> You don't think those who worked on the Manhattan Project knew the deadly potential of the atom bomb?

Many of those who built the bomb became some of the strongest opponents. They were blinded by their passion. They were blinded by their fears. But once the bomb was built, once the bomb was dropped, it was hard to stay blind.

I say that this changed physicists, because you can't get a university degree without learning about this. They talk about the skeletons in the closet. They talk about how easy it is to fool yourself. Maybe it was the war and the power of the atom. Maybe it was the complexity of "new physics". Maybe it happened because the combination.

But what I can tell you, is that it became a very important lesson. One that no one wants to repeat:

it is not through malice, but through passion and fear that weapons of mass destruction are made.