LIFE online recently published a series of rare photos from the 1955 Atomic Bomb tests out in Nevada. I find this time in our countries history to be a fascinating one - so many huge technological leaps forward but with creations of destruction. LIFE sums it up pretty well:

With conversations about nuclear tests (both theoretical and real) so very much in the news these days, these pictures from more than half a century ago might serve as a quiet reminder of just how horrific and insane the very notion of nuclear warfare really is.