Harry Daghlian

Haroutune Krikor Daghlian Jr., born on May 4, 1921, was an American physicist who played a significant role in the Manhattan Project, the secret initiative that developed the atomic bombs used during World War II.

Tragically, Daghlian's life was cut short due to a criticality accident that occurred on August 21, 1945. While conducting an experiment at the Omega Site of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, he accidentally dropped a tungsten carbide brick onto a plutonium-gallium alloy bomb core weighing six point two kilograms. This incident led to his accidental irradiation.

Despite the immediate medical attention he received, Daghlian succumbed to radiation poisoning just twenty-five days later, on September 15, 1945. His untimely death marked a somber moment in the history of nuclear physics and highlighted the dangers associated with the experiments of that era.

The bomb core involved in Daghlian's accident was later infamously referred to as the 'demon core,' as it was also linked to the death of another physicist, Louis Slotin, underscoring the perilous nature of nuclear experimentation.