Oh, wait, does you world not have mushroom clouds? They're what happens when nuclear bombs go off. [ he scratches his chin- how do you explain nukes? ] They're basically the most deadly kind of bomb you can think of. They level cities, so they're basically banned by any good country back home. We had to get out of there so we didn't get sick from the radiation they leave behind.

Anyway, yeah, I've got no clue what the scientists were thinking either. It might not have been them! I mean, they almost could've killed us all.