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The Smyth Report is the common name of an administrative history written by physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth about the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to develop atomic bombs during World War II. It was released to the public on August 12, 1945, just days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Smyth was commissioned to write the report by Major General Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project. The Smyth Report was the first official account of the development of the atomic bombs and the basic physical processes behind them. Since anything in the declassified Smyth Report could be discussed openly, it focused heavily on basic nuclear physics and other information which was either already widely known in the scientific community or easily deducible by a competent scientist. It omitted details about chemistry, metallurgy, and ordnance, ultimately giving a false impression that the Manhattan Project was all about physics. The Smyth Report sold almost 127,000 copies in its first eight printings, and was on the New York Times best-seller list from mid-October 1945 until late January 1946. It has been translated into over 40 languages. (Full article...)

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San Giacomo (right) in Piazza Scossacavalli

... that the church of San Giacomo Scossacavalli (pictured) in Rome, demolished in 1937, probably derived its name from a horse thigh?
... that a 1654 catalog of celestial objects was forgotten until 1985?
... that Sir Leonard Redshaw was part of a "Suicide Squad" of scientists and engineers who would be first responders in disasters involving nuclear reactors?
... that Slough Fort in Kent was one of around 70 forts constructed on the English coast in the 1860s in response to fears of a possible French invasion?
... that Canadian football player Corbin Sharun caught a 35-yard pass from holder Matt Nichols following a failed field goal snap, earning each player his first career touchdown?
... that until this year, the African golden wolf was classified as the Eurasian golden jackal?
... that the perpetrator of the beheading of Palmira Silva was found not guilty by reason of insanity?
... that the side missions featured in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 are known as "war crimes"?

In the news

Typhoon Soudelor on August 4

Typhoon Soudelor (pictured) makes landfalls in Taiwan and eastern China, killing at least 29 people and injuring hundreds more.
A new 35 km (22 mi)-long bypass channel of Egypt's Suez Canal is officially opened, approximately doubling the canal's capacity.
A toxic spill occurs at Gold King Mine near Durango, Colorado, contaminating a river in southern Colorado and threatening other waterways.
Debris found washed ashore on Réunion is confirmed to be from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing in March 2014.
At least 31 people die when a flash flood derails two trains in Madhya Pradesh, India.
The International Olympic Committee selects Beijing as the host city of the 2022 Winter Games.

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On this day...

August 12: Queen Sirikit's Birthday and Mother's Day in Thailand

Sue the Tyrannosaurus

30 BC – Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, committed suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
1676 – Puritans and their Native American allies killed Wampanoag sachem Metacomet (known as "King Philip"), essentially ending King Philip's War.
1883 – The last known quagga, a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed into the ridge of Mount Takamagahara in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520 of 524 on board in the world's worst single-aircraft aviation disaster.
1990 – American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus ever discovered (pictured) near Faith, South Dakota, US.

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Today's featured picture

Ein Avdat, a canyon in the Negev Desert of southern Israel, as seen from Midreshet Ben-Gurion. Numerous springs at the southern opening of the canyon empty into deep pools in series of waterfalls. The water emerges from the rock layers with salt-loving plants like poplars and atriplexes growing nearby. Archaeological evidence indicates that the canyon has been inhabited for more than 80,000 years, dating back at least to the Mousterian culture.

Photograph: Andrew Shiva

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