00:00In the 1950s, the United States government sent agents into hospital morgues to collect bones from dead babies without telling
00:07anyone, without asking permission.
00:10It was called Project Sunshine.
00:12After nuclear testing filled the atmosphere with strontium-90, scientists needed to know how much radiation was getting into human
00:19bodies.
00:20The answer was in bones, and the highest concentration showed up in infants and young children.
00:25So they built a quiet network.
00:27Agents stationed at morgues and crematoria across the U.S., Britain, and beyond.
00:33When a baby died, samples were taken.
00:35The parents never knew.
00:37In documented cases, families were told the cremation was finished.
00:40The ashes were handed over.
00:42But the bones had already been removed.
00:44No one involved seemed to think they were doing something wrong.
00:47The science was important.
00:49The data was necessary.
00:51The parents simply didn't need to know.
00:52That logic, calm and bureaucratic and completely certain of itself, is what makes this so disturbing.
00:59Project Sunshine ran for years before the public ever heard the name.
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