The last century in the United States has brought more changes, both culturally and technologically, than any other century in our nation's short history. Nuclear technology was discovered, the Cold War sparked an arms race and a Soviet revolution, and the face of America began to change rapidly through acculturation and cultural diffusion. The mid-twentieth century was full of uncertainty for many Americans, and it became clear that we were in a process of evolution as a culture. While some of these changes have been negative, most have been positive and have helped shape the society we live in today. Discovery is defined as the act of finding or learning something for the first time. The discovery of nuclear technology occurred slowly over many years of research, but its applications quickly emerged. Initially, the application was death and destruction. In A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn states, "On August 6, 1945, the lone American plane flew into the sky above Hiroshima...leaving perhaps 100,000 Japanese dead and tens of thousands slowly dying"....