Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films
<i>&quot;You can smell vinegar when you open the cans, which is one of the byproducts of the decomposition process of these films,&quot; Spriggs said. &quot;We know that these films are on the brink of decomposing to the point where they&#x27;ll become useless. The data that we&#x27;re collecting now must be preserved in a digital form because no matter how well you treat the films, no matter how well you preserve or store them, they will decompose. They&#x27;re made out of organic material, and organic material decomposes. So this is it. We got to this project just in time to save the data.&quot;</i><p>That&#x27;s... incredible. Then it sounds like they used a DNN or something similar to analyze the rate of fireball expansion in the films to refine their earlier estimates of yield.<p>What a beautifully subtle use of tech.