The Demon Core: Deadliest Plutonium Ball That Killed 2 Scientists

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]In 1945, Los Alamos scientists created something they called the demon core.

[00:00:05]A 6.2 kg sphere of plutonium that would kill two men in the most horrifying way possible. Harry Daghlian was the first to die.

[00:00:13]While working alone one night, he accidentally dropped a tungsten carbide brick onto the core. The room filled with a deadly blue glow as the plutonium went critical. Daghlian absorbed a massive dose of radiation. Over 25 agonizing days, his body slowly shut down, his skin peeled away, his white blood cell count plummeted to zero. Nine months later, Louis Slotin was demonstrating the same deadly experiment. He called it tickling the dragon's tail. When a screwdriver slipped, the core went critical again.

[00:00:42]Witnesses watched in horror as blue light filled the room. Slotin had threw himself onto the core to stop the reaction, saving his colleagues but sealing his own fate. He died nine days later in excruciating pain. Despite two deaths, Los Alamos continued the experiments. The demon core was eventually detonated in a nuclear test, finally destroying the cursed sphere that had claimed two brilliant minds.