar way. The explosion acts as the sun does in the example above, except that instead of emitting UV rays it emits thermal radiation. The radiation will bleach anything it ends up hitting, much like the UV rays cause sunburns. But anything that gets in the waywill soak up those rays, effectively shielding whatever is behind it from the bleaching effect. In a real sense, the objects and peopleacted as a form of nuclear sunblock. The results are the imprinted shadows. Copyright Dan Lewis. All rights reserved.