Suicide bombers, shoe bombers, cluster bombs, missiles so sophisticated they can follow street directions: this is the modern world we inhabit. Bombs have become a detestable part of contemporary life, recently claiming Irish victims in London and Turkey. It continues to hold a tight grip on our imaginations. Of a population of 300,000, barely a third survived. A 1,000mph (160km/hr) wind instantaneously spread the heat across the city in a blinding flash of light. In the first billionth of a second, the temperature reached 60 million degrees.
The first nuclear weapon - codenamed Little Boy - was dropped into the freezing skies above Hiroshima in Japan, writes Richard Aldousįorty-five seconds after that, the bomb detonated with immediate cataclysmic effect.
Exactly 15 seconds later the world changed forever. History: At 08:15:02 on August 6th, 1945, Bob Lewis, co-pilot on the US B-29 bomber Enola Gay, scribbled quickly into the plane's log: 'There will be a short intermission while we bomb our target'.
