He handed her a sheet of paper containing nuclear equations. 1.) 121^{A^(279)} + 0^{n^1} ----> 121^{A^(280)} 2.) 121^{A^(280)} - 1^{e^0} ----> 122^{B^(280)} 3.) 122^{B^(280)} - 0^{n^1} ----> 122^{B^(279)} 4.) 122^{B^(279)} + 1^{e^0} ----> 121^{A^(279)} "Call 'em 'A' and 'B', with respective atomic number of one hundred and twenty-one and one hundred and twenty-two and respective atomic weights of two hundred and seventy-nine and two hundred and eighty," he explained. "Then Element A absorbs a neutron, becoming heavy Element A since its atomic weight is increased by one. "The heavy Element A then emits a negative electron which raises the nuclear charge by one and the element becomes Element B. Element B then emits a neutron which makes it light Element B. "Light Element B captures an electron lowering the nuclear charge and retransmuting the element back to normal Element A. The neutrons and electrons are passed back and forth within the mass and seldom escape, therefore the space-resonant elements are believed to be only mildly radioactive." "Yes?" Miles away and across the barrier in time Kingston and Maddox listened avidly. "So we can guess what happened at Alamogordo," said Bronson exultantly. "I don't see it," she said. "Well, Element A is so avid an absorber of neutrons that a microscopic impurity will destroy the K-factor of a supercritical mass of plutonium or uranium," he said. "That would prevent the Alamogordo Bomb from exploding." "Element B, on the other hand, emits a torrent of neutrons, enough to raise the K-factor to a terribly high degree, which caused such violence that the bomb was hot enough to start fission in the earth. A balance of the elements A and B cancels out and therefore we have the normal explosion experienced in Earth One." "But how did it happen?" "When the subcritical masses of uranium came together on Alamogordo Day, the fission started throughout the mass. Also present--we know now--is the capture of neutrons by unfissioned atoms which raise the element's mass, and the other fission products hitting this element raise its charge. Space-resonant elements resulted in those sub-microseconds of initial fission. "So, in one section of the mass, an abundance of Element A was produced, which stopped the explosion. In another section, Element B was produced, which increased its violence. Now the energies produced within the fissioning bomb are high enough to cause a warp in the space-time continuum. This warp permitted one section to die out while the other increased almost without limit." "I'm beginning to understand," nodded Virginia. "We then had three different levels of energy." "And three widely-varied levels of entropy," added Bronson. "So widely varied that they could not exist in the same time-space plane. Thus the fission in time that produced the three time-planes. How widespread these areas of separation extend we may never know.