Human civilization has a history of more than 5,000 years. If you know something about the history of human civilization, you will find that the history of human civilization is actually a history of war. From ancient times to the present, large and small wars within mankind have never really stopped, and wars are inseparable from the use of various weapons.
In the war of primitive civilization, people used wooden sticks and stone tools, and later iron tools were developed, and then gunpowder was invented in our country. Since the birth of gunpowder, the mode of war has been constantly escalating. For cold weapons, the weapons made by gunpowder are undoubtedly very powerful.
At that time, which country possesses powerful gunpowder manufacturing technology will have an absolute advantage in war. With the continuous development of human civilization, the weapons made by gunpowder are no longer the most powerful weapons of mankind. In the latter part of World War II, the explosion of the atomic bomb made us re-understand what is a terrible weapon of destruction.
Atomic bombs and gunpowder weapons are completely two types of weapons, and they are completely incomparable in terms of power. In the latter part of World War II in the last century, the United States directly dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, which made Japan obediently and unconditionally surrender. It can be seen how terrible the power of the atomic bomb is. It is precisely because of this kind of national artifact that after World War II, many countries began to study atomic bombs.
The power of today’s atomic bomb has changed drastically from the original time, and it is not at the same level. So is the scientific theory of making atomic bombs easy to obtain? The answer is yes, if you go to the Internet to search for some principles or manufacturing process of the atomic bomb, you can easily get it. The scientific theories related to the atomic bomb are actually not secrets in the scientific circle.
The scientific principle of the atomic bomb is so easy to obtain, so we can’t help but have a worry, that is, we are afraid that someone will create it privately and bring a huge crisis to mankind. So is this worry necessary? In fact, there is no need at all. If the atomic bomb can be easily manufactured by understanding the principles and manufacturing methods, then the relevant theories of the atomic bomb will not become public knowledge.
Even if you ask a high school student or even some better junior high school students now, they will be able to popularize the relevant theories of the atomic bomb. It can be seen that the various scientific theories contained in the atomic bomb are not secrets. Since we are not afraid of these theories becoming universal knowledge, it means that the manufacture of atomic bombs is far more difficult than we thought.
In fact, it is true that the theory of the atomic bomb originated from Einstein’s mass-energy equation E=mc^2. I believe everyone is very familiar with this equation. It achieves the unity of mass and energy, and mass loss will be released in the form of energy. The core theory of the atomic bomb is like this. In the process of exploding through the atom, the lost mass is released in the form of energy, which produces the power of destroying the world.
According to this formula, we know that for every 1,000 kilograms of mass lost, the power equivalent to 10 billion tons of TNT explosives can be released. Now that we know the principle of the atomic bomb, can it be made? Obviously it is impossible. The mass lost by the atomic bomb comes from the fission or fusion of the atomic nucleus, but the atomic nucleus is very stable. To make it lose mass and release energy requires very high technology.
The principle of the atomic bomb was no longer a secret after Einstein proposed the mass-energy equation. At that time, many countries in the world wanted to build atomic bombs based on this principle, but why did the United States succeed in the end? You must know that at that time, the most powerful country in the world was not the United States, but Germany.
There are many famous scientists in Germany, such as Heisenberg, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, who is in charge of Germany’s atomic bomb project. In addition to Heisenberg, Germany also had some of the best scientists in the world at the time, such as Planck, Bonn, and Hahn.
But even such a powerful Germany, with so many outstanding scientists, did not produce an atomic bomb. At that time, Britain and France also joined the development project of the atomic bomb. The persons in charge were all the big cows in the scientific community at that time. Even so, they all discovered that the atomic bomb could not be produced with their own power, and finally chose to join forces with the United States. The power of many countries finally made the atomic bomb appear.
Why is it so difficult to manufacture the atomic bomb? Mainly in terms of raw materials, the manufacturing and development of any weapon is inseparable from materials. Gunpowder weapons require gunpowder, while the raw material required for atomic bombs is uranium-235. This is a radioactive element, and its reserves on the earth are very small.
Uranium 235 needs to be extracted from uranium ore, and the abundance of the isotope 235 in natural uranium is only 0.72%. To make an atomic bomb requires a uranium content of more than 90%. To achieve this purity, we need to extract uranium ore, which is the same as extracting gold from gold ore.
However, it is not easy to extract uranium from uranium ore. The main methods are electromagnetic separation, gas diffusion and thermal diffusion. The principles of these technologies are also not a secret. At the same time, the atomic bomb still needs plutonium-239 as raw material, and it is very difficult to obtain plutonium-239.
Therefore, many countries at that time knew the principle of the atomic bomb and the specific manufacturing method, but it was limited by the material and could not succeed. Even now, we can basically say one, two, three, four about the principles of the atomic bomb, but with these principles, it is impossible to succeed without materials. The real difficulty in making an atomic bomb is the acquisition of raw materials.
As long as one hundred kilograms of uranium-235 with a purity of 99%, an ordinary machinery factory can create a nuclear explosive device, which is equivalent to our steaming steamed buns. You can find steaming steamed buns technology on the Internet, but not Give you white noodles, you can’t make buns if you have the skills.
It can be seen that for any technology to be applied in practice, theoretical knowledge is one aspect, and other aspects need to be able to keep up. In the 21st century, human science and technology are changing with each passing day, and they have undergone earth-shaking changes compared with the previous century. But if we analyze carefully, you will find that the basic principles behind these technologies of the 21st century are basically derived from those basic theories put forward by the great scientists of the last century.
Without those basic theories, it is impossible for the technology of the 21st century to achieve leap again and again. From this point, we can also see that the importance of basic scientific theories, although with basic theories, it may not be possible to make it a real scientific and technological product, but without it, no science and technology can be realized.
Humans’ current exploration of the universe is limited by speed and cannot truly achieve interstellar navigation. The core reason is that there is no new great basic theory about speed. Scientists conjecture that space jumps, curvature navigation, wormhole shuttles, etc. can enable humans to achieve interstellar navigation. However, how we can turn these conjecture theories into formula basic theories is a big problem that humans need to face at present.
This is one reason why scientists really want to contact alien civilizations. If human beings can contact and communicate with an interstellar civilization, then in the eyes of interstellar civilization, the very backward scientific theories may be advanced science in the human world. For example, the basic theory required for curvature navigation is completely unknown to human beings, but in interstellar civilization, it may be something that can be searched casually on the Internet.
As long as we have the guidance of basic theory, we have the direction of research and exploration. Just as the realization of the atomic bomb, it is precisely because of the guidance of Einstein’s mass-energy equation that it can become a reality and become the most powerful mankind at present. arms.