HAPPY 118TH BIRTHDAY TO PHYSICIST ENRICO FERMI:  In 1942, he conducted the first human-made, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at Stagg Field on the campus of the University of Chicago.  It was the Manhattan Project’s first major step toward creating the atomic bomb.

You might want to ask why they did this in the middle of the country’s second largest city.  Why not a lonely desert somewhere?  The answer is that those in charge trusted Fermi’s calculations, which indicated that it would be safe.  I’m … uh … glad he was right.