Comment Some bet (Score 1) 37
I had become a bit annoyed with Fermi when he suddenly offered to take wagers from his fellow scientists on whether or not the bomb would ignite the atmosphere, and if so, whether it would merely destroy New Mexico or destroy the world.
Seems a dumb bet, as if it had blown up the entire state or the world, nobody would be alive to pay up. Perhaps Fermi was just trolling.
By the way, we have similar decision coming up as to whether to bring Mars samples back to Earth. There's a non-zero chance they will have microbes we have no immunity for, and all parish. I realize we already have meteorites blasted off Mars, but they were heated both on the way up and down.