Corbis Publishing examines the genesis of the nuclear age in the extraordinary Critical Mass: America's Race to Build the Atomic Bomb. This CD-ROM succeeds on so many levels, it's difficult to list them all. Let's face it, nuclear physics is a complex (and potentially boring) topic. The people at Corbis (who brought you A Passion for Art) have risen to the challenge, making this disk a joy to use. Graphics and pictures are clean and pleasing to the eye, each individual page showing hours of effort. Controls are simple, obvious, and intuitive. The main menu (presented in the form of a Los Alamos office) should set the standard by which all menus are judged. Sound is crystal clear, and the original music score is appropriately sad and contemplative.
The writing also shines. Narrated tours examine the circumstances that led to the Manhattan Project, as well as the actual effort at Los Alamos. You'll get to know such complex individuals as Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr, and Richard Feynman. Feynman's biography (the man who later deduced the Challenger O-ring failure) includes samples of his artwork, and a recording of him playing the bongos. A section on scientific basics helps explain the complexities of atomic theory and quantum mechanics. Overall, Critical Mass is extremely balanced, presenting the facts, and rarely sermonizing.
The multimedia extras make this great CD-ROM truly indispensable. Flash Gordon avoids a cosmic ray. President Truman explains why he authorized the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Stan Lee reminisces about Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk (with accompanying reprints of the original comic books). Bill Haley and the Comets sing about a pleasant life in the aftermath of the unthinkable. Plus, there are enough mushroom clouds to make a very disturbing psychological salad.
Want to know more about wartime Los Alamos? Take an innovative 3-D virtual tour of the past, examining key buildings, from the commissary to the experimental physics lab. Interviews with people who lived and worked at the secret site help create a tangible sense of life on the edge of history. Other features include a timeline of scientific, cultural, and military events. An atomic atlas shows locations of key nuclear tests and accidents. Beyond Trinity is a self-paced interactive slide show that displays 300 varied snapshots from the atomic age.
Critical Mass is not without its share of real-life surprises. Did you know that hydrogen bombs disperse little radioactivity after an explosion? American and Russian scientists added layers of radioactivity to H-bombs to make them "dirty." The disc also contains a number of secret government documents, some only recently declassified.
Critical Mass succeeds as a testament to the men and women who unflinchingly peered into the atom, and for good or ill, changed our world forever. It remains to us to use that power wisely. Radiation therapy and Chernobyl are both the children of that test in the desert, 51 years ago . . . and counting.
Mike Butzgy is a multimedia writer and freelancer who lives in Raleigh, NC. His e-mail address is atomicrom@aol.com. .
©1996, ProMotion, inc.