Daily quiz: in honour of the world’s first artificial nuclear reactor, on its birth anniversary

1 / 5 |
Though X described the world’s first artificial nuclear reactor as a “crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers”, Chicago Pile-1 was actually quite safe — a reputation it had acquired from X himself, a uniquely astute and self-assured physicist who served as its scientific leader. Name X.

2 / 5 |
Y was the only woman present when the Chicago Pile-1 went critical (on this day 82 years ago), i.e. hosted a sustainable fission reaction. When it did, Y asked X (from Q1), “When do we become scared?” Name Y.

3 / 5 |
Chicago Pile-1 was the first success of the Manhattan Project and realised the practical value of a phenomenon Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann had discovered and which Otto Frisch and Z explained — both in 1938. Name Z.

4 / 5 |
The American and the Nazi German efforts to develop an atomic weapon deviated on the idea of pure graphite’s ability to absorb neutrons. The Americans succeeded because they realised the graphite shouldn’t have any atoms of a particular element. Name this element.

5 / 5 |
Until 1957, the University of Chicago had a football field called the _____ _____. Its western portion hosted a squash court, and Chicago Pile-1 was built and first oeprated under this court. Fill in the blanks.