Re 600 Kilo Bear,
A few years ago I read a diary written in the 1930’s by a lawyer who was clerking on the Supreme Court at the time who has a digression about his friendship with a group of Civil War veterans who came to Washington. He goes on at length about how he doesn’t think anyone in his time would be capable of the sort selflessness that those (now very elderly) men had had. 10 years later, it was clear he was wrong. People do rise to the occasion when their times demand it.
Really for that reason also seconding the 180 nuclear scientists in Japan. I almost cry thinking about it.