The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has begun salvaging and declassifying films of our government’s nuclear weapons testing from the 1950s and 60s. Some of them have been posted on youtube: Nuclear Footage
Reading up on this subject has revealed an insistent quote from one Frank Farmer, a serviceman who “witnessed 18 atomic detonations in 1958” while stationed on a ship in the Pacific.
“You feel the heat blast from it. It’s so bright you actually see your bones in your hands.”
Now, notwithstanding the inadvisability of casting one’s eyes anywhere near the direction of a nuclear fireball, I find this assertion a bit troubling. I think anyone standing close enough to be bathed in radiation that strong would be simultaneously vaporized or at least hideously flash-burned. I think the man is telling tall tales.
How about it, Cecil?
Could you see the bones in your hand silhouetted against a nuclear blast and live to tell about it?
You don’t need a nuclear blast to see the bones in your hand. Go put a flashlight against your hand. You will see a faint red glow. With a bright enough source of plain visible light, this glow would be significant enough to cast a shadow of your bones.
If you place your hands on a very bright light box you can just about see the shadow of your bones against the slightly less opaque flesh so I say yes, this is a credible story.
Not quite correct - you don’t see an image of your bone. No matter how bright the light source, the flesh scatters the light. Unless you use some fancy imaging techniques to eliminate the scattered light - this article explains the problem and some possible solutions.
The question is impossible to answer, because no matter how strong the X-ray, the human eye cannot see it. It may see a flash, but the eye cannot focus X-rays and form an image on the retina.
