splitting the atom

Scientists based in Manchester, not the US, made the "key breakthrough" in splitting the atom, despite Donald Trump's claims in his inaugural speech, says a lecturer at one of the city's universities.

"There are various different developments which are considered to be splitting the atom in different senses," Dr Sumner said.

Researchers there were the first to generate electricity from splitting the atom back in 1951, and countless scientists have since visited the remote site to test reactor designs.

Almost no one linked that possibility to the massive scientific breakthrough of splitting the atom.

But apart from identifying who actually understood the science, it was the implications of splitting the atom in 1939 that was about to truly test their relationship.