Talk:Meson bomb

A fact from Meson bomb appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 29 February 2016 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that during the Cold War, American intelligence tricked Soviet nuclear researchers into working on a nonsensical meson bomb?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2016/February. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Meson bomb.

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Could we do a little more than just translate this? The article mentions a U.S. disinformation effort as having been successful, but does little to describe how the idea was used to mislead the Soviets. Which is to say, it does nothing. Daniel Case (talk) 17:41, 29 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Addendum: After reviewing the cited source, I think this "disinformation" claim should be taken with a grain of salt. It comes from a Soviet nuclear weapons researcher who recalls that he, and others with his level of qualification, doubted the idea of the bomb strongly, but then saw their superiors invest considerable time and money in researching it anyway. Therefore, he concludes the whole idea was American disinformation.

I rather think that it demonstrates that Hanlon's razor—never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity—applied on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Daniel Case (talk) 19:02, 29 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]