Doomsday Machines -- a historical blog about the post-apocalyptic imagination in fact and fiction

Office Hours February 03, 2025: Questions and Discussion about Navigating Academia, School, and the Subreddit

What people in the late 20th century are or could be considered Renaissance Men or a Polymath?

What are some research/document mgmt tools you use in research?

Why aren't bicycles more common in post-apocalyptic fiction?

In the movie Dr. Strangelove, when Dr. Strangelove regains the movement of his legs, which some say it symbolizes the return of nazism, the world ends in clouds of atomic bomb explosions

Nagasaki mission. Radar attack?

TIL that during the Cold War, the U.S. developed the Davy Crockett, a recoilless rifle that fired one of the smallest nuclear warheads ever made.

I’ve been seeing posts along the lines that “it only took 53 days for Hitler to dismantle democracy in Germany”. Is this true, and what context should people have around it?

Why are the bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki talked about as if it was an unprecedented ethical dilemma when the allies had been bombing cities for the duration of WW2?

ELI5: Why are animals strong without working out?

Was The Royal Society only open for the wealthy?

How did philosophy of a given period influence the "real world" (i.e. that outside of philosophical academia)?

Do historians think Truman was justified in escalating into the Cold War?

If you are a professor in NYC, how much do you make?

How do you manage your to-do lists and tasks as a TT professor?

To what extent was Albert Einstein ostracized outside of Nazi Germany as is implied in Oppenheimer (2023)?

How to combine my two majors, English and Anthropology, in grad school?

Cold War: Did military strategists not believe that nuclear war would lead to the end of civilization?

What kinds of internal divisions existed within the Manhattan Project?

Definitely not Thermodynamics

What did "splitting the atom" mean to the public prior to the end of WW2?

Is Michael Parenti correct in his claim that there was less of an "Arms Race" during the Cold War and more of an "Arms Chase"?

In 1950, the US Navy dropped "harmless" bacteria over San Francisco in a secret biodefense experiment. At least 11 people were infected and 1 died. Today, it is well-known that even "harmless" bacteria can cause serious infections under the right circumstances. Was this really not the case in 1950?

Possible capture of Teller Light