Skip to main content

The Man Who Saved The World From Nuclear War

You might have seen super heroes saving the planet from monster attacks and alien invasion. Are all of those super heroes saving the world just stories or there are instances where some hero saved the world from a terrible catastrophes? Let's jump right into the story of  Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov who saved the world from a nuclear war.
On 26th September 1983, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system. He was a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defense Forces. His job was to monitor signs of incoming missiles and report to the higher officials in case of an attack. On that day, for the first time the nuclear early warning system of the Soviet Union reported the launch of multiple USAF Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles from bases in the United States. What Petrov decided to do saved the world from a nuclear war on that day. so, what was the amazing act he did? He didn't report it to anyone ! The reason is that he had a gut instinct that it was a false alarm and he was right about that. The early warning system had some malfunction which led to  the false alarm.
Since he saved the world from a nuclear war, he might have got some pretty honorable rewards right? The only reward he received was giving him a punishment of changing his position to less sensitive part of the defense department. Petrov was unable to explain why he felt it was a false alarm. Later on he told that he believes what might have led to that gut instinct could be the reasons like the number of missile launches he detected in the system. Since it was during the cold war the United States who is having a huge number of nuclear missiles with them wouldn't make such a wrong move when they are striking first. It was logically wrong. The system had detected only six nuclear missile launch and that doesn't seem to be a clever move. so his gut instinct made him believe that it was a false alarm. 
The man who saved the world by trusting his gut instinct left this world on 19 May 2017 at the age of 77.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What Is a Gravitational Wave And Why Is It a Big Deal..?

Gravitational wave is a concept that Albert Einstein predicted in 1916. Albert Einstein proposed an idea that gravity comes from the warps and curves in the fabric of space. Gravitational wave is actually like a ripple in the fabric of space. According to Einstein if rapidly orbiting neutron stars or black holes occur on the fabric of space, it creates ripples and these ripples are called as the gravitational waves. As the gravitational waves passes by anything, it stretches and compresses it. If we take the case of earth, the ripples will stretch and compress the earth by less than an atomic diameter. Scientists at Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory discovered the first gravitational wave  on 14 September 2015 and was announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016. Virgo Interferometer, Italy Since the stretching and compression is of very small size, it is not practical to measure it directly. But scientists have came up w...

Levitating a Ball on a Jet of Water (Hydrodynamic Levitation)

Can you actually balance a ball on top of a jet of water..? If the mass of the ball is small enough for the for the upward stream of water, then yes you can. Science behind this is called Hydro Dynamic Levitation. You can not only balance a ball, but also a disc on it's curved side. Amazed..? Let's discuss how it works. When the water jet touches the side of the ball, it gives an upward force on the side of the ball there by initiating the spin. since the water sticks on to the spinning ball it gets thrown over to the other side of the ball. Thus the ball applies a force on to the water in an outward direction. Since the ball is in a constant spin, it maintains the angular momentum. The force opposing of water thrown over to the other side and the stickiness of water on the side of the ball lets the ball to achieve equilibrium and stay spinning. Don't confuse this with Magnus or Conada effects. Because for the Magnus effect to occur, the ball must be spinning befo...

Can Your Gut Instinct Predict Future Accurately?

We all have heard about 'Gut Instinct' or 'Second Brain' in our body. People often tell you to trust you gut instinct. But what exactly is it and how accurate is your gut instinct? Let's find out. Do you ever find yourself in a situation and there is a spontaneous thought, the voice in your head tells you to back off? A sudden anxiety and tension right before you receive some bad news? These feelings are often caused by your gut, not your brain. The 'Enteric Nervous System' is responsible for the control and communication of the entire gastrointestinal system. It is a larger group of neurons and nerves that can actually act as a second brain. A normal Human brain processes about 400 billion bits of information every second. But our conscious mind doesn't really use all these information. But our brain and our enteric nervous system together can make really accurate prediction of the immediate future. If the prediction is going to have a negativ...