Plutonium: A History of the World’s Most Dangerous Element

The element plutonium was first manufactured in the laboratory at Berkeley in 1941. There was so little of it that it was impossible to see with the naked eye. Now we face a much different problem—we've produced so much that we don't know how to get rid of it. This morning on Focus, we'll explore the history of this dangerous element with physicist Jeremy Bernstein, who will explain how despite its humble start as a laboratory novelty, plutonium soon became the most destructive weapon the world had ever known.

Guest: Jeremy Bernstein (Professor Emeritus at Stevens Institute of Technology; former Staff Writer for The New Yorker; author of Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element)