The Disappearing Spoon podcast

What a bizarre site in Africa—a 1.7-billion-year-old, completely natural nuclear reactor—says about the future of energy production on planet Earth.

The Science History Institute has teamed up with New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean to bring a second history of science podcast to our listeners. The Disappearing Spoon tells little-known stories from our scientific past—from the shocking way the smallpox vaccine was transported around the world to why we don’t have a birth control pill for men. These topsy-turvy science tales, some of which have never made it into history books, are surprisingly powerful and insightful.

When the French authorities learned about the missing uranium, one terrible thought raced through their minds. That someone had stolen it, to make rogue atomic bombs.

They had good reason to worry. It was the early 1970s, a time of widespread terrorism around the world. During one eighteen-month stretch, the FBI recorded 2,500 bombings in the United States alone—five every day. Europe was just as bad. And it all culminated in the awful massacres at the 1972 Olympics.

Leave a Comment