"What more do you want, mermaids?"

The phrase was uttered by Nobel laureate Isidor Isaac Rabi during the Atomic Energy Commission's interrogation of friend and colleague J. Robert Oppenheimer. In 1954, for whatever reason (Suspicions of espionage? Communism? Antisemitism?) the US government became dissatisfied with the man who headed its Manhattan Project. Rabi and fellow researchers testified on Oppenheimer's behalf.

Let's think about that for a moment. What if, instead of working on the bomb, the Manhattan Project devoted itself to mermaids? Impossible, you say? Well, at the time, many said the same thing about the atomic bomb! So let's just say: improbable, not impossible. Anyway...

Rabi's point was that Oppenheimer had given America everything they asked for (the bomb), and yet, for whatever reason (Suspicions of espionage? Communism? Antisemitism?) it was not enough. The committee listened, agreed that he wasn't a spy or a communist, but pretty much exiled Oppenheimer anyway. Rabi carried on, but, sadly, not to create mermaids.

A world with no atomic bombs, but with mermaids? Doesn't sound too bad...