The US Army\u2019s Trinity test in 1945, the first-ever demonstration of a nuclear weapon, was a grim inflection point in human history: the prelude to the deadly attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a remaking of the global order, the apocalyptic shadow of which we all now live beneath.<\/p>\n
In the irradiated crater it left behind, scientists discovered a glassy remnant later dubbed trinitite, a byproduct of New Mexico desert sand and leftover test site like a tower and coaxial cables, fused together and transformed by the unimaginable heat and force of the blast. Most of the stuff is a greyish-green material, but a rare variation, which takes the form of a red crystal, has long been a source of fascination due to its nightmarish visage, which features bulbous protrusions vaguely evoking the horror of exposed flesh.<\/p>\n
Now, a new study<\/a> published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used CT and X-ray scans to probe the composition of the mysterious crystal. In the process, they found something bizarre: a material called a clathrate, which traps atoms inside its lattice and which had never previously been observed in the natural world or even the wreckage of a nuclear explosion.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a completely new kind of clathrate crystal \u2014 something never seen before in nature or in the products of a nuclear explosion,\u201d University of Florence geologist Luca Bindi, who co-authored the new paper, told Scientific American<\/a>.<\/p>\n The research underscores the radioactive nightmare of nuclear warfare, which creates conditions so extreme that they defy comprehension even after nearly a century.<\/p>\n And if you were thinking of heading out to the New Mexico desert to find some for yourself, tread carefully \u2014 it\u2019s illegal to gather the stuff<\/a>.<\/p>\n